The Engineering a Better Health System for Ireland strategic seminar will bring together patients, clinicians, engineers, researchers, industry, and policymakers to promote greater use of digital health in Ireland.
12 October 2026 - Engineers Ireland, the Irish Academy of Engineering, and the Innovation Value Institute at Maynooth University will bring together leaders from across Ireland’s health, engineering, research, technology, and policy sectors, and patients on Tuesday, 13 October, to advance an ambitious new initiative to engineer a radically better health system for Ireland.
The Mission10X Ireland strategic seminar will examine how digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and collaborative engineering can support a health service that is more preventative, connected, accessible, and centred on the needs of patients, leading to a radical improvement in our health systems and, importantly, better health outcomes for all.
Ireland, at present, is a poor performer in digital health. The European Commission last year rated Ireland among the worst in the European Union for providing access to electronic health records, scoring Ireland at just 25% against an EU average of 83%.
Mission10X Ireland centres on the ambition of delivering a tenfold improvement in health outcomes and system performance, leveraging digital technology to achieve these improvements. By using digital tools such as electronic health records, AI-driven screening software, and wearable technologies, we can help to prevent illness and move appropriate care from hospitals into homes and communities.
The seminar will hear from a range of leading speakers in the field, including Prof. Martin Curley, Professor of Innovation at Maynooth University and former Director of Digital Transformation and Open Innovation at the Health Service Executive; Prof. Colin Doherty, Head of the School of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin; and Mark Hindle, Managing Director of Tunstall UK and Ireland.
Speaking ahead of the event, Áine Myler, Director General of Engineers Ireland, said:
“A modern health system must be designed around patients, not fragmented services and systems. Engineers have a critical role in making that vision a reality – connecting technology, information and services in ways that are secure, accessible and effective. Mission10X brings engineering expertise together with clinical knowledge and patient experience to help deliver the transformation Ireland’s healthcare system needs.”
Prof. Martin Curley, FIAE FIEI of Maynooth University and Principal Investigator for Mission10X said: “We have the fantastic opportunity to bring better health to everyone in Ireland and co-engineer a 10X better health system using the new Stay Left, Shift Left-10X paradigm which will shift the locus of care to the individual, their home and the phone. Mission10X will be co-innovated with clinicians and patients and multiple stakeholders using the novel systems innovation methodology Open Innovation 2.0, significantly improving the probability of success compared to more traditional big bang procurement of systems”.
Seán Finlay, President of the Irish Academy of Engineering, said: “The ambition is not simply to digitise today’s health system. It is to ask what would a genuinely better health system look like if we had the opportunity to engineer it for the needs of patients, citizens and clinicians from the outset? By bringing clinicians, universities, engineers, technology companies, patients, and government together to collaborate on this issue, Mission 10X has the potential to transform Irish healthcare.”
Engineering a Better Digital Health System for Ireland will take place from 9.00am to 1.00pm on Tuesday, 13 October at Engineers Ireland, 22 Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.