eHealth Away Day 2024

Introduction

Our eHealth Away Day was an outstanding success, attracting the largest turnout of eHealth staff members to date. Registration commenced at 8:30a.m., and as the day progressed, the venue filled with the sounds of lively conversations and laughter, creating an electric atmosphere. It was a cheerful occasion to reunite with colleagues whom we hadn't seen face-to-face in quite some time.The event commenced with Thelma Pentony, providing essential housekeeping details and an overview of the day's agenda. She also introduced Slido, our platform for the various Q&A sessions scheduled throughout the day.

Updates

Fran Thompson, our Chief Information Officer, then took the stage to welcome the group and introduce our new Chief Technology and Transformation Officer, Damien McCallion, who shared a few words with the audience. Fran also presented a video message from Bernard Gloster, our CEO, who, regrettably, couldn't be present in person but conveyed his message to eHealth staff.

Michael Redmond, our Chief Operating Officer, provided updates on the latest developments regarding the new Regional Structures. Joyce Shaw, Chief of Staff and Head of Business Operations, moderated a lively Question and Answer session with members of our Senior Management Team, including Fran Thompson, Michael Redmond, Helen Coughlan (Chief Technology Officer), Mary Cooke (Community Health Delivery Director), and Damien McCallion CTTO. Topics ranged from the impact of new REO’s on budgets to the practical implementation of Virtual Wards and the ongoing recruitment freeze. 

Joyce Shaw returned to the stage to provide updates on various eHealth initiatives, including PluralSight, a new eLearning platform being procured by the Training and Development team, and our eHUB, a centralised platform for knowledge and information. Joyce encouraged eHealth teams to engage with eHealth Communications team to facilitate the launch of this platform. Throughout the day, both Joyce and Fran adeptly managed the proceedings while awaiting Ronan's arrival, conducting additional Q&A sessions with the audience. This ensured the event ran smoothly despite unforeseen delays. 

Next, Tim Morthorst delved into the fascinating realm of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, a segment that captivated the audience. 

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

Tim Morthorst an expert in Artificial Intelligence (AI) presented on the future of AI as it is poised to revolutionise healthcare. Tim spoke about the possibilities of Personalised Treatment Plans, the ability of AI to analyse vast datasets and identify patterns and correlations within genetic information. How machine learning algorithms can sift through complex medical information, including images, lab results, and patient histories, to identify subtle patterns and anomalies that may escape the human eye.

Tim also described how in addition to AI’s clinical applications, it could streamline administrative processes within healthcare. How automated systems powered by AI could handle tasks such as appointment scheduling, billing, and data entry, freeing up valuable time for healthcare professionals to focus on patient care. Not only increases operational efficiency but also reduces the likelihood of errors associated with manual data handling. Tim acknowledged that despite the vast promises of AI in healthcare there are ethical considerations and challenges. Issues such as data privacy, bias in lgorithms, and the responsible use of AI technologies necessitate careful attention. To quote Tim “With great power comes great responsibility”.

The show stopping pièces de résistance came when Tim conversed with a virtual version of our CIO Fran Thompson on stage, built by leveraging a range of AI and GenAI tools

So, eHealth it looks like Welcome to the Future! Where laughter is binary, love is algorithmic, and the only bugs you'll encounter are the ones in your AI buddy's software (don't worry, they're working on a patch). Cheers to the brave new world of AI, where even the robots get to say TMI (that’s too much information to the rest of us).