Cameraphones help dieters keep track of meals
Dieters in the US and Canada are photographing their food with camera phones and sending them to dieticians, thanks to a new service that takes advantage of mobile technology to create online meal diaries. MyFoodPhone, which is based in Quebec City, allows the weight-conscious to upload images of each meal to a web-based food journal […]
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iSoft named North West business of the year
Manchester-based supplier of clinical software, iSoft, has been named North West business of the year by the Manchester Evening News, in the category of businesses over £50m turnover. The MEN Business of the Year Awards Programme covers companies of all sizes and takes into consideration clear vision of management performance, employee growth, customer service, innovation […]
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Handwriting rules for controlled drug scripts written off
GPs will no longer have to handwrite prescriptions for controlled drugs as a result of amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Regulations which come into force next week. From 14 November, prescriptions for controlled drugs can be produced using typing and printing, ending a restriction which has been viewed as anachronistic since the widespread adoption […]
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Digital geographic information deal puts NHS on the map
More than 600 NHS organisations in England are to gain direct access to the Ordnance Survey’s most detailed digital geographic information under a new pilot agreement with the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). Geographic information can be used to help health managers identify health inequalities, record changes to patient catchment areas, carry out […]
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CfH to examine health and social care links
Plans to examine how links between electronic health and social care records could be made to work are to be considered by Connecting for Health this month, according to Community Care magazine. CfH’s national board is due to consider proposals on how a sub-group of the Care Record Development Board may look at linking records […]
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First live GP2GP record transfer
The first live electronic transfer of a patient’s record between GPs using GP2GP record transfer has occurred under the NHS National Programme for IT. A full patient record was transferred between the Whickam Heath Centre practice to the Chainbridge House practice, both in Gateshead on Tyneside, via the NHS spine. The transfer was made between two […]
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IT vital for sustainable health systems, says PwC
Healthcare systems will need a ‘digital backbone’ to remain sustainable in the face of increasing demand, rising costs, uneven quality and misaligned incentives, a survey by consultants PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) indicates. The third PwC Healthcast sought the views of more than 580 executives of hospitals and hospital systems, physician groups, governments, medical suppliers and employers in […]
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Parliament told of GPs’ scepticism over C+B
GPs are slowly becoming more knowledgeable about Choose and Book and its implications while gradually becoming more negative about it, according to a survey undertaken by Doctors.net.uk, commissioned by the National Audit Office for Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee. 74% of respondents to the survey said that they knew a lot or something about Choose and […]
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Lessons for NPfIT from ‘wild ride’ to US failure
A study of the ‘wild ride’ towards a failed implementation of a new electronic medical record system found a ‘transient climate of conflict’ associated with the adoption of the new way of working. The qualitative study, reported in the British Medical Journal, was completed during an implementation by Kaiser Permanente, the US’ largest non-profit healthcare […]
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Online infection control site unveiled by UCLH
An online directory of infectious diseases has been unveiled by University College London Hospital (UCLH) and the Whittington and North Middlesex Hospitals to help staff to recognise and treat infections. The publication, entitled the Infection Control Manual, features a very large searchable directory of infectious diseases, along with instructions on how to recognise them, what specific action to take […]
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