Warning on good practice in data sharing
The Information Commissioner (IC) has issued a warning to the government and other public bodies to share data properly or risk losing public confidence. In his annual report Richard Thomas highlights the renewed focus on projects to share information among public sector bodies and acknowledges the potential benefits of such projects. However he claims that there […]
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Wirral rolls out electronic ordering to GPs
GP practices across Wirral and surrounding areas in North-west England are due to rollout a new electronic ordering system for laboratory tests. Wirral Remote Order Communications System (WROCS) was piloted in four practices between March and May. Wirral Health Informatics Service says plans are now underway to fully implement WROCS to Wirral’s 60 GP practices […]
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Clinicians warn CRS will damage confidentiality
Concerns about the negative impact that the planned national database of patient records, the NHS Care Record Service national record, will have on patient confidentiality have been voiced by frontline doctors, Writing in the British Medical Journal several doctors set out their concerns about the impact on patient confidentiality of the creation one database containing the […]
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Deaf signing shows videoconferencing’s potential
A service that offers deaf patients and their clinicians quick access to a sign language interpreter via a video link shows one of many ways IP [Internet Protocol] networks are changing the way healthcare can be delivered, networking specialists, Cisco Systems, say. Cisco has provided networks for Significan’t , an award-winning social enterprise which has become a source […]
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Four new areas for IT policy named by DH
Four significant new areas for NHS information and IT policy are identified in the Department of Health’s new plans for commissioning services in England. The newly-published plan for the NHS commissioning framework says consultations with 150 stakeholders indicate that the patient-centred approach of the current information strategy is right – but four new areas for […]
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Troubled child health system to be replaced
NHS Connecting for Health (CfH) looks set to replace an interim child health information system deployed in London last year and has already halted plans to extend it to include a community module. It has also emerged in a leaked letter, seen by E-Health Insider Primary Care, that a review of the problematic system has revealed […]
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Peer podcasts for doctors’ forum
Health minister Lord Warner has recorded his first ever podcast with doctors’ network Doctors.net.uk, answering questions placed to him by forum users. He answered questions on the Modernising Medical Careers recruitment reforms, NHS finances and headline jobs cuts, the growth in independent treatment centres and the future of IT in the NHS. "All healthcare systems across […]
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Computer therapy to help patients back to work
Ultrasis’s Beating the Blues, a computerised cognitive behavourial therapy software package designed to offer drug-free treatment to patients with depression, is to be used in a government to help people on incapacity benefit back to work. Beating the Blues will be used in two areas in the northwest of England, Lancashire and Liverpool & […]
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Birmingham Children’s loses sight of appointments
Birmingham Children’s Hospital NHS Trust has become the latest trust to experience problems after Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) installed new remotely-hosted patient administration system (PAS) software supplied by iSoft. Following a software upgrade to its new PAS system, outpatient appointment data for 800 children became unviewable to staff using the day clinic module of the […]
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PCT achieves 87% C+B referrals with flexible system
A primary care trust (PCT) has achieved the highest take up of Choose and Book in the country by allowing practices to send Choose and Book information through the post. The “medical secretary” model used by all PCTs in Somerset has helped GP practices in Somerset Coast PCT make 87% of referrals through Choose and […]
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