A national health information seminar hosted by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) today heard how improving the quality of data can lead to better healthcare decisions.

The seminar, National health information: ‘Better data, better decisions’, is the first in a number of public events to mark HIQA’s 10 year anniversary this May. This is also the first time that Irish health and social care data collections have been brought together to provide an opportunity to engage with and learn from each other. There is currently no network for those engaged in health and social care data collections in Ireland.

Speaking at the event, Rachel Flynn, Director of Health Information at HIQA said “Each national data collection holds a rich source of data. In order to gain the greatest benefit from the use of this data, it must be of high quality to inform planning services, policy-making, national reporting and monitoring diseases. While there are examples of good practice in each data collection, the collections need to benefit from each other’s knowledge and improve the quality and value of the data being collected.”

“The availability of good quality data to measure, monitor and compare performance is central to the assessment of both the health of populations and the quality and efficiency of health and social care services. Today’s seminar brought all national data collections together for the first time to share learning and show how they can implement data quality in practice,” she added.

Launching the Information Management Standards for National Health and Social Care Data Collections as well as a guide Five Quality Improvement Tools to assist data collections to meet the Standards, HIQA CEO Phelim Quinn said:“We are using the 10 year anniversary of HIQA as a chance to look at what opportunities exist to make things better and safer for Irish citizens using health and care services over the next 10 years. The use of information is one of those opportunities.”

HIQA is preparing to commence a review programme of national health and social care data collections in Ireland. For the first time, HIQA will be assessing compliance with health information standards to drive quality improvements in the data collected and retained in Ireland.

Rachel Flynn continued: “We recognise that standards for national data collections and assessing compliance against these standards are new. In order to drive improvement in health information we will use a collaborative approach with the Department of Health and the HSE going forward. By working together, we can improve the quality of the health and social care data collected, so that this data can in turn be used to improve the quality and safety of health services. Through a series of seminars and quality improvement guides, we will continue to work with, and support, national data collections throughout the review programme.”

The seminar also included presentations from a broad range of speakers including Mona Heurgren from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare on driving quality improvement in health and social care in Sweden, and Professor Kerri Clough Gorr Director of the National Cancer Registry of Ireland. Other presenters include the Department of Health, Health Service Executive, eHealth Ireland, Health Research Board, National Office of Clinical Audit, and the Health Protection Surveillance Centre.

Ends.

For further information please contact:

Marty Whelan, Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, HIQA

01 814 7480 / 086 2447 623 mwhelan@hiqa.ie

Notes to Editor:

• There are currently 109 national data collections that routinely collect health and social care data listed on HIQA’s catalogue.
• National data collections enable the assessment of key indicators of the health service, such as influenza vaccine uptake, breast cancer screening rates and information in relation to hospital-acquired infections such as MRSA rates.
• Data collections also show health trends, such as the National Cancer Registry of Ireland data on the number of child deaths caused by cancer published yesterday.
• HIQA currently uses data and information from national data collections to inform regulatory decision-making, such as the monthly assurance performance indicator data from the HSE Service Plan and a range of metrics from Tusla in respect of the safe delivery of children’s social services.
• Ireland’s national healthcare ICT spend is 0.85% of the total healthcare budget relative to the EU range of 2-3%
• Five quality improvement tools for national data collections identifies five tools that national data collections can use to ensure their data is of high quality.