Newry locals Brian Cleland, Jonny McCullagh and Stevan Barry brought the first GovCamp events for Ireland to Narrow Water Castle in 2016 and 2017. Una Murphy, journalist with ViewDigital describes her experience at GovCampConnect 2017.
Technology experts, public servants and entrepreneurs gathered in Narrow Water Castle, Warrenpoint, recently to hear how digital technology is helping citizens in Northern Ireland with new Electronic Care Records and pilot ‘Social Prescribing’ projects.
The event organiser GovCampConnect https://www.govcampconnect.org said the discussions brought together people interested in digital government on the island of Ireland. They said it was an opportunity for people to share their stories about “stuff that matters”.
The venue, Narrow Water Castle, surrounded by stunning scenery was a sight to behold on this reporter’s arrival on a free bus laid on by the organisers from Belfast.
Writer CS Lewis had stood at the Cloughmore Stone above the town of Rostrevor looking down on Carlingford Lough and said this was how he imagined Narnia, according one of the organisers Brian Cleland, a research associate in data science at Ulster University, which was among the sponsors.
Dr Shane McKee, a consultant in genetic medicine in Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and Stephen Barry, a NHS project manager, gave workshops on some of the health challenges to which they hoped digital technology could provide solutions.
“Turning the corner in health is a social thing”, Stephen said. “Everybody can help, the community and voluntary sector, as well as health professionals”, he said.
He outlined how GP practices had helped to identify people liable to develop diabetes. GP practices were given an algorithm to identify people who were liable to develop diabetes due to their age, and BMI (Body Mass Index).
As most readers will know you use code to tell a computer what to do. An algorithm is a list of rules to follow in order to solve a problem. Before you write code you need an algorithm.
Read the remainder of Una’s article on ViewDigital.
