Before AI can change healthcare, the record underneath it has to be right. In this episode, we speak with Helen Waters, Executive Vice President and COO of Meditech, about what Ireland needs to get right first as it moves towards a national electronic health record, and what 22 countries’ experience can teach us.
Meditech develops electronic health records. It has more than 30 years in healthcare IT, works in 22 countries and has been in Ireland for over 20 years.
What you can take away:
🔹 Start with the system of record, and decide the pace and the cost deliberately. Fast should mean agile, not reckless. Helen describes a rollout of 180 hospitals in under five years, made faster by standardising and allowing for regional preferences.
🔹 Standardise at the top and let regions adapt. Helen explains how HCA, which runs 180 US hospitals, sets national standards while allowing local variation.
🔹 Plan for affordability beyond day one. In the US, technology costs went up and never came down.
🔹 Insist on interoperability. The clinician making the next decision needs the data they need, whichever system holds it.
🔹 Put clinicians, finance and data teams at the table early. Helen gives an example of a maternity system where counting births proved difficult.
🔹 Use proven AI, such as ambient voice, and prove its value. Clinicians are wary of governments and vendors getting “drunk on the next technology”.
For civil servants and public sector leaders involved in health technology, this is practical advice on getting the foundations right.
Transform Gov is part of the Ireland eGovernment Awards, in partnership with Accenture.
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