Catalogue of Health and Social Care Information Sources in Ireland

What are national health information sources?

A considerable amount of information is collected on a daily basis about our health and social care services in Ireland. This information is used for many important purposes such as examining how frequently certain diseases occur, measuring performance of health organisations, looking at how resources are used in the health system, and developing healthcare policies. Examples of major national health information sources in Ireland include the National Cancer Registry Ireland and the Hospital In-Patient Enquiry Scheme.

What is this catalogue about?

The Health Information and Quality Authority has prepared a comprehensive catalogue of the national health and social care information sources in Ireland.

This is an important resource providing up-to-date information on all the major national health data collections, including patient registries.  All of the national sources are included and some regional data sources (where no national system is currently in place).  A summary was also provided of important secondary uses of data such as Health Atlas and also important national surveys such as Slán and TILDA.

The catalogue provides information on the purpose and content of these sources and how data can be accessed.

How was this information collected?

A standardised template was completed by all of the data agencies contacted to provide summary information on the data variables collected, as well as information such as whether a data dictionary is available or if a clinical coding scheme is in place.

This work is part of the project to develop standards for health information sources in Ireland.