HSE uses AI in trial to reduce winter admissions, says tech head

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used on a trial basis to identify the patients most at risk of needing to be admitted to hospital during the winter period in an attempt to prevent them requiring admission at all, the HSE’s head of technology has said.
Damien McCallion, the organisation’s chief technology and transformation officer, said a lot of “good, innovative” digital projects were being rolled out across the health service, particularly in the areas of data and analytics.
He said one hospital, which he declined to name due to the initiative being in its “early days”, was using AI to help cope with annual winter pressures.
The hospital was taking primary care reimbursement data, hospital data and “other data” and using AI “to try to identify those patients who would be most at risk during the winter period of having to be admitted to hospital”, he said.
“And [then we] actually pre-empt that admission by linking them in with our team for older people,” he added.
The analytics team is also using healthcare data to assist with population health planning. “It helps in terms of performance of the system between different services, what are the population projections – that can be very different in north Dublin inner city to perhaps somewhere like Galway, in terms of demographics but also some health information,” Mr McCallion said.
Earlier this year the HSE published its digital healthcare framework which will, among other initiatives, see the roll-out of electronic health records, a patient mobile phone app and increased telemedicine.
The move regarding electronic health records prompted concerns among the public about the safety of their personal information, particularly in light of the major 2021 cyberattack on the HSE.
Mr McCallion said that cyberattack “opened everyone’s eyes to the real threat” facing all public services.
“It is always a risk, there is no point in saying it isn’t. Health systems come under attack all the time. But that risk is there in every sector. Those risks are ever-present and you’ve got to move with it,” he said.
“We’ve invested heavily in it [cybersecurity], we’ve strengthened up our internal capacity, we’ve a lot of external tenders running to bring in external expertise. It’s a very complex area, you need to make sure you’re bringing the best people in. We’ve built up an information security division and we’re just about to appoint a new chief information security officer on a permanent basis.”
Ireland has typically been considered a laggard in terms of the digitisation of the health service and Mr McCallion acknowledged it would be several years before electronic health records were in place across the board.
“My target is every year improving access to digital healthcare,” he said. “We have a bit to go, but there’s a lot of good things happening.”