Tories back more collaborative approach on IT
Shadow chancellor, George Osborne, has said that the government needs to start taking advantage of the ‘collaborative forums that are emerging on the internet’, citing the Patient Opinion website as an example. “The Patient Opinion website, a social enterprise set up by a Sheffield GP, is already demonstrating what can be achieved,” Osborne told a […]
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Consumers prefer the ‘personal touch’ for online health
Research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council has found that people searching for health advice online prefer websites with the ‘human touch’ to websites with high quality medical information. Researchers from Northumbria and Sheffield universities observed the strategies of people interested in finding health information and found that consumers went through an ‘initial […]
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Mental health charity launch e-mail support
SANE, the mental health charity has launched a new email support service to provide support and information to people affected by mental health problems, and is fully funded by The Vodafone UK Foundation charity. SANEmail aims to provide support and information to people affected by mental health problems and will run alongside SANEline, SANE’s national, […]
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DH orders review into junior doctor recruitment system
The Department of Health has announced it has ordered a review into the Medical Training and Application Service (MTAS) following claims that the system is ‘descending into pandemonium’ by the British Medical Association. As E-Health Insider reported on Friday, the new MTAS website was created by the Department for Health under the new ‘Modernising Medical […]
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Suspended Fujitsu exec tells MPs NPfIT needs leadership
The senior manager at Fujitsu who said the National Programme for IT was in danger of delivering “a camel, and not the racehorse that we might try to produce”, has told a parliamentary committee that this can only be solved with more ‘visionary and proactive leadership from the NHS.’ Andrew Rollerson, who was credited as […]
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Islington PCT uses texts for stop smoking campaign
GP surgeries in Islington, London, are using SMS text messaging software from suppliers iPlato to promote its smoking cessation campaigns. Islington practices using the iPlato text messaging system have reported patient response rates of 30%, compared to a response rate of 5% when they used letters. The practices using the system have sent text messages […]
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iSoft Germany expand lab services customer base
iSoft Deutschland has announced their first laboratory system deployments in the private sector and drug research sector, plus laboratory and radiology implementations and the first tests of a new compulsory electronic health card. Last week, the company announced it had signed its first private laboratory services contract after deploying its LabCentre system at the private […]
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ExtraMed secure £500,000 investment
Scottish based healthcare IT software developers ExtraMed have secured £500,000 of investment to further develop products for the NHS market. The Falkirk-based company specialise in developing and implementing innovative hospital and patient management systems and have secured an investment package including £250,000 from the Sigma Innovation Fund, £100,000 from Scottish Enterprise’s Scottish Seed Fund and […]
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Electronic referrals lack detail, study warns
A study comparing the quality of data content and clinical value of electronic and paper referrals in dermatology has found that electronic patient referrals contain less detailed information about a patient’s condition than paper referrals. Writing for the British Journal of General Practice, Dr Lindsay Shaw, a dermatology specialist registrar and Dr David Berker, a […]
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Agreement reached on CHIA replacement
Ten London primary care trusts using BT’s troubled interim child health system have agreed to move to CSE-Servelec’s RiO solution for child health, on condition BT meets a series of risk mitigation requirements by August. The decision means that some of the PCTs may have to continue using the Child Health Interim Application (CHIA) for […]
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