Reflections on the Inaugural International Digital Health Summer School, Maynooth University
This week I went back to school (!) and attended the inaugural International Digital Health Summer School at Maynooth University — a beautiful campus, steeped in history.
It was billed as an opportunity to learn and co-create a new ‘win-win’ healthcare future for all — and it didn't disappoint. With a diverse range of topics and speakers, the event provided valuable insights into the transformative power of innovation, data, and collaboration in building a 10x better health system.
This article summarises some of my personal highlights from the event and sheds light on some of the key discussions that took place.
Stay Left, Shift Left, 10x
One of the highlights of the event was Martin Curley’s presentation on the concept of “Stay Left, Shift Left, 10X.” This framework emphasises the need to partner with innovative companies, universities and individuals to utilise the power of digital applications, data and technology, in order to improve quality of life and quality of care, while reducing cost by fostering an open and collaborative ecosystem.
- The concept of ‘Stay Left’ is to use technology to keep people well in their homes, and allow people with chronic conditions to manage themselves in the best way possible at home.
- ‘Shift left’ is about finding technologies that help people move as quickly as possible from the acute setting to a community setting and finally, to a home setting.
- 10x is about using this technology to achieve a 10x improvement in capability or cost reduction.
Equity in Healthcare
There were a number of talks on the importance of equity in healthcare, but I particularly enjoyed the talk by Dr. Jerome Adams, the Executive Director of Health Equity at Purdue University and former US Surgeon General.
Dr. Adams stressed the need for proactive accessible health care, the economic burden of inaccessible healthcare ($320bn/year in the US!), and opportunity for technology to be part of addressing some of these challenges.
His thought-provoking discussion shed light on the existing disparities in healthcare, outlining the difference between equality and equity and calling for concerted efforts to achieve equity by addressing the root causes, including:
- Racism and bias inside and outside the healthcare system
- Structural flaws in the health system
- Deep inequities in the drivers of health
Pharmacy First
Dermot Twomey, President of the Irish Pharmacy Union delivered a fascinating talk on a new pharmacy first initiative to drive structural change in the healthcare industry.
As shown in the photo below, pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professional within the system, but despite this they are the ones who are forced to “work in the dark” due to a lack of interoperability when patients transfer between providers. Several examples were presented where significant prescription errors were introduced simply down to a lack of joined up information.
Given the technology options available today it was frustrating to hear this, never mind being a pharmacist having to work in this environment.
Paradigm Shift in Interoperability
The event also provided an opportunity for me to present some of the work Better are doing to enable a paradigm shift around healthcare interoperability.
The current approach —based on a concept of data being stored and governed within individual applications — is simply not working. Often applications vendors make it difficult to access this data, but even when these hurdles are overcome the data needs to be translated before it can be understood by other applications who want to use it. This may work for simple things like a referral or a set of lab results, but it fails to scale when trying to stitch together an entire healthcare system.
To address this we need a paradigm shift, with the adoption of a platform-based approach where a common language for healthcare is used by all applications, avoiding the need for a “translator”. I presented an overview of openEHR and how it can help to address this problem. I will post further details of my talk soon.
People Led Transformation
In an event covering many technology-led initiatives it was refreshing to see a number of sessions focus on the importance of putting user needs at the centre of digitisation and transformation. Notable sessions included a presentation by Professor Linda Newnes and at the evening book launch a great talk by Victoria Betton on her new book, Towards a Digital Ecology, where she outlines the need to re-conceptualise a digital ecology in which technology is a nutrient to facilitate and maintain our healthcare system, helping it adapt to the ever changing environment that surrounds it.
EU AI Act
Margaret Hartnett spoke about the EU AI Act (AIA), a proposed European law on artificial intelligence (AI) — a first of its kind cross-sectoral or horizontal AI regulation of this scale.
The law assigns applications of AI into different risk categories as outlined in the photo below.
AIA will impose significant compliance obligations across the entire high risk value chain with both the provider of the AI and the implementer of the AI having different (but significant) compliance obligations.
The consequences of not complying will also be significant, including fines of 1–7% of global turnover, or 5–40m Euro. While it is still a proposed law, it is expected it may be passed in the next 6–9 months with a transition period of 2 year.
In summary, an important one to watch.
Other Engaging Sessions
Over the course of the two days, several other sessions captured the audience’s attention, including:
- Leo Clancy, CEO of Enterprise Ireland, discussed the potential of digital health exports and the 10x opportunities they present for global impact.
- Andy Bleadon, Community Director of ECHAlliance, discussed the importance of Ecosystems and “connecting the dots” to foster collaboration and innovation.
- Too many stories to mention by people using disruptive technology to change global healthcare, including devices to predicate exacerbating COPD, devices to detect neurological disease earlier and the use of digital ultrasound to simplify assessments and support more precise treatment.
Conclusion
The event was a reminder that by embracing innovation, data, and collaboration, we can pave the way for a future where healthcare is more accessible, efficient, and patient-centred.
Events like these serve as catalysts for progress and bring us closer to achieving a 10X better health system for all.
Thanks to Martin for organising and the kind invitation to speak. I’m already looking forward to the next one!
