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OVER THE WEEKEND, Emily was born – one of Ireland’s first newborns to have their own electronic health record from birth.
Weighing 7lb 5oz, Emily was born to Ellen and Aidan in Cork University Maternity Hospital last Saturday 3 December.
Her birth heralds the introduction of an electronic health record for all women and babies in maternity services in Ireland – the nationwide system being a world first.
Ireland’s Maternal & Newborn Clinical Management System (MN-CMS) will allow clinical record information to be shared with relevant providers of care when needed.
The introduction of the system in Cork University Hospital is the first phase of the three-year roll-out, with the next implementation due in University Hospital Kerry followed by The Rotunda Hospital and the National Maternity Hospital.
Commenting on the e-birth certs, Minister for Health Simon Harris said he was looking forward to the further roll-out of electronic records for all citizens in the immediate years ahead.
This will support better, safer clinical decision-making and a more connected health service delivering improved health outcomes.
“For our citizens to experience a truly joined up health service then the health system will need to weave a digital fabric that supports health and wellbeing as well as integrated care.”
World first
The introduction of this new system in Ireland also marks the introduction of the first national electronic patient chart for maternity anywhere in the world.
This means that every maternity hospital in one country will be using the same electronic chart with standardisation of the information flow and collection with very obvious advantages for the patient and carers.
Professor Richard Greene, Consultant Obstetrician, Cork University Maternity Hospital said the system includes maternity early warning scores and a sepsis early warning scoring system, eprescribing and order communication tools for mother and baby patient care.
The HSE has a contract with Cerner to deliver the Maternal & Newborn Clinical Management System (MN-CMS) which will then be rolled out to all 19 maternity units over a three year period. The implementation of MN-CMS will be the first instance of any Electronic Health Record (EHR) system on a shared record basis in the Irish healthcare system.
The system has been specifically tailored for the Irish healthcare system with clinicians completing a full clinical validation of the design and build of the MN-CMS.
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Hopefully the data can be shared with google, facebook, Irish Water and twitter to ensure the baby gets the right sort of products marketed to it at an early age.
They will also have your DNA and bloods database. Can’t help but think that personal rights will be impinged and that your info will not be safe
If my life gets saved from my records being accurate, far better. To oppose this is to take the sides of anti vaxxers
Yeah, let’s remain in the dark ages. What’s wrong with good old fashioned paper records? So what if there’s a fire and no back up copy?
Let’s not progress.
@ Joe Mc
As long as it is not accessible to insurance companies thee should be no issues. Although I’m sure they’ll have in their fine print that you give permission to access or that you’ll get additional discounts for the information.
@David Murphey: Exactly! Or your records are in Cork and you are admitted to hospital in Dublin – at the moment every person in Ireland is at a distinct disadvantage because our records are not digital.
Wow – are people really giving out because patient info is now going to be stored on computers instead of in paper charts? Seriously??? Are the enormous benefits of a digital system, in terms of patient care, not ridiculously obvious? The mind boggles that there are so many small-minded conspiracy theorists out there!
Even if your a lone child , you know have a big brother from birth
It’s a really interesting development. I wonder if they’re going to tie in DNA sampling? Within 100 years there’d be a complete digital fabric of the population.
Hopefully they’ve doubled or trebled down on security.
They can do that already via heel ( word beginning with p and ending with rick gets banned here) tests.
Does anyone know if they keep the paper cards or discard?
@Rockclimber55: I’ve been told (I’m pregnant at the moment) that they actually store a blood sample from all babies born in Ireland in a single place in Dublin (one of the hospitals) for at least 2 years – this is so they can easily do follow-up tests if they suspect that something is wrong with the baby, without having to draw blood each time. And the parent must give permission for this blood to be used.
OK, very interesting from a health perspective but what happens now with passport, driver licence and social welfare applications that require a hard copy birth certificate? Print out online? What controls are in place to prevent unauthorised access?
Hopefully those agencies tie in so it’s a matter of key presses and the whole application process will be digital.
This to myself, is alarming.
We know that FG had a plan (through Irish Water) to sell off our data. Their ability to sell off people data was in the bullied in, fine print of Irish Water legislation.
Now, the same devious party is pushing this data collect and share set-up.
Don’t get me wrong – there is good benefits – but the parents ULTIMATELY must have their EXPRESS permission sought for anything to be shared – to any department or to any company.
Parents MUST get a guarantee that any data they pass on to a department (for example) must NOT passed then further – without parental confirmation sought.This should be constitution enshrined.
Anything less and It’s Fine Gael and Co up to their traitorous acts again. They are NOT to be trusted at all.
@Unitedpeople: Once registered – the child belongs to the state and parents are mere guardians
@Unitedpeople: The keeping and sharing of patient records isn’t a new development – records have always been kept and shared between health providers (i.e. between GPs, hospitals, etc), so the fact that those records are now stored digitally has no bearing on the rules dictating their distribution.
@catherine mill – have you a source for that or do you just subscribe to Freeman on the Land conspiracy theories?
Information is already being shared .. unfortunately it’s a paper record and entails a lot of very costly admin charges.
How anyone could oppose medical records being maintained in an efficient manner in this day and age is beyond me. The days of massive paper records and hand written notes should be banished
@Unitedpeople: If we want an efficient and joined up public service then we need to digitalise. There is no alternative. Information is already shared by paper but it is shared inefficiently and multiple times. Different areas hold similar information on the same people, even within the same organisations, with some more up to date than others. I agree that data must be shared with suitable safeguards. But the State and state providers cannot find themselves in a situation where to share any data they require consent for each and every transaction. If you want to access and avail of a state service then part of this should be that you sign up to appropriate data sharing. What is critical is that the system is transparent so that you know what you are signing up to. If you want good customer service then data must be shared appropriately. I think Estonia has gone down the road of e-services for all public services with the result that citizens can access key services 24/7/365 and a huge increase in public confidence in public administration. They call this e-Estonia. This can be done and it should be done but within an appropriate and transparent framework.
*Waits patiently for the tin hat brigade to arrive*
Another step towards the dystopian future that 1984 predicted.
Lol yep micro-chipping & make them all scream at propaganda .
I wonder does the bar code tattoo hurt.
@Trevor Beale: Trevor really. Bar codes? That’s so 20th century. We’re talking microchip implants here. Get with the programme man!
Are they going to chip them too?
It’s only a matter of time.
Good way to build a DNA registrar ??
Nothing wrong with a DNA register if secure.
Within 100 years the advancements that’ll be made in medical fields will be huge based on the information that’ll come out of this.
Census tie ins will mean we’ll be able to see if there’s local or genetic causes to diseases & illnesses.
@OU812: Genome Project might suggest otherwise.
Cute stock image :)
Agenda 21
@Rafal: Catch 22
orwell 1984
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