MPs call for block on ETP ‘nomination’ plans
A cross-party group of MPs has backed calls for prescribers to be prevented from nominating pharmacies when electronic transmission of prescriptions (ETP) is rolled out. The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) is already lobbying the government to stop the National Programme for IT’s plans to allow prescribers’ to nominate pharmacies. The PSNC claims prescriber nomination […]
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EMRs reduce visits for primary and specialist care
The introduction of electronic medical records (EMRs) reduced visits to primary and specialist outpatient care in two regions covered by the US health maintenance organisation Kaiser Permanente, according to a new study. Both regions – Colorado with 367,795 Kaiser Permanente members and Northwest with 449,728 – experienced significant decreases in use of services over the two […]
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Version One updates document imaging with OCR
Version One has announced a new version of its document imaging software used by a number of NHS trusts that allows invoice and purchase order data to be automatically scanned by optical character recognition (OCR). The DbArchive system, which was announced on Thursday at a briefing at the House of Commons, also features image conversion […]
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Limited public access to cardiac surgery data agreed
The Central Cardiac Audit Database is to have a public portal allowing access to selected cardiac surgery mortality data. The Healthcare Commission, Department of Health and Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons have reached an ‘agreement in principle’ to allow the public limited access to what has up to now been a closed system. The move comes […]
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Single sign-on targeted at UK health organisations
An IT security company which claims successful implementations in US hospitals of its enterprise single-sign on (ESSO) system has set up a European base and is attempting to target the UK health IT market. Imprivata, based in Lexington, Massachusetts, has developed the OneSign system (below), which allows a single authentication onto a network. According to the […]
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No single opt-out on medical records database
Patients will be unable to make a single request for their records not to be held on the NHS Care Records Service. Instead they will have to ask their details are not recorded onto the national medical records database each time they deal with the health service. Any patient who does not want their medical […]
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NPfIT defends its ETP plans
The National Programme for IT has defended its plans for electronic transmission of prescriptions (ETP) which it says will enhance rather than restrict patient choice. The programme’s proposals to allow GPs and other prescribers to nominate a patient’s pharmacy were criticised by the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) and an all party group of MPs […]
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Conservatives call for NHS IT review
Andrew Lansley, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, has announced that a future Conservative government would commission an urgent review of the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT). The Conservatives say that the timetable for the national programme has already slipped and "fear that it may become the latest in a long list of government […]
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Genetic database developed for GP support
GPs could soon have automatically-updated ‘virtual laboratories’ of genetic medicine available for reference during consultations, thanks to a project being coordinated by the University of Aviero in Portugal. INFOGENMED scrapes genetic databases on a daily basis and outputs information about numerous conditions in order to support GPs in making decisions support. Trials of the system […]
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Good telecare comes in small packages, argue researchers
Research undertaken by the University of Newcastle has revealed that service-specific telemedicine and videoconferencing systems are of limited value to improvement of health. Instead, greater promise can be found in more portable, scalable telecare systems integrated properly into workflow systems. Speaking to E-Health Insider, research leader Professor Carl May was careful to point out the […]
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