The National Drugs Forum 2026 will consider how developments in telemedicine, personal health, health information systems and artificial intelligence will affect responses, monitoring, and policy development over the next few years. Ireland lags many European countries in the rollout of its digital health architecture, but the quality of its information systems, the expert knowledge available, and the commitment of successive governments will result in a major transformation of health service planning and delivery.1 The response to drugs will be part of this transformation. However, because drugs is a multifaceted and complex system, services, research and policy will face very particular challenges in adapting to this changing landscape.

Introduction

Digital technology is embedded in much of our lives, often in ways that are not apparent, indirectly affecting our behaviour, choices and relationships. Each major technological breakthrough brings both optimism and concern about the long-term impact on our capacity to control our work, political and personal lives. Developments in digital technologies are becoming an increasingly important part of these investments in healthcare. Technology enables individuals to control important aspects of their own healthcare, improving results, creating greater efficiencies in the system, and making better use of health professionals’ time. 

Digital technology and drug-related interventions

Effective use of digital technologies delivers clear benefits across treatment modalities – for instance in case management and in making it easier for individuals to manage their own healthcare. While inclusivity often focuses on the need to retain familiar, analogue forms of communication, and experimentation with digital solutions can reveal the impediments to equal access and suggest new pathways to integration of services and supports.2

A key principle in digital health policy is access to digital health systems and services, which improves health outcomes for individual patients, informs decision-making regarding the patient’s own well-being, and provides a better experience of using the health system. Telemedicine, including virtual care and telehealth services, will remove many barriers to using services, and increase comfort and flexibility. Digital health literacy is an important consideration when planning access to services for vulnerable populations.

Costs, digital literacy, privacy concerns and the capacity of individuals to navigate what can be impersonal and confusing information systems are all challenges to implementing digital health solutions. These challenges are acute for vulnerable patient groups and those facing social isolation, cognitive impairment and multiple morbidities. Effective communication around safe behaviour in prevention and harm reduction, managing the complex health and social needs of service users, and identifying emerging threats to public health add further layers of complexity when the focus is on drug use.

Building capacity in digital technologies for services

Integration of information and communications technology into everyday tasks will be a powerful enabling mechanism for those providing prevention, harm reduction and recovery services. The capacity to access and use digital health records appropriately, and make available a single, longitudinal patient record, will reduce administrative burdens and leave more time for personal interaction with clients, when required.

Ireland has excellent information systems providing robust data on indicators of drug use, consequences and responses. Combining existing longitudinal datasets, information from administrative systems, and the detail provided by electronic health records (EHRs) will enable enhanced predictive modelling, resource allocation, population health planning, and service transformation. Drug policy in Ireland is well placed to take advantage of the move towards data-driven services and to learn from advances in other countries using similar monitoring standards and systems. Greater access to higher-quality data will become an increasingly valuable resource for researchers and will help to make evidence available to clinicians and service providers in more timely and useable forms.

Many of these improvements are contingent, and cannot be separated from significant and costly developments in the overall health system. For instance, EHR systems are an extremely complex and difficult technological undertaking, with obvious legal and human rights concerns associated with them. Semantic interoperability, which allows different computer systems to share data that can also be read by each system, is technically demanding and disruptive work. EHR systems will need to be supported by robust national legislation and meet demanding European Union (EU) health data standards. The benefits will be apparent in patient safety, consistency in models of care, and efficiencies in individual services across the wider health system.

A truly integrated health information service will require continued investment in data infrastructure and universal application of individual health identifiers (IHIs). This will result in greater efficiencies as more granular and timely data become available, helping to reduce costs in other areas. The effective implementation of digital systems and application of data analytics will need the alignment of health digital strategies with various eGovernment initiatives and a mutually reinforcing system of learning, digital enhancement and research across the public service.

A digitally enabled health service will drive a culture of innovation, an inventive approach to problem-solving and more open dialogue between service provider and user. It will attract an ambitious and future-focused workforce, with an expectation of excellence in administration, planning, policy implementation and communication. Evidence will be created through a truly collaborative partnership that recognises and uses excellence in clinical practice, research and policy, and regards the contribution of patients and the public as a vital element in this knowledge creation. 

Types of digital interventions in the drugs field

Reviews of drug and alcohol interventions show a predominance of prevention and early intervention responses. There are several types of interventions used for prevention and early intervention in which digital technology has been applied. Some involve providing feedback to individuals to enable them to track consumption or set goals. Educational interventions, such as gaming and personalised text messages, have also been used to support prevention goals. Screening and brief intervention, with or without referral to treatment (SBIRT), involve the use of a standardised, validated, screening tool to assess the user’s level of risk to alcohol or drug-related harm. Such screening tests include the alcohol screening tool Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and its shortened forms.

Telemedicine and online delivery of treatment modalities expanded during the COVID-19 epidemic, but few of these interventions have been evaluated. One of the explanations for the slower emergence of digitally enabled services in treatment, harm reduction and recovery is the need for in-person engagement for comprehensive assessments and early treatment. Nevertheless, the lesson learned during the pandemic have informed innovative approaches to survey delivery in the substance use area. This is more apparent in alcohol treatment, but recovery services are increasingly using online platforms to support clients who have progressed beyond the early stages of recovery.

The National Drugs Forum 2026 will be held in Croke Park Dublin on 18 November. A registration link is available on the HRB National Drugs Library website. https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/

1         Department of Health (2024) Digital for care — a digital health framework for Ireland 2024-2030. Dublin: Department of Health. Available from: https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/41062/