NEWS

Ireland attends the myHealth@myHands Plugathon at the IHE Connectathon Week 2025 in Vienna, Austria

Irish delegates were delighted to be present at the myHealth@myHands Plugathon which was successfully hosted from the 25th to the 27th of June 2025. The Plugathon took place as part of the IHE Connectathon Week 2025 in Vienna, Austria.

Delegates from the HSE and Department of Health in Ireland join forces with fellow myHealth@myHands Consortium members at the Vienna Plugathon to Advance Digital Health Interoperability 

Vienna Austria:  Delegates, Patrick Marren HSE and Eamon Coyne DOH representing Ireland’s eHealth ecosystem, convened in Vienna to engage with eHealth solution partners and fellow adopters at the pivotal myHealth@myHands Plugathon event. The gathering served as a key platform opportunity to reinforce the shared ethos and strategic commitments on the journey to further the delivery of electronic health interoperability solutions for European citizens across Europe.  

The Plugathon featured a dedicated segment to highlight the innovative myHealth@myHands initiative, which aims to empower and enable patient-controlled exchange of electronic health data information in an authenticated trust environment. This particular segment showcased ePrescription and eDispensation workflows using the European Digital Identity (EUID) Wallet, where observers were provided with opportunities to witness, experience, test, and evaluate advancements to date, of this transformative new novel approach. 

The Irish delates were treated to a range of comprehensive and informative demonstrations where the following main focuses and attributes were highlighted: 

Key Highlights from the Plugathon: 

  • Successful End-to-End Validation: Both online and proximity-based use cases were effectively validated, encompassing the full interaction cycle between the issuer, EUID Wallet, and receiving entity. These successful tests confirmed the robustness, capability and versatility of the wallet in a real-world scenario. 
  • First time use of the Gazelle Interoperability Platform: The Plugathon marked the inaugural integration of the Gazelle Interoperability Test Platform for remote EUID Wallet test staging. This enabled the demonstration of comprehensive remote evaluation and validation capabilities, which laid down a marker for future testing environments to follow. 
  • Focused real time collaboration: Developers and implementers alike engaged in hands-on, informed collaboration, while at the same time, sharing insights, troubleshooting challenges, and creating potential solution roadmaps. It was clear, as evidenced during the Plugathon, that the availability of this dynamic environment, significantly helps to positively accelerate progress for the future of the myHealth@myHands delivery. 

Advancing Patient-Centric Innovation Across the EU 

The event emphasised patient centric innovation, striving to empower the EU’s 500 million+ citizens with easier access to and control over their own health data. This strategy initiative focuses on building a future where citizens are at the centre of their own healthcare journey, supported by secure, intuitive digital tools which promote engagement and trust for all parties. 

Key Objectives: 

  • Enabling patient-managed health communication. Enabling EU citizens to actively manage and share their own health information, fostering transparency and autonomy. 
  • Enhanced Clinical Confidence and Efficiency: Provide healthcare professionals with clearer insights and enhanced lean digital workflows to improve healthcare delivery, eliminate duplication, and build trust in data-driven practices. 
  • Support Scalable Digital Health Solutions: Contribute to and support the acceleration of the wider deployment of patient-facing digital tools across the EU community. 

Core Goals of the myHealth@myHands Initiative: 

This initiative builds on the foundational goals of the European Digital Identity Framework, aiming to bridge the gap between innovation and real-world healthcare delivery.  

The following core goals were amply demonstrated and promoted during the Plugathon which generated high levels of excitement and expectation for the future delivery of the operational solution. 

Core Goals: 

  • Digitally Enable EU Citizen Engagement: Demonstrated capability scenarios designed to enable patients to manage their own health data, giving them full control over when, where, and with whom their sensitive information is shared with, thus fostering greater trust environments leading to, autonomy, and transparency. 
  • Demonstrate Real-World Integration and Implementation: Demonstrated practical, secure, and effective integration of the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet within healthcare settings, highlighting its value-add capability to safely enhance everyday clinical and patient interactions. 
  • Foster and Strengthen Cross Sector Collaboration: Highlighted the potential to promote meaningful partnerships between technology providers, healthcare leaders, and policymakers, to positively contribute to and ensure long-term success for the myHealth@myHands initiative. 

The Consortium 

The Project Coordinators Caitriona Wray, Dr. Zoltan Lantos and Eamonn Coyne from the Department of Health in Ireland, have been working tirelessly and diligently to aid the establishment of the myHealth@myHands project and to keep proceedings on the road. This has been no mean task for the IE team and the other supporting consortium members, as it encompasses a wide range of demand responsibilities,  to attend to the ongoing organisational needs of 38 partners, 2 associated entities and 4 associated partners, which span 18 countries.  

Links 

Bluesky channel: https://bsky.app/profile/myhealthmyhands.bsky.social  

LinkedIn channel: https://www.linkedin.com/company/myhealthmyhands-project/  

Instagram channel: https://www.instagram.com/myhealthmyhands_project/  

Keywords 

Digital health, eHealth, access, empower, citizen engagement, patient centric, health data, integration, implementation.