Doctors need guidance on mobile technology use
UK clinicians urgently need clear and coherent guidance on the safe use of mobile technologies according to researchers. Kent GP Dr Hilary Pinnock and colleagues from Edinburgh and Wales Universities say regulatory and professional bodies need to issue practical guidance and medico legal parameters for good clinical practice when using mobile phones and other mobile […]
News
NHS Choices website launched
The Department of Health has launched the new NHS Choices website, replacing the previous NHS.uk website. The new website, which stays at the same http://www.nhs.uk web address, aims to personalise healthcare and provide information that will ‘allow patients to make meaningful choices about when and where to receive their treatment.’ The new website goes under […]
News
No new money for GPSoC – now due July
Funding for the GP Systems of Choice initiative will come from existing Connecting for Health funds rather than new funds, with the scheme still awaiting Treasury approval. Dr Gillian Braunold, joint GP clinical lead for CfHonnecting for Health, told EHI Primary Care last week that the business case has not yet been signed off by […]
News
GPs say Choose and Book currently ‘unfit for purpose’
GP representatives have rejected calls for Choose and Book to be suspended but have branded the scheme as currently unfit for purpose. Last week’s National Local Medical Committees’ (LMCs) Conference described the e-booking system as a politically-driven initiative that was being manipulated by some hospital trusts and primary care organisations to limit choice for patients […]
News
Carestream and Hitachi create clinical data store
Carestream Health and Hitachi Data Systems have announced they have collaborated to create a powerful data management solution that will help enable healthcare organisations to efficiently archive clinical information from multiple systems over extended periods of time. The new solution, which is able to handle multiple data types including patient records and diagnostic images, will be […]
News
E-mail with patients will demand new skills
E-mail communication with patients will require astute judgement from doctors about which correspondents need to be evaluated in person and sound intuition about when patients’ emotional needs are better served face-to-face, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The article (NEJM 356;24 2451-2454 – subscription required) by John H. Stone, formerly […]
News
DH explains summary and detailed records
Guidance on how the two elements of the NHS electronic patient record – the detailed and summary records – will work in England has been released by the Department of Health. The guidance re-iterates that only the Summary Care Record (SCR) will be a national system, and that patients can opt-out from data being visible […]
News
Initiate signs agreement with SQLI Groupe
Initiate Systems, the supplier of patient data management and enterprise master patient index solutions, has announced a new strategic agreement with French healthcare identity management specialists SQLI Groupe. SQLI Groupe is one of the main suppliers in the French market who have been helping with the national and regional electronic health records (EHR) strategies. The agreement will […]
News
Fulsome praise for departing CfH boss
The news that Richard Granger is to leave Connecting for Health and the helm of the NHS IT Programme later this year has elicited a clutch of glowing tributes from some of the most senior industry and NHS executives he has worked with over the past five years. Over the weekend Granger received effusive praise and statements […]
News
Telemedicine growing in use in Germany
Nearly 2000 patients with chronic heart problems and 200 with diabetes are now being monitored through a BKK Taunus telemedicine system at home, in the German state of Hessen. The devices are personal healthcare telemedicine services (PHTS) and are offered to patients who meet a certain criteria and have relevant health insurance. PHTS has contracts […]
News