XML Special Focus: e-Booking for GP Special Interest Clinics
Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust (TPCT) faced the common problem of long waiting times for hospital dermatology appointments, but also realised it had an asset in the shape of three local GPs with particular expertise in the specialty. Head of IM&T, Dave Shovlin takes up the story: “The GPs, together with the lead for Dermatology […]
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Healthcare Interoperability Forum in ‘Abeyance’
The Health Care Interoperability Forum (HCIF), an industry group of leading system suppliers focused on developing common standards, has gone into ‘abeyance’ and has no further plans to meet. The decision to cease further work was taken at meeting of the group two weeks ago after it became apparent that much of the work planned […]
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New Forum to Support Interoperability Standards
A new Health Care Interoperability Forum (HCIF) has been set up to actively support the design of interoperability standards covering over 90 data flows which occur in the patient’s journey through the UK health system. The forum says its members are drawn from all the leading GP, out of hours and NHS Direct system suppliers […]
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NHS Urged to Adopt EAN.UCC Standard
UK-based campaigning group, e.centre, has welcomed a ruling by the US Food and Drug Administration mandating the use of a uniform system for barcoding pharmaceuticals. The pressure is now on for the NHS to follow suit. E.centre is a not-for-profit organisation which acts as the UK authority for the EAN.UCC (European Article Numbering and Uniform […]
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First Anniversary for National IT Programme
Birthday greetings to the NHS National IT Programme! It’s 12 months since a new centrally-driven plan for transforming the NHS through IT was announced at Healthcare Computing 2002. So what illumination can we expect at this year’s event in Harrogate? Word is that it may well be a lot less than people had hoped. The […]
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Portsmouth Predicts Savings from Clinical Workflow System
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust has announced it has implemented an XML-based clinical workflow system, which it anticipates will help support early discharges, reduce the average length patient stays in hospital and deliver cost savings. Clinical IT solutions provider, Graphnet, has developed and implemented the new clinical workflow system in the Medical Assessment Unit (MAU) at […]
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Telemedicine Helps Babies, Parents and Staff in Neonatal ICUs
A telemedicine solution to the problem of maintaining high quality communication with the parents of babies undergoing neonatal intensive care (NIC) is to start a major pilot in the US. The solution, which links families to NIC units via a secure web site, claims to improve communication, increase family participation, enhance parent education and produce […]
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Oxford Clinical Intranet Links Local NHS
The potential of networked local NHS communities is being demonstrated in Oxfordshire by the Oxford Clinical Intranet, which uses easy-to-use Internet technology to make test results electronically available to GPs. Where in the past getting test results depended on doctors making time-consuming phone calls or awaiting paper results by mail, the new system — developed […]
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Wrightington, Wigan & Leigh Implements Case Notes
CSW Health , a provider of XML-based health information systems, has announced that it has successfully implemented its Case Notes e-records system at Wrightington, Wigan & Leigh NHS Trust. The Case Notes system went live in Acute Medicine department of the trust in June, only 6 weeks after installation, and forms an important step in […]
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Can EPRs Save Time? Yes, But…
Tentative evidence that electronic patient records can save time has emerged from a survey of users at Poole Hospital, Dorset – but the hospital’s head of IT counsels caution in interpreting the results, especially in terms of cash savings. The survey’s findings presented to the Graphnet Users Group by Poole’s head of IT, Andy Hadley, […]
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