Wirral’s gateway to care
Pete Marsh, technical director of Wirral Health Informatics, outlines the needs and obstacles often not considered by those implementing clinical IT systems.
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Electronic medication reminders help elderly
PCTs in Staffordshire have started piloting a scheme where elderly people are reminded to take their medication with an electronic prompting device. The Medicine Reminder Initiative, a collaboration between housing services, pharmacists, social services and Newcastle under Lyme and South West Staffordshire PCT, was started in order to give vulnerable people support in remembering […]
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Tag team care
Colin Jervis of Kinetic Consulting examines some of the innovative ways that RFID tags are being used in patient care and health administration.
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The virtual patient
Dr Richard Fitton, GP and member of the Care Record Development Board, predicts a future in which patients have control over their own electronic health records.
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Northumbria switches to speech recognition
A trust-wide implementation of advanced digital dictation and speech recognition software is planned for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Trust. The aim will be to reduce turnaround time and transcription blockages in the trust’s one million items of patient correspondence every year. Piloting of the new system, G2 Speech’s SpeechReport with Philips’ SpeechMagic, will start in May and the […]
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Web-based monitoring system on trial in King’s
Voice Integrated Products have updated their Solo remote lone-worker monitoring system to allow management of mobile staff over the web and SMS. The system, which is currently on trial with midwives at King’s College Hospital in London, works over any secure browser and allows supervisors to keep track of staff while they are outside working. […]
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SIMpill solution for missed drug doses
A GP in South Africa who runs an SMS appointment reminder service, has gone one better and unveiled a pill bottle that sends text messages to patients or carers if the owner forgets to take their drugs on time. SIMpill (right) consists of a bottle with a battery, SIM card, transmitter and chip set that […]
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RFID tags in the NHS could lead to job losses
The introduction of wireless tagging such as RFID technology in the NHS could result in job losses due to the removal of administrative burdens, according to consultants Wireless Healthcare. The new report published by the company into the advance of wireless technology, ‘Selling Wireless Tagging To The Healthcare Sector’, argues that while the new systems could […]
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Hull green lights A&E patient progress software
IT staff at Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust have developed an alert system for the A&E department that displays each patient’s progress and location, with ‘traffic-lights’ that warn how close to the Government’s four-hour waiting time target they are. The software, which is currently unnamed, was developed by Alan Wilson in the PCT’s IT department and […]
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ETP might have blocked Shipman, inquiry says
Electronic transfer of prescriptions (ETP) could have stopped Dr Shipman from prescribing controlled drugs for so long without anybody noticing, the most recent Shipman Inquiry report has found. As long as ETP was made secure, and “all prescriptions, both private and NHS, were recorded on the common spine, there could be greatly improved regulation of controlled drugs,” […]
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