The GPIT Project

The National General Practice Information Technology (GPIT) Group is made up of representatives from the Irish College of General Practitioners, the Health Service Executive and the Department of Health. The aim of the GPIT Group is to promote the eHealth agenda in Ireland, in particular electronic communications and interoperability between GP and health service information systems.

The group consists of a team of working GPs with an expertise in health informatics promotes the GPIT agenda with educational activities and project work. 

National GPIT project manager: Dr John Sweeney

National GPIT co-ordinator: Dr Conor O'Shea 

GPIT Advisors: 

• Dr Frank Hill
• Dr John MacCarthy
• Dr Brian Meade
• Dr Donal Buckley
• Dr Deirdre Cahill
• Dr Lawrence Croydon

The activities of the GPIT team include:

• Educating GPs with online webinars and presentations at the Irish College of GPs AGM, Irish College of GPs Summer School, CME Groups and GP Training Programmes
• Working to give a GP perspective to major national information systems, such as the National Integrated Medical Imaging System (NIMIS), the National Medical Laboratory Information System (MedLIS) and the National Maternal and Newborn Clinical Management System
• Providing a primary care input into the Individual Health Identifiers (IHI) project
• Working to improve electronic communication between GPs and the health services, particularly through structured messaging (electronic referrals, laboratory and x-ray results) and Healthlink
• Writing monthly IT questions and answers for Forum, the Journal of the Irish College of GPs
• Managing and supporting Healthmail, secure clinical email, providing secure electronic communications between clinicians, in support of patient care
• Working with the National Cancer Control Programme on electronic cancer referrals
• Working with Healthlink and the Primary Care Reimbursement Service to enable electronic returns of data for periodic assessments, Asthma and Diabetes Cycles of Care
• Membership of the Project Board of the National Integrated Medical Imaging System (NIMIS) Project, which is bringing digital radiology to hospitals and electronic radiology reports to GPs
• Contributing to HIQA committees and advisory groups
• Answering individual queries from GPs in IT matters
• Providing a general practice and primary care perspective on interoperability and health informatics standards in the health services.