At HIQA, we aim to develop a consistent and standardised approach to the collection, use and sharing of health and social care information across services. This helps to drive improvements in the quality of health information and digital health in Ireland. We do this to support safer, better care and improved outcomes for all those who use health and social care services. For more on our work in health information, contact us at info@hiqa.ie.
Introduction
What we do
- Set national standards for the Irish health information and digital health landscape.
- Develop guidance and tools to support the implementation of these standards. We do this to drive improvements in information management, governance and data quality for health and social care services.
- Review compliance with national standards for health information.
- Keep a catalogue of national health and social care data collections in Ireland.
- Support the Department of Health in preparing for and implementing European regulations.
- Look at available information about health and social care services in Ireland and the health and welfare of the public. We use this information to provide advice and make recommendations to Government to inform policy and improve the quality of health and social care information in Ireland.
We do this by
- Collaborating and engaging with key national and international stakeholders, including members of the public, health and social care professionals, national data collections, policy-makers and subject matter experts.
- Gathering national and international evidence on best practice and engage with key stakeholders through public consultations to inform policy, practice and standards.
HIQA has published a number of national standards to promote and guide effective, safe and accurate sharing of health information.
- National-standards-information-management-health-and-social-care | 2024
- National Standard for a Clinical Summary (Patient Summary) | 2019
- National Standard for ePrescribing (Prescription Dataset) | 2018
- National Standard for a Demographic Dataset, with Guidance (Health and social care settings) | 2016
- More Health Information Standards
Using an implementation science approach, HIQA develops tools to support the health and social care sector to produce high-quality health information in order to support the delivery of safe care, decision-making, monitoring and planning.
Data quality tools:
- Guidance on a data quality framework
- Online Learning Course on Data Quality
- Data Quality Assessment Tool for health and social care
Information governance:
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
eHealth:
HIQA gathers and synthesises national and international evidence to inform policy and practice in Ireland and to produce evidence-based recommendations.
We engage with the public, professionals and other key stakeholders to collect evidence that helps inform policy on Health Information:
- National Engagement on Digital Health and Social Care
- National Public Engagement Survey on Health Information
We conduct research, best practice international reviews and analysis to ensure standards, policy and practice are informed by evidence:
- International review of national health and social care data collections
- Guidance on Clinical Terminologies and Classifications
- Guidance on Messaging Standards for Ireland
We also develop recommendations to support the effective management of health information:
Review programme
HIQA undertakes review programmes to assess compliance with national standards for national data collections and health services in Ireland. The aim of these programmes is to drive quality improvements by identifying areas of good practice and areas where improvements are necessary.
- Guide to HIQA’s review of national data collections
- Guide to HIQA's review programme of eHealth services in Ireland
- Latest review programme publications
Assessment Judgment Framework
The Assessment Judgment Framework guides services and organisations on the questions that HIQA inspectors will ask to assess compliance with the National Standards for Information Management in Health and Social Care.
Guide to the Assessment Judgement Framework.
Self-Assessment Tool for health and social care organisations
The Self-Assessment Tool helps services and organisations determine the extent to which they comply with the standards, and identify areas of good practice and where improvement is needed.
National health and social care data collections are national repositories of routinely collected health and social care data in Ireland.
HIQA has compiled a catalogue of all national health and social care data collections in Ireland.
We support the implementation of EU regulation in Ireland through our involvement in EU-funded projects.
Our HealthData@IE project (2023-2027) supports the implementation of the European Health Data Space (EHDS)
Our QUANTUM project (2024 –2026)creates a common system for labelling data that can be used across Europe to report on the quality and usefulness of datasets.