BearingPoint’s Sohini De discusses the state of digital transformation in healthcare, and the structural and organisational requirements for long-term success.

Digitisation in healthcare has become a prominent topic over the years across the world, and Ireland is no exception.

In 2024, the Irish Government unveiled the Digital for Care framework, a roadmap with the ultimate goal of digitally transforming Ireland’s health services by the year 2030 to ensure and improve efficiency.

As part of that framework, Ireland’s national healthcare system – the Health Service Executive – has been working on several digital initiatives, including an app for health information and electronic health records.

Digitisation in healthcare appears to be progressing, which BearingPoint’s Sohini De believes has been most noticeable after the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“There has been a clear shift from episodic, hospital‑centric care towards more preventative, integrated and data‑enabled models, particularly following Covid‑19,” she explains.

“Progress is most visible in diagnostics, clinical decision support and telehealth, which saw rapid adoption during the pandemic. Remote monitoring and virtual care models are also beginning to extend care beyond hospital settings.”

However, De – who is head of healthcare and innovation at BearingPoint Ireland – believes significant gaps remain.

“Interoperability across systems is still limited, and many digital tools are not integrated into day‑to‑day clinical workflows,” she says. “Scaling also continues to be a challenge. Across Ireland, multiple local pilots address similar issues, but there is no consistent mechanism to share or scale successful models.

“Healthcare is, therefore, digitising but not yet transforming. To move forward, organisations must rethink care models, organisational structures and governance – not simply digitise existing processes.”

Digital therapeutics

De tells SiliconRepublic.com that digitisation is already visible in practical, real‑world applications across healthcare systems.

“Telehealth is now a standard part of service delivery following rapid adoption during Covid‑19,” she says. “Electronic health records have been adopted in a number of hospitals, or across different clinical pathways.”

Other examples of digitisation include remote patient monitoring using wearables and home equipment; virtual wards and ‘hospital-at-home models’; and something De refers to as digital therapeutics.

But what, exactly, are these?

Digital therapeutics, De explains, are software‑based, clinically validated interventions designed to prevent, manage or treat medical conditions.

“They form a distinct category within digital health and are typically classified as software as a medical device (SaMD) because they deliver therapeutic interventions directly,” she says.

“They differ from wellness apps, which are not clinically validated, and from telehealth, which acts as a delivery channel rather than a treatment. Instead, digital therapeutics provide structured, evidence‑based care through software as part of a clinical pathway.”

Some common applications highlighted by De include behavioural interventions, chronic disease management (for conditions such as diabetes and obesity), and medication adherence or lifestyle support programmes.

Digital therapeutics are also being increasingly used to “augment” clinical decision-making, according to De.

She points to a recent collaboration that BearingPoint had with Lund University in Sweden, where the two partners focused on developing a digital tool to support mental health professionals in areas such as assessment, documentation and treatment planning.

“This acts as an early-stage triage tool, helping to identify cases requiring more urgent clinical intervention, while ensuring that clinicians remain central to decision-making.”

De adds that when integrated with connected care platforms – clinician dashboards, alerting systems and so on – digital therapeutics can also “enable more effective collaboration across multi‑disciplinary teams”.

“Their significance lies in their ability to deliver scalable, consistent and ‘always‑on’ care, particularly for chronic conditions that require long‑term engagement.”

Constraints

Despite the progress, De says that digitisation in healthcare is constrained by a combination of structural, operational and adoption challenges.

“At a system level, fragmentation and limited interoperability between platforms continue to restrict data sharing, while legacy IT infrastructure limits integration,” she explains.

Adoption, according to De, is a significant barrier.

“Clinicians often face time pressures and may lack the training needed to incorporate new tools into practice,” she says. “Patients are not always involved early in solution design, and broader education is needed to build confidence in digital care, including remote monitoring and at‑home interventions.

“Variations in digital literacy and limited human‑centred design further affect uptake.”

Meanwhile, digitisation can also face operational challenges – De says organisations often struggle to scale digitisation efforts beyond pilot initiatives.

To ensure digitisation is successful in the long term, De highlights the importance of embedding digital solutions into routine care “rather than treating them as standalone initiatives” – requiring a shift from short‑term pilots to sustained, scalable services.

“Clear governance and operating models are essential, with defined ownership, accountability and clinical oversight,” she adds. “Organisations must also adopt a continuous improvement approach, using data to launch, test, refine and scale solutions over time.

“Workforce enablement is equally important. This includes designing organisational structures that support new ways of working, alongside ongoing training, change management and clinical engagement.”

At a technical level, De emphasises that digital platforms require active life cycle management, including integration, interoperability, upgrades and vendor coordination. “Funding models must also evolve to prioritise outcomes rather than activity,” she adds.

“Sustaining digital care relies on patient trust,” says De. “Transparency, usability, data protection and continuous feedback all play a critical role.

“Ultimately, sustainability depends on embedding digital into how care is planned, delivered and measured.”

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