Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 November 2025
670. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Health to provide an update on the development of a national diabetes registry or equivalent data infrastructure; how this will support service planning, prevention and research; the timeframe for full implementation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [65094/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraIn 2025, a multidisciplinary team consisting of a Clinical lead, a programme manager, administrator and a data analyst was appointed to scope out and develop a National Diabetes Registry (NDR) in Ireland.
A multi-stakeholder NDR working group has been established with input from clinicians, technology and transformation, patient advocate association & data controllers. Governance structures are being established within the Population/Public Health division of the HSE.
Using the Individual Health Identifier (IHI) the NDR team plans to curate and link existing health care datasets relevant to diabetes care. Therefore, the NDR will serve as a comprehensive collection of diabetes-related information compiled from multiple data sources.
The NDR is being developed in a multi-annual phased approach, with the initial focus on identifying the true prevalence of diabetes in Ireland. When established, the NDR will support clinicians and the health system to improve decision making for better patient care.
Going forward it is expected that the NDR will be linked with other datasets within and outside the HSE to enable a range of advanced analytics that will take into account wider health determinants, to develop a better case for change around investment in prevention and early intervention in the community. The range of analytics will include, among other things, robust population segmentation to understand the complexity of the diabetes cohort and how it is changing over time, risk stratification to better target diabetes patients for early intervention and integrated case management, evaluating impact of new models of diabetes care and care pathways on patient outcomes and demand modelling and capacity planning to better inform future resource allocation.
Further details will be discussed by the NDR Working Group once the governance structures and data protection approvals are in place.
