Digital ID eases patient information management in Northern Ireland

Digital identity is increasing proving inevitable for service delivery in several sectors and it’s no less so for healthcare delivery. The Northern Ireland Digital Identity Service (NIDIS) says an integration with the county’s healthcare system has gone a long way in streamlining access to services and patient management. Meanwhile, in Scotland, the country’s digital identity service, ScotAccount, has been recognized for its contributions to the facilitation of services in different domains including healthcare. The body has had a nomination in the Digital Health and Care Award category of the Digital Service Transformation awards.

Northern Ireland integrates digital ID to harmonize patient data

According to Dermot Boyle, programme manager at the Health and Social Care (HSC) Business Services Organisation (BSO) of Northern Ireland, the integration has been to harmonize siloed data from different diagnostic systems, public health records, laboratories, pharmacies, and hospitals, in order to make patient information management easier, according to Agendani.

Speaking further on the importance of the integration, Boyle said with the existing health and care number, plus the unique identifier from the NIDIS, patients are sure of safer and more informed care at health facilities, as the idea is “to link together every citizen’s healthcare record in Northern Ireland, creating a single, comprehensive view of each patient.”

NIDIS, he added, is an Oracle-based technology stack which handles 13,000 demographic updates and 14,500 API calls daily, supporting 9,000 patient record views and creating 140 new records each day as parents give birth to children and as people come into the country.

The official notes that in the last five years that he’s been there, including the time of the COVID pandemic, the NIDIS has made major strides in helping with the management of health demographic data in a way that “reduces administrative burdens and improves patient experiences.”

While working to expand their dataset to include other things like telecommunications, Boyle reveals that they are also looking at ways of making the NIDIS more adaptive and a cornerstone for research and national health planning, while also upgrading the functionality of the digital identity system so that it doesn’t just remain a project but “a foundation for the future.”

Authorities have also explained that the integration of the NIDIS with healthcare is to replace two exiting legacy systems by enabling more accurate matching and sharing of patient records.

They say the new software introduced by NIDIS has not only led to efficient patient management, but also a reduction in paper-based processes which have been costly and time-consuming. The first phase of the project started in 2023.

Biometrics-based digital ID is increasingly seen as one of the surest ways of preventing healthcare fraud and improving patient trust across the world. It is also considered as a great tool for effective and inclusive healthcare delivery if properly set up.

ScotAccount team gets recognition

This month, the team was shortlisted for the Digital Service Transformation award which recognizes entities or individuals who have made innovative contributions to facilitate access to services in domains such as healthcare, social care and housing.

In a government blog post, the ScotAccount team said the recognition symbolizes hard work and dedication, and underlines its achievements since the service entered into a partnership with Disclosure Scotland in 2023. Disclosure Scotland is a platform that helps organizations make more informed decisions when hiring workers.

“The ScotAccount team is thrilled by receiving this joint nomination for Disclosure Scotland’s Online Account service, and to be recognized as being a critical part of the digital transformation of a service that is having a significant impact on peoples’ lives and public services in Scotland,” Trudy Nicolson, ScotAccount’s program director, said.

Gerard Hart, chief executive of Disclosure Scotland, recalled the challenging circumstances during the COVID era in which they worked to offer online services, saying their successes from those efforts have motivated them to roll out the service for everyone to benefit.

ScotAccount, used by at least 2.5 million people as of 2024, has pledged its continuous collaboration with Disclosure Scotland as it looks to improve access to digital public services.

Article Topics

digital government  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  healthcare  |  Ireland  |  patient identification  |  Scotland