NHS Health Boards and local authorities are responsible for the provision of, and funding for, services for deaf children. This includes the provision of specific therapeutic approaches.

The Scottish Government funds the Scottish Sensory Centre and CALL Scotland to provide advice and training to school staff on support, including the use of assistive technology, for children and young people with specific communication and sensory needs.

The CivTech challenge on ethical and explainable AI has directly lead to the recent launch of the Scottish AI Register.

The AI Register, developed in collaboration with Finnish start-up Saidot, as part of the challenge was launched in March 2023. It makes transparent the development and use of AI in the public sector, and offers the public a simple and effective platform to have a say in how AI is used to make decisions and deliver public services.

The Community Health Index (CHI) has been in place since the 1970s. We are in the process of modernising and upgrading the system that runs the CHI, which acts as the master patient index for the whole of the NHS. As such, the new CHI system requires careful implementation to safely and seamlessly join up hundreds of data flows. It is now in limited use for some elements of health data. The new system is expected to be fully operational in Autumn 2023.

The digital infrastructure requirements for the Scottish Vaccination and Immunisation Programme (SVIP) are currently being explored in conjunction with our partners Public Health Scotland (PHS) and National Services Scotland (NSS). A report and roadmap will be considered with our partners in summer 2023 and will ensure all potential options are fully scoped and costed. This will enable the recommendation of preferred solutions for a future vaccination and immunisation system which meets the needs of the people of Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18497 on 15 June 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Further pathways for prostate cancer, asthma, heart failure and pulmonary disease are in development. A National Procurement exercise, concluded in September 2021, resulted in a 5-year contract awarded to Inhealthcare Ltd (IHC) for a national asynchronous communication platform. The purpose of this contract is to enable a significant expansion of remote health pathways within Board areas and to support the provision of equitable access to these services for all NHS Boards.

The M365 Cross-Organisation Collaboration Programme has been established to maximise collaboration and communication opportunities available to organisations across Health and Social Care. The ability of organisations to safely and easily share information through the M365 platform will provide multiple benefits to citizens and ease pressures on our service delivery systems.

Working in partnership with the Local Government Digital Office, work is underway with staff in participating Local Authorities & Health Boards and further planning is in progress to enable wider data sharing.

Official launch of the Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) physical location was on 15th December 2022. The CCoE is based in Abertay University cyberQuarter.

The Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and our partners have an ongoing commitment to developing UK and international collaborations. This includes active participation in European and International networks as well as hosting of inward study visits to Scotland and outward visits to international partners. Inward visits include from the Netherlands, Denmark, Andalucia, Wales, World Health Organisation (Georgia and Macedonia) and Spain.

The Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (DHI) play a key role in supporting inward investment opportunities. This has included:

We are following the Scottish Approach to Service Design. All our work will be person-centred and we will be working closely with those who will use the record – including those in receipt of care and frontline staff – to understand what is important for the integrated social care and health record.

We have also largely concluded technical research to understand what digital approaches, services and products have enabled similar services outside of Scotland and what lessons can be learned from both successful and unsuccessful digital projects and programmes We have also reviewed the technology, service and digital architectural landscape across the public, private and third sector organisations who are involved in the delivery of social care services in Scotland to understand how best to implement an integrated record.