GPs attack lack of consultation over electronic records
GPs at the British Medical Association’s conference of local medical committees last week slammed the National Programme for IT’s (NPfIT) plans for national electronic care records, passing votes of no confidence in their ability to improve patient care and resolving to “not engage with the Care Record Service" until their concerns are answered. Dr Lucy Henshaw, the representative from Suffolk […]
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NPfIT failing to engage with social care providers
Social services directors have written to NHS chief executive, Sir Nigel Crisp, pointing out that there is no structure for engaging social care services in the National Programme for IT (NPfIT). The letter said that social care input had been sought only on an ad hoc basis. David Johnstone, Director of Social Services for Devon, […]
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Renal Services NSF information strategy published
The Department of Health has published its information strategy to help support delivery of the National Service Framework (NSF) for renal services. Local Service Providers (LSPs) and the National Application Service Provider providing the Data Spine project will have a central role to play in ensuring the success of the strategy. The new information strategy […]
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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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PC framework deal agreed for NHS
A framework contract to deliver 55,000 PCs to the NHS over the next six-months as part of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has been agreed with three giant PC suppliers. The new hardware will be funded by national resources under the NPfIT. The deal is intended to ensure that the Government’s staff-to-PC ratio target […]
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LSP Contracts to Have No Immediate Financial Impact Locally
NHS Chief Executive, Sir Nigel Crisp has written to all NHS chief executives stating that the Local Service Provider (LSP) contracts due to start being signed in the next few weeks will have no immediate financial impact on local NHS organisations. He also notifies chief executives that he will sign the five contracts to be […]
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InterSystems Demonstrates Scalability of Primary Care Systems
Database systems supplier InterSystems, has announced that it has carried out successful scalability tests of its CACHÉ database product in collaboration with primary care clinical systems supplier EMIS to demonstrate how primary care electronic records can be scaled to a national-scale system with a small hardware footprint. The scalability tests were based on demonstrating how […]
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iSOFT Demonstrates 10,000 Concurrent Users
UK health IT firm iSOFT, has announced that in conjunction with HP and Microsoft it has completed benchmark tests of its electronic patient record (EPR) system, with up to 10,000 concurrent users. The benchmark tests were performed on iSOFT’s EPR application software (i.EPR) and achieved sub-second transaction response times. This benchmark, one of the largest […]
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IT Key to Future Development of Disease Management
A key role for IT in the integration of patient care is predicted by market analysts, Frost and Sullivan, in a report which is highly critical of companies’ failure to look beyond single product offerings such as drugs or devices. The report sees the US trend towards “disease management services” as the way ahead with […]
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PDAs or Tablet PCs? – The debate continues…
Last week Dr Andrew Harrison wrote about his experience of using a Tablet PC on the wards – The Tablet PC on Test . In response Steve Garrington, CEO of Torex Health, argued the case in favour of PDAs as the best mobile devices for clinicians – Open Source – Tablet PCs wrong for Doctors […]
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