One Route for Patient and Public Partnership in Digital Transformation

The Digital for Care Patient Public Partnership Advisory Group is helping to make sure patients and the public have a voice in how digital health services are designed and developed.

Over the past year, the group has supported a growing number of national Digital for Care programmes across the HSE. It has helped bring patient and public views into the early stages of programme design and development.

The group has now been recognised as the single route for Digital for Care programmes that need patient and public partnership and representation.

This means Digital for Care programmes will engage through the group when they need patient or public involvement. This will help create a more consistent and coordinated approach across national digital transformation programmes.

Why this matters

Digital health services should be designed with the people who use them.

Patients and members of the public can bring lived experience, practical insight and constructive feedback. This helps programme teams design services that are more inclusive, accessible and person-centred.

The group has already supported work across national programmes, including digital communications, telehealth and national digital services.

Patient and public partners have contributed through:

• co-design workshops
• programme reviews
• feedback on documents
• ongoing advisory support

This work is about more than consultation. It creates opportunities for patients and the public to help shape how digital health services are designed, delivered and improved.

How the group supports programmes

The group has developed a structured approach to support patient and public partnership.

This includes:

• programme intake and partnership requests
• matching patient and public partners to programmes based on skills and experience
• expression of interest processes
• supported handover into programme teams
• ongoing feedback and engagement

This approach makes it easier for programme teams and patient and public partners to work together. It also supports consistency and quality across Digital for Care programmes.

The group will continue to work with programme teams, leaders and patient partners to strengthen co-design and meaningful partnership across Digital for Care.

At the heart of this work is a simple principle: digital transformation should be designed with people, not just for people.

Find out more

Digital for Care programmes that need patient or public partnership can engage through the Patient Public Partnership Advisory Group.

Patients and members of the public who are interested in getting involved can find out more by contacting Digitalforcare@hse.ie or complete the short form to express your interest in joining the group.

Further information on opportunities to get involved will also be shared through Digital for Care channels.