Ben Bradshaw becomes minister for NHS IT
The Department of Health has announced that Ben Bradshaw, Labour MP for Exeter, will be the new minister responsible for the National Programme for IT. Bradshaw replaces Lord Hunt, as minister of state for health services. Lord Hunt replaced Lord Warner as the minister responsible for NHS IT and Connecting For Health in January after returning […]
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Hunt spells out local ownership moves
Health minister, Lord Hunt, who was responsible for setting up the National Programme for IT, has defended its strongly centralised initial approach but made plain that the future lies with local ownership. Speaking to the opening session of the Healthcare Computing 2007 conference in Harrogate, Lord Hunt, back at the Department of Health after a […]
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Foul weather friends on hand for COPD patients
NHS Direct, the Met Office and Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Primary Care Trust are collaborating on a new project to help thousands of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in times of bad weather. COPD is one of the most common respiratory diseases in the UK causing 30,000 deaths a year. In bad weather, […]
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Ealing PCT uses text message technology
Ealing Primary Care Trust has launched a mobile phone text message appointment reminder service for 130,000 patients attending 22 of its surgeries. The technology behind the service is being provided using the Patient Care Messaging (PCM) application supplied by mobile healthcare applications specialist iPlato. The company already provides a range of text appointment reminder services […]
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Lewisham PCT chooses iPlato for SMS reminders
A primary care trust is hoping to reduce missed GP practice appointments by 25% in a year with the aid of a text messaging service. Lewisham PCT has signed a deal with mobile healthcare applications specialist iPlato to use its Patient Care Messaging solution for patients at seven surgeries across the trust. Patients will be […]
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GE signs to provide PACS in North West and West Midlands
Computer Sciences Corporation has today announced that it has reached agreement with NHS Connecting for Health to sign with GE Healthcare and Healthcare Software Systems to provide picture archiving and communications systems and radiology information systems to the North West and West Midlands region of the NHS. Through NHS National Programme for IT prime contractor Fujitsu, GE […]
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Younger people more likely to use mobile healthcare
Younger people are more likely to call NHS Direct on their mobiles than make an appointment to see their GP, a study by Imperial College supported by Vodafone has revealed. The paper, one of several in a series of essays published by Vodafone entitled ‘The Role of Mobile Phones in Increasing Accessibility and Efficiency […]
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Virtual chaperone keeps watch on clinicians
Recording devices such as a ‘virtual chaperone’ for clinicians have been developed in Imperial College, London in the hope that they will improve the accountability of health services and also protect staff should something go wrong. The chaperone project, led and patented by Professor Sir Ara Darzi, Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College, was […]
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Doctors should see patients by e-mail, researchers say
Research published in the BMJ today has found that doctors and patients are both missing out on the benefits that e-mail can bring to healthcare provision due to lack of infrastructure and motivation. Dr Josip Car from Imperial College and Professors Aziz Sheikh from the University of Edinburgh, found that e-mail could increase access to care, particularly […]
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Will the NPfIT be China’s cup of tea?
With the procurement phase of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) completed, NHS IT director-general Richard Granger has begun to deliver on his promise to explain what the NPfIT will deliver… beginning with a three-day mission to China. Granger was part of an official DTI and Foreign and Commonwealth Official visit last week that met […]
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