DH Outsources IT Services to CSC
The Department of Health has awarded a seven year contract to outsource its Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services to Computer Sciences Limited. The new contract, valued in excess of £40 million, covers services including telephony, videoconferencing, desktop and help desk support, and will cover approximately 600 DH staff. The contract has provisions for three […]
News
Electronic Systems Could Free Up Millions of GP Appointments
Cutting out unnecessary GP paperwork, such as filling out repeat prescriptions and sick notes, could save up to 3.2 million GP appointments, concludes a new report. Freeing up GPs time by removing unnecessary and cumbersome red tape, and introducing electronic communications and electronic prescribing, would also provide patients with faster access to their GP. Routine […]
News
UK E-Health Association Conference
Highlights from the UK e-Health Association Conference, Cardiff, June 11-13 E-Health Media listened in on some of the presentations at the UK e-Health Association’s well-attended conference last week. Building Clinical Value Through Data Linkage An example of building real value for diabetes patients and clinicians through data linkage came from Dr John Parkinson, client services […]
News
Monaghan Promises IT Procurement Strategy by July
Last week saw the publication of the new NHS IT implementation strategy, ‘Delivering 21st Century IT Support’ , as reported first by E-Health Insider. However, many key questions remain to be answered around how the new relationships with suppliers will work, how procurements can be accelerated and how the whole programme can be rapidly delivered. […]
News
South Staffs Launches Community-wide Electronic Records
South Staffordshire Healthcare NHS Trust has gone live with an enterprise-wide, patient information system, PiMS, which provides staff with real time patient information. Supplied by iSOFT the system provides the trusts 3,500 clinicians with access to the computerised details and clinical information of all patients within the 0.5 million local population. The PiMS patient record […]
News
Study Questions Criticism of Online Health Advice
A new study suggests that despite much adverse press coverage there is little evidence to discourage consumers from obtaining health information from the Internet. The authors of the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, criticise previous studies and media reports, which have suggested that up to 90 per cent of health […]
News
iSOFT Acquires Northgate Healthcare Business
Fast growing UK Health IT firm iSOFT has announced that it has agreed to buy rival Northgate Healthcare Business from Northgate for £33 million in cash. The Northgate Healthcare Business is a leading UK vendor of electronic patient record information systems to the acute sector of the NHS. According to iSOFT the acquisition will make […]
News
IT Strategy – You Have Your Say
E-Health Insider’s request for fantasy IT strategies for the NHS struck a chord with many of you who sent in a range of suggestions over the course of the week. A common theme was the feeling that any new IT strategy must have a strong thread of cultural change and people management, and that a […]
News
ComMedica Unveils Web-Based Patient Record
ComMedica, a spinout company from London University’s Imperial College of Science and Technology, this week formally unveiled its Patient Record Library System (PiRiLiS) at the Princess Margaret Hospital, Windsor. The web-based system is being used for pathology and radiology records initially and is receiving enthusiastic support from consultant users who can gain remote access to […]
News
Australia Funds Research into Open Source EHR
The Australian Government has taken another step towards its plan to introduce a ‘lifetime’ electronic health record system following the award of a research and development contract to use open-source technology to make patient health records available on the internet. The R&D contract was awarded to the Distributed Systems Technology Centre (DSTC), and partners, Ocean […]
News