BMA issues FOI guidelines for GPs
The BMA has issued new guidance to General Practitioners on the Freedom of Information Act advising them to be open about data from the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QoF), introduced under the new GMS contract. Issued by the BMA’s GP Committee says the guidance states that withholding QoF data "could be seen as detrimental to […]
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Americans want personal health records
The majority of Americans want to be able to access an online personal health record (PHR), providing them with details of their medical record. According to a survey conducted by the US health IT research body Connecting for Health, 61% of Amercans questioned agreed with the statement: "It’s my health information. I should have access […]
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Release QoF data if asked, BMA advises
GPs are being advised to release Quality and Outcomes Framework (QoF) data before national figures are published if their practices are asked to do so under the Freedom of Information Act. The British Medical Association’s General Practitioner Committee (GPC) has released new guidance (www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/freedomfaqs) about the Freedom of Information which advises practices to be open […]
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Scottish GPs win choice over practice systems
Scottish GPs will be able to change IT system provider under a new deal announced yesterday. The Scottish Executive Health Department (SEHD) and the BMA’s Scottish General Practitioner Committee have agreed that practices can change to a new system provided that certain conditions are met including the agreement that any new system must use […]
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Germany joins hospital RFID pilots
Germany has joined the growing number of countries experimenting with wireless tagging of hospital patients to improve safety and provide easier access to data. The Klinikum SaarbrÜcken in western Germany, this month launched a pilot project covering 1000 patients in collaboration with technology partners Siemens Business Services, Intel and Fujitsu Siemens Computers. In addition to making patient […]
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Hospital e-mail filter can weed out drug spam
Hammersmith Hospitals NHS trust has installed a spam e-mail filter which the manufacturers say is sophisticated enough to tell genuine medical e-mails from pharmaceutical spam. The Messaging Security Gateway MLX system, supplied by Proofpoint, examines the structure and content of all emails that arrive on the hospital trust’s servers, and flags them as spam if […]
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Organ donors to be recruited via digital TV
The red button on the digital television remote control is set to become the latest channel for recruiting desperately needed organ donors. The BBC’s DoNation season, due to run for a week from 22 August will highlight the benefits of organ transplantation with a series of programmes on BBC1, the internet and the corporation’s radio […]
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Data mining can help epilepsy treatment
A study in the US has shown that computer software has proved to be useful in estimating the prevalence and mortality rates of patients with epilepsy, and that healthcare professionals can use such programs to work out where best to distribute resources. The paper, published in the journal Epilepsia, used data mining and analysis of […]
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No show from iSOFT at GP2GP transfer meeting
One of the leading GP system suppliers has been criticised after dropping out of a demonstration of GP2GP record transfer functionality to national GP representatives. iSOFT was due to demonstrate its progress in developing GP2GP functionality alongside GP system suppliers EMIS and InPractice Systems last week at the British Medical Association’s GP committee meeting. However […]
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RCN Congress calls for nurse IT involvement
Nurses need training and guidance to use new IT systems within the NHS or they risk being left on the sidelines, delegates at this week’s Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Congress in Harrogate have argued. Graeme Elrick, chair of the RCN Information Nursing group, said that it was important that nurses control how IT delivers care […]
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