Information Commissioner will look at opt-out rights
Clarification on patients’ rights to opt out of having personal information recorded under the NHS Care Records Service (NCRS) will be sought by the Information Commissioner (IC) in the very near future, according to a letter from the commissioner’s office. The letter, sent to Dr Paul Thornton, a Warwickshire GP with a special interest in […]
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National data quality review called for
The NHS needs a national overview of data quality and coding integrity as the Payment by Results regime gathers pace, the NHS Confederation is set to argue. A discussion paper to be sent out to members of the confederation – which represents 92 per cent of NHS organisations in the UK – argues that the […]
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IT skills shortage due to bite next year
A looming IT staff shortage caused by accelerating retirement rates and fewer graduates coming into the IT profession is being forecast by technology consultants, Forrester. Beyond the shortage of actual numbers due to kick in next year, the research also predicts more specific skills deficits as employers shift their IT requirements away from technicians and […]
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Doctor tagged with RFID worries about privacy
An A&E doctor and CIO who has had an RFID tag implanted into his arm on which his medical reference number is encoded has expressed concerns about lack of privacy standards and erosion of his anonymity. John Halamka, chief information officer at Harvard Medical School, had the VeriChip tag encased in an unbreakable glass capsule […]
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NCRS will make corrections easier, says minister
Corrections to electronic health records will be easier when the NHS Care Records Service (NCRS) is available and problems caused by incorrect data being held on unconnected systems will disappear, health minister, Caroline Flint, has said. Flint was replying to detailed questions left unanswered during an adjournment debate in the Commons last month when Wycombe MP, […]
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Recoding purchase data generates savings
A healthcare trust in London is claiming it has saved £1m by recoding its procurement systems from freetext into individual items, allowing buyers to verify prices more easily. Terry Ashmore, CEO of Coding International, the company that undertook the work for Chelsea & Westminster Healthcare Trust, told E-Health Insider that they processed one year’s worth […]
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Cerner wins Wirral system replacement contract
US health systems specialists, Cerner Corporation, have been named as the preferred supplier to replace the ageing clinical IT system at Wirral Hospital NHS Trust. The contract win was widely predicted for Cerner at the trust which credited with much pioneering work on the use of IT in acute NHS care. The independent procurement outside […]
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Ofcom investigates patient phone systems
Patientline has said it will suspend new installations in hospitals pending the outcome of an Ofcom inquiry into complaints about pricing of calls and competitive practices. Ofcom, the independent telecommunications and broadcasting regulator, has announced that it has started an investigation today into prices charged to patients by Patientline and another healthcare communications provider, Premier […]
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Call for drug ad ban in Australian prescribing software
A survey of drug advertisements in prescribing software used by Australian doctors found the vast majority of the advertisements broke the industry’s code of conduct and has led to calls for such advertising to be banned. The survey examined the advertisements that appeared on Medical Director software, a package which its suppliers Health Communications Network […]
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GP2GP record transfers struggling on attachments
GP2GP record transfer is under threat because the NHS spine may be unable to cope with the size and number of attachments to GP records, according to GP representatives. It appears that the spine is unable to handle the large number of attachments – often vital documents like scanned hospital referral letters – which many […]
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