Explainer: when is an app not an app (but a medical device)?
New guidance has been released on when an app becomes a “medical device” but attempts to control which apps creep into the NHS have had a rocky history, Ben Heather discovers.
Clinical Software
Expo 2016: What you need to know
The 2016 Health and Social Care Innovation Expo wasn’t short on new policies, big reveals, and fancy tech. Ben Heather examines what we learned at the big event and what questions remain.
News
Caldicott: future of patient opt-outs a ‘challenge’
Existing schemes to allow patients to opt-out of sharing their health data will not be immediately affected by the third Caldicott report but their future is far from assured.
AI and Analytics
Hunt: IT funds will support ‘Ivy league’ of exemplar trusts
In response to the Wachter review of NHS IT, health secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced there will be two waves of ‘global’ and ‘national’ digital exemplars, forming an ‘Ivy league’ with the side effect of excluding half of trusts from pre-2020 funding.
News
Wachter calls for extension to paperless 2020 target
Dr Robert Wachter has said the “unrealistic” paperless 2020 goal should be discarded in his long-awaiting review into the digital future of the NHS, which also calls for more national funding for IT, and a further push on clinical engagement.
CCIO Network
Hunt reveals instant patient record and excellence centres
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt unveiled plans to “fast track digital excellence” today, including a further round of digital excellence centres and “instant access” to a personal online health record.
News
NHS Digital shuffles transformation targets
NHS Digital has accidentally published a whole lot of targets for digital transformation, from patient consent opt-outs to de-identification services.
News
‘Significant problems’ with data access in public health
Public health services have been denied access to health data vital to doing their job, a report from the Commons health select committee says.
News
Verify (and Facebook) tested for NHS online identity service
The new director of the government’s online identity scheme has raised the possibility of rolling out the service in the NHS, despite concerns about its security.
Infrastructure
Telehealth used to cut consultations under draft STPs
Draft Sustainability and Transformation Plans are proposing cuts to NHS services, including the closure of acute hospitals and greater reliance of telehealth in parts of London, it has been reported.
News