Health Innovation Hub Ireland

Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) is Ireland’s first innovation hub and is a partnership of clinical and academic centres across Ireland with the objective of accelerating healthcare innovation and commercialisation through addressing healthcare challenges. There are four centres; Cork (2), Galway and Dublin. HIHI advises and supports enterprises to progress their innovative products, services and technologies in the Irish and global healthcare markets. They pilot market-ready solutions in real-world healthcare settings, validate prototypes with healthcare experts and verify ideas that meet healthcare and market needs. They provide guidance and advice on health priority needs, product development, regulatory requirements and procurement. HIHI also promotes cultural change in the healthcare system to support and drive innovation from within. The Irish government recognises the need for an integrated healthcare system to enable older people to remain at home for longer. HIHI in Cork supported the enterprise ‘CareFolk’, who developed an integrated care platform (web & mobile) for clinicians, health professionals and community services for the assessment, management, co-ordination and review of patients. One clinician reported Carefolk ‘reduced my admin time by up to 50%’. This pilot allowed sharing of patient information between care team members. Following completion, this has been recommended with the addition of extra features to the national health service.