Strategic future planning must be an essential priority, given our growing demographic challenges and the need for sustainable, equitable and effective health systems.Sharon Scanlan is an advisory partner leading the Grant Thornton Health and Life Sciences practice. Scanlan has a clinical background, having worked as a nurse and then a physiotherapist in both the HSE and NHS. At the Future Health Summit she will deliver a “state of the nation” address on the Irish healthcare system and highlight the areas it must prioritise if it is to deliver a functioning health service that puts the patient at its centre. Among these are infrastructure and capacity, and Scanlan notes significant investment being made in this regard, in both the private and public systems. “When we see the [HSE] capital development plan with a €1.32 billion investment, with capital expansions in Limerick, in Cork, the new surgical hubs and the new maternity hospital, and we also see new private hospitals being built, it’s reassuring. But we need to make sure we are doing it right,” she says. “We need to ensure we’re meeting the demand of the patient cohorts coming through, from an infrastructural perspective, and get that demand and capacity match right.” Scanlan notes that representatives of the NHS New Hospital Programme will be at the summit, and she is keen to hear about the lessons they have learned and apply them in the Irish context. “We need to think: ‘How do we learn now before we go down certain routes or make mistakes when it comes to the capital and development plan?’ Because there is no turning back once we make these investments.”Another key issue is the electronic health record (EHR) and the ongoing transformation of the health service from a largely paper-based organisation to one that is digital first. “When we design our new hospitals, a huge component is ensuring they are fully digital,” says Scanlan. “Also, when we look at rolling out a national EHR, it’s about how we are embedding it, and how we are getting efficiencies for the patient.” Sharon Scanlan, partner, health and life sciences practice lead, Grant Thornton The importance of getting this right cannot be underestimated, Scanlan warns. “We are about to enter into the biggest transformation journey that we’ve probably ever seen in the public system with the roll-out of an EHR, and again we need to look outside of Ireland and look at what’s best practice: what are the learnings from the US? What are the learnings from the UK?”International roll-outs have hit hurdles due to an overemphasis on the tech and an underestimation of the human component, she adds. “We need to be aware of the significant change programme that’s necessary in rolling out an EHR and take a whole system approach, having buy-in from clinicians, staff and patients. Ireland is in a unique position because we’re at a later stage in rolling out EHR than a lot of other countries so we need to take those learnings now and build them into ensuring we’re successful in this roll-out.”Related to this is the unavoidable march of AI, and the critical – and transformative – role it can play when carefully deployed within any health system. “None of this happens without AI,” Scanlan admits. There are inherent challenges given the pace of AI development: “When we do AI training within healthcare, almost the next day it’s outdated.”For Scanlan, the crucial aspect is using AI to improve the patient’s journey. “It’s not about replacing staff – it’s never going to take away the roles in healthcare – but looking at the opportunities of how AI automation can enhance efficiencies to give clinicians back their valuable time, that they can then spend with patients.” In today’s context, it is necessary to think about healthcare differently: “We need to look at every pathway of care and challenge ourselves to say, ‘Could this be more innovative’?”All of this will require significant financial investment, but Scanlan believes that ultimately it will create a healthcare system that is more efficient and more sustainable. “We have to think, if we bring in an innovative model of care, could that then release a saving that allows us to invest elsewhere?” she says. “There are always competing pressures but it’s about taking that step back to look at where we invest to ensure that return on investment; it’s a critical lens that can’t be forgotten in the broader scheme of all the transformation components.”