New learning analytics unit for health professionals

Work on a national learning analytics unit for health professionals is in the “early stages” of planning, this newspaper can report. The HSE is providing “initial seed funding” to develop the unit, which will be hosted in the College of Anaesthesiologists in Dublin. A presentation on the proposed unit was delivered at the October meeting of the HSE safety and quality committee. According to meeting minutes, the purpose of the unit would be “to analyse data from existing and novel sources to identify specific actionable targets, which will deliver personalised formative feedback for doctors in training, training programme quality improvement, and clinical risk mitigation at hospitals and other clinical sites.”

A HSE spokesperson told the Medical Independent (MI) it is now working with the College of Anaesthesiologists, other healthcare training bodies and the State Claims Agency to develop the unit. “The HSE is supporting this work by providing initial seed funding to commence this programme of work and will be involved in programme planning, implementation, and evaluation,” the spokesperson told MI.

“The establishment of the unit is currently in the early planning stages and a programme implementation plan will commence in 2022.” A steering board comprising of internal and external stakeholders will be put in place. “The composition of this steering group will be defined during stage one of the project,” said the HSE spokesperson. “In addition, an advisory board including global leaders in learning analytics will be established to provide direction on best practice related to data governance, ethics, data interpretation, and stakeholder engagement.”

The unit is being developed “using a collaborative approach with multiple national and international stakeholders, using an open innovation framework”