Telefónica Tech to power digital children's hospital in Ireland

Telefónica Tech, the specialist in digital transformation and a branch of the Telefónica Group, is set to partner with Children's Health Ireland (CHI) to offer an extensive range of infrastructure technology solutions for the forthcoming digital children's hospital in Dublin.

Expected to open its doors in 2025, the state-of-the-art children's hospital shall empower its operations with digital technology, incorporating everything from electronic health records to building control mechanisms. By leveraging digitalisation, the hospital aims to foster a seamless exchange of information, enabling doctors to enhance their decision making processes and deliver optimal care to young patients.

Under this five-year agreement with CHI, Telefónica Tech UK&I will craft and manage the entire IT infrastructure of the new digital children's hospital, with a notable emphasis on cyber security. Telefónica Tech will supervise a broad spectrum of operations, ranging from servers, energy and security, to PCs, printers, portable workstations and laptops. The developed platform is also set to support clinical applications that will integrate with the hospital's new Electronic Patient Record system, powered by EPIC.

Adrian Rath, Chief Technology Officer at Childrens Health Ireland, highlighted the potential advantages this collaboration with Telefónica Tech could offer in the upcoming years: "We are delighted to work with Telefónica Tech to create world-class digital infrastructure in a world-class digital hospital. Here at CHI, we take pride in delivering about 200,000 episodes of care annually. The new hospital will significantly enhance clinicians' ability to provide that care to patients. Along with a unified sign-on system improving access to information for clinicians, there will be a single email system for all staff facilitating seamless cross-city coordination between the new hospital and the CHI Urgent Care sites at Connolly and Tallaght. The security solutions rendered by Telefónica Tech will bolster our cyber security posture against potential threats. Most significantly, these developments will facilitate a safer and superior experience for the children, young people and families who utilise our services."

Expressing her views on the initiative, Ellen Dickson, VP of Enterprise Health at Telefónica Tech UK&I, emphasised, "The New Children's Hospital has the potential to be a transformational force in the sphere of children's healthcare in Ireland as a centre of excellence. The IT infrastructure and services are absolutely critical to the hospital's success as they underpin key clinical services. Our team's market-leading expertise and experience have been instrumental in successfully exececuting innovative and complex health IT projects with some of the largest health trusts in the UK."

Currently, the building is being set up by Telefónica Tech UK&I and is projected for completion by the end of October 2024.