New evidence and research strategy for HIQA

During a meeting of the Authority’s board in September, Director of Health Technology Assessment and Deputy CEO Dr Mairin Ryan referred to a discussion by the Standards Research and Technology Committee in relation to the implementation of the strategy, which was developed in 2014.

“It was acknowledged that the strategy as initially designed had not progressed as intended due to competing priorities and related resources,” according to the minutes.

“It was highlighted that much has happened since the strategy was developed in terms of the evidence-based outputs within the directorates.”

Dr Ryan advised the board that the Executive Management Team were of the view that the aim for the coming year should be for consistency across HIQA’s directorates and that the immediate focus should be to develop a HIQA-wide approach to conducting literature reviews given that this activity forms a key element in providing evidence and supporting policy decisions.

“It was advised that a new evidence and research strategy will be developed to align with the next Corporate Plan 2019-2021,” the minutes state.

Meanwhile, HIQA has updated the GP messaging standard, which facilitates the sharing of clinical, administrative and patient information between healthcare professionals.

The first version of the standard was published in 2010 and it has now been updated to reflect new scenarios over the last decade, the Authority said.

“The current version arises from a request from the national messaging broker, Healthlink, that the standard be updated to reflect recent developments in messaging standards in Ireland, which includes the inclusion of antenatal care records.”

Also, HIQA’s risk management policy and procedures have been revised to provide greater clarity and increased emphasis around internal control.