National US health information infrastructure called for
The influential Institute of Medicine (IOM) has published a new report calling on the US Government to create national data standards for collecting and exchanging electronic medical information that would provide a national ‘information infrastructure’ to help spur the adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs). The report outlines a plan to accelerate the development of […]
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Nhs.uk can take on burden of information requests
Trusts that deliver up-to-date, accurate data to www.nhs.uk will be able increasingly to shed the burden of answering third party requests for information about their services and refer them on to the national NHS information portal. Programme manager for the award winning portal, Judy Aldred, told E-Health Insider that local organisations often receive requests for […]
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Anglo-Finnish hospital benchmarking initiative launched
Finnish company C-Quest and the UK’s InFocus Health have launched an international hospital benchmarking initiative to comparatively measure and monitor healthcare efficiencies in hospitals in the UK and Finland, and recommend how technology can improve performance. The initiative was launched at a 5 November dinner hosted by Pertti Salolainen, the Finnish Ambassador to Great Britain, […]
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South Tees NHS Trust buys spinal injuries record system
The North of England Regional Spinal Cord Injuries Centre at The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesborough, part of South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust, has just signed a contract with IMS MAXIMS plc for an integrated clinical record system. The purpose-built Regional Spinal Injuries Centre, which opened in 2002, serves a population of approximately 3.5 million […]
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Wirral Health Informatics Service extends EHR capabilities
The Wirral Health Informatics Service (WHIS) has extended the capability of its pilot electronic health record (EHR) system by installing a forms creation toolkit from i-Health. According to New Zealand-based health IT vendor i-Health, the new toolkit will enable WHIS to provide a Wirral-wide solution for referrals, orders and messaging, for all its "customers" in […]
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iSOFT bags one of the last local EPR deals
Southern Derbyshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has signed a £14.9m deal with iSOFT for an electronic patient record (EPR) and picture archiving and communications system (PACS) – one of the last major local IT deals before the NHS National Programme for IT procurements start. The trust’s director of finance and information, Chris Calkin explained that […]
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Cerner CEO: contracts are ‘onerous but not outrageous’
With the award of the first Local Service Provider (LSP) contracts due within a month, one of the firms that looks set to win significant contracts is US healthcare applications vendor Cerner. Uniquely the firm is either leading or a prominent member of consortia in all five clusters, and is strongly tipped to win at […]
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Primary care IT Manhattan style
Andrew Harrison, whose career change took him from computer programming to hospital medicine, continues his occasional series with some notes from a recent trip to the US where he visited a practice renowned for its celebrity patients and dynamic IT. I have often wondered how America medical practices compare to those in the UK with […]
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No rational reason to make N3 a closed system
NHS IT director-general Richard Granger says there will be adequate controls on information passing over the new NHS network but that much of the network will be built across public switch equipment. Granger told the International e-Health Association conference in London on 16 October: “I can see no rational reason for not doing this.” He […]
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Patient First Alliance no longer in National Programme
With barely a month to go before the first Local Service Provider (LSP) contracts are awarded Patient First Alliance (PFA) have been disqualified from the procurement competitions in the North West and North East, after failing to meet a Monday deadline to clarify their position. Their elimination leaves LSP consortia led by Cerner and Accenture […]
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