7 Nov 2006

Health Intelligence crucial to better decisions in health policy, planning and service delivery

Release Date: Tuesday 7th November 2006

The Inaugural All-Ireland Health Intelligence Conference, which focuses on improving health and reducing health inequalities, including the issue of health service planning and delivery, was officially opened today (Tuesday , November 7th) by Professor Brendan Drumm, CEO of the Health Service Executive. The conference takes place at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham until tomorrow.

The conference looks at all aspects of Health Intelligence, and how it can support the development of healthier public policy, improved primary and community care and the delivery of better acute health services. Dr. Kevin Balanda, Associate Director of the Institute of Public Health in Ireland (IPH), explained “Health Intelligence is about the effective gathering, sharing and use of information in order to support decision making in all aspects of health. Systems of information sharing are constantly improving, and we will be looking at developments in Ireland north and south, as well as looking at international examples of how health intelligence systems have led to improved health policy decisions and services”.

The Conference, entitled Better Intelligence, Better Decisions, Better Health, is hosted by Ireland and Northern Ireland’s Population Health Observatory (INIsPHO), the new all-Ireland health observatory, which is an initiative of the IPH.

Dr Balanda continued “One of the best examples how improved Health Intelligence can make a real impact here is to look at the experience of the Irish Diabetes Prevalence Working Group, whose report was published in June this year. For the first time, detailed diabetes estimates broken down by age, sex and ethnicity at a national and sub-national level were available, allowing us to get an unprecedented picture of the prevalence of diabetes. This is good health intelligence at work, and in the case of diabetes, we need to take it to the next level.”

Chief among the working group’s recommendations (chaired by Dr Balanda) is the urgent need to develop a national diabetes register in the North and South.  Dr Balanda continued, “A national register will enable us to establish how many cases of diabetes are undiagnosed. Early diagnosis and the appropriate management of diabetes are essential to reducing the occurrence of serious complications down the road. This kind of information gathering and sharing is crucial to the development of better planning and better services. It allows people working in the sector to improve health, ensure patient safety, reduce inequalities in health, and strengthen the research and information infrastructure across the whole Island of Ireland. This conference is about making sure we have the health intelligence to do these things”.

Dr. Balanda strongly endorsed Health Minister Mary Harney’s call last week to “assess and compare outcomes based on evidence” in order to ensure patient safety.

“This conference is about looking at what needs to be done to ensure that decisions are made in a way the Minister is supporting. It is a huge challenge and we are looking forward to a very informative and results-driven conference”.

The conference highlights recent developments including some of the work conducted by the Observatory and its partners. Key developments include:

• Current estimates, and future projections, of the prevalence of diabetes (diagnosed and undiagnosed) on the island at national, regional and local levels
• A comparative study of injury mortality in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England
• The development of demographic and socio-economic data standards for the health and social services
• The INIsPHO (Online) Data system that collates and disseminate key health-related data to those that need it
• The All-Ireland electronic Health Library (Phase I) that makes other health-related information more easily accessible
• Metadata standards that make it easier to share and use existing information
• A website that helps those wishing to develop their advocacy skills as a way of promoting evidence-informed decision making
• A web version of Pavee Point’s FOTOCHAT, an educational toolkit dealing with the social determinants of health based on a collection of photographs by Derek Spiers.

For more information please contact:

Niall Shanahan, Montague Communications, +353 (0)1 830 3116 / +353 (0)87 681 4950
Dr Kevin Balanda, Institute of Public Health in Ireland, +353 (0)86 382 8583