InferMed Partners with BMJ’s Clinical Evidence
The BMJ Publishing Group has teamed up with InferMed, a leading UK provider of clinical software, to assess the feasibility of developing a system that electronically mimics the process that doctors naturally use to make clinical decisions. The two organisations say their shared objective is to develop an electronic clinical decision ‘support system’ to help […]
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Milburn Pledges New IT Money and Partnerships
Health Secretary Alan Milburn used a Microsoft-sponsored Department of Health (DH) IT conference attended by Bill Gates to pledge an extra £85m for NHS IT in 2002-2003. Health secretary Alan Milburn admitted on 6 December 2001 that hard pressed hospitals had diverted IT allocations last year to meet other priorities. "I should have earmarked it […]
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NDAs Could Reinforce Health Records Security
A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) designed to spell out clearly the duty to maintain the confidentiality of patient records could help to prevent breaches of confidence by staff not already bound by the Hippocratic oath or similar professional codes. Dr Janis L. Huston, electronic patient record facilitator for the North London Cancer Network, showed a model […]
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IT Standardisation Difficult, but Vital
Achieving the “robust, flexible and standardised” NHS information system envisaged by health secretary, Alan Milburn, will be difficult while the service continues to act as a loose federation. That was a key message from a London conference on IT and the NHS Plan. The argument was made most strongly by BT Health’s general manager, David […]
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NHS Plus Network Launched
A new NHS network called NHS Plus has been officially launched to market occupational health services to the private sector, generating income for the NHS to invest in health services. The NHS Plus network — backed by a new dedicated NHS Plus Website — is intended to provide the first national forum for people and […]
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“Millstone of History” Holds Back UK E-Health
The UK health service is still struggling to adopt the information technology and business practices that will drag it out of the industrial era of hospital factories and into the information age model of virtual, patient-centric healthcare. But why is the health service apparently unable to get to grips with proven technologies that became commonplace […]
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