SNOMED negotiations miss deadline – but continue
Talks to negotiate a new International Standards Development Organisation (SDO) for the clinical terminology, SNOMED CT, missed their first deadline at the end of December but are continuing, it has emerged. SNOMED International issued a statement saying that it is continuing to work closely with representatives from nine countries on the creation of the SDO […]
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‘Nurse bots’ to be developed by 2010
The European Union is funding scientists to develop ‘nurse bots’, mechanised robots designed to perform basic tasks such as mopping up spillages, taking messages and guiding visitors to hospital beds. It is hoped that in the future teams of bots working together may be used to help ease pressure on hospitals and free staff to spend […]
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BMJ says it will have to charge for BestTreatments
The BMJ Group says the Department of Health’s withdrawl of funding from its award-winning website BestTreatments means it will now probably have to charge patients for access for the service. The website has been available through NHS Direct online since 2004 and provides information on more than 1500 treatments. The BMJ say it was developed to help communication […]
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Council counts savings of telecare for elderly
An audit by Gloucestershire County Council looking at the amount of savings available to them by implementing telecare found that it could save £15,000 on the treatment of just three elderly patients. The council began a pilot project of ‘Telecare in Gloucestershire’ (TeleG) in the Gloucester and Forest of Dean regions in 2004 and set […]
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Siemens take over leading German systems provider
Siemens Medical Solutions have acquired the German health information systems developers Gesellschaft für Systemforschung und Dienstleistungen im Gesundheitswesen mbH (GSD). GSD currently provide their i.s.h.med system to 260 hospitals worldwide, which they describe as “the only integrated clinical work station system for SAP for Healthcare” and have had a long-standing partnership with Siemens in ensuring […]
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NPfIT Service Desk now running in all clusters
Fujitsu have implemented the new NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) service desk in all of the National Programme for IT clusters. The service desk will provide a helpline, e-mail and web logging facility for technical questions and queries about National Programme for IT systems and services. Operated by Fujitsu Services Limited, the NHS CfH […]
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Foul weather friends on hand for COPD patients
NHS Direct, the Met Office and Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust are collaborating on a new project to help thousands of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in times of bad weather. COPD is one of the most common respiratory diseases in the UK causing 30,000 deaths a year. In bad weather, […]
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System C issues profit warning as NPfIT slows
System C Healthcare has issued a profit warning citing a siginificant slowdown in deployments under the NHS IT programme as a result of a three month "hiatus" during the handover from Accenture to CSC. A spokesperson for System C told EHI: "The hand-over from Accenture to CSC caused a significant hiatus in activity for us during that period. […]
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Patient records excluded from new data sharing bill
New legislation to allow data sharing between the public and private sectors were unveiled by the government yesterday, but NHS patient records are excluded from the laws. The Serious Crime Bill will let anti-fraud agencies access personal information including pay, tax, pension and benefit records. It will exclude some sensitive personal data, including all NHS patient […]
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Local authorities urged to accelerate telecare initiatives
The Care Services Improvement Partnership has urged local authorities to refer to its guidance to get the ball rolling on the implementation of telecare, and use available framework contracts to speed up the implementation of telecare projects. Ian Salt, programme manager for physical disabilities and the sensory impairment team, said that since the Preventative Technology […]
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