Cerner in line for south contract
In the south of England plans have been drawn up since at least March on the basis that there would be a major change occurring in the supplier line-up for NHS National Programme for IT. These rumours were confirmed today when IDX issued a release to the US market announcing that it had reached an […]
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Irish GPs launch £1.35m health web portal
The Irish College of General Practitioners has launched healthhub.ie, a €2m (£1.35m) health information website aimed at both healthcare professionals and the general public, which they have dubbed the "Harley Street of cyberspace." Healthhub.ie was five years in development and was officially launched this week by Tanaiste (Irish deputy prime minister) Mary Harney. The site features input […]
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Addenbrooke’s installs SMS patient reminder system
Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, has implemented an SMS reminder system for patient appointments after a series of pilots of different software. Three solutions were tested in the hospital by staff, and the software chosen by the staff was manufactured by Advanced Messaging. The text-based reminders are currently being sent out to people attending dermatology appointments. Plans […]
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Croydon becomes second ETP site
A pharmacy in south London and a primary care outreach centre for refugees have jointly become the second site to go live with Connecting for Health’s electronic transmission of prescriptions (ETP) project. Brigstock Pharmacy in Croydon shares the same site with the Rainbow Medical Centre for refugees and the pharmacy has so far processed between […]
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Electronic record content still up for discussion
The question of what information will go on a local record and what will go on a national summary record is still open for discussion, a medical conference in London heard last week. The conference “Challenges for Doctors in the Digital World” was held the day after the launch of the new Care Record Guarantee […]
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Pharma firms offered internet chat tracking
A service which tracks consumer chat about medicines on the internet is being offered to pharmaceutical companies and drug regulators to help them spot side effects earlier and gauge negative or positive responses to products. The iReputation service, which claims one pharma company customer so far, has been devised by computer consultancy Netrank. The company […]
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Scotland publishes QoF data online
The first official practice by practice results for the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QoF) have appeared with the online publication of detailed QoF data for the whole of Scotland. ISD Scotland, the body responsible for health statistics in the NHS in Scotland, has published QoF results for 1025 practices. Almost all practices in Scotland took […]
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Chair of NHS Institute for Innovation named
Dame Yve Buckland has been named as the first chair of the new NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement by health minister, Jane Kennedy. Dame Yve said: "I am thrilled to be appointed to this role; the NHS Institute is an exciting venture which will help to provide an ambitious focus for new ideas, technologies and practices to […]
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US GPs sceptical about patient access to records
A survey of attitudes towards patient-accessible electronic patient records in primary care in the US has revealed that GPs, rather than patients, tend to be more doubtful as to their benefits. The survey, which was undertaken by researchers at the University of Colorado, aimed to ascertain whether attitudes towards computer-based records that could be accessed […]
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Robot baby helps medical students train
A Florida-based company is manufacturing interactive baby mannequins containing software that will emulate the vital signs of a three-to-six-month old child, so that medical students can practise on them. The BabySIM (above), the latest offering from Medical Education Technologies (METI), is much more sophisticated than a children’s toy. Not only does it feature tears, drool, […]
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