IT key to patient care, says NeLH director
The founding director of the National Electronic Library for Health (NeLH), Dr Muir Gray, has said that the National Programme for IT is essential for making information available where it is needed and that “knowledge is the enemy of disease". “The care records service will be central,” Dr Gray told E-Health Insider. “It’s essentially completely […]
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Hospital clerk jailed for culling patient data
A hospital worker from Northern Ireland who collected information from the patient records of politicians, senior military and police personnel, prison officers, members policing boards and loyalists was jailed for six years earlier this month. Belfast Crown Court Judge Mr Justice Higgins told Ciaran James Cunningham that it was “difficult to think of a more […]
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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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Electronic patient records secure Athens Olympics
Electronic health records are providing an important piece of security around the Athens 2004 Olympics, thanks to a collaboration between a UK-based e-health company and a US security firm. All employees of the Attika Metro System, the underground railway system that runs through Athens, have been issued with ‘Global Health ID’ cards as part of […]
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Tele-echography robot allows remote patient scans
A university research team has developed a robotic device that allows a doctor to examine a patient in a remote location by ultrasound, with the scans relayed back to the doctor in real-time. E-Health Insider has been the first in the UK to see OTELO (mObile Tele-Echography system using an ultra-Light rObot) in action. It […]
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US medics may be paid to use electronic patient records
The US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Tommy Thompson, has published a 10-year plan that plans to introduce electronic health records (EHRs) and a network to link them across the country; but clinicians may be paid in order to encourage them to adopt the new technology. The paper, entitled “The Decade of Health […]
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Doctors to vote on national patient record system consent
Doctors attending next week’s British Medical Association Local Medical Committee conference are to vote on whether patients’ records should be automatically loaded onto the NHS national data spine of records, even if they have not given their consent for their records to be shared. Concerns about consent are at the centre of a series of […]
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EU commissioner vows to increase patient information
The European Commissioner for Health and Human Protection, David Byrne, has promised to take action to improve patients’ access to medical knowledge by setting up “a public-private partnership on patient information on pharmaceuticals." Speaking at the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries (EFPIA) Public Conference in Dublin, Byrne said: “European citizens are taking an increasing interest […]
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Barnsley DGH gets ‘chip and pin’ for patient record access
Barnsley District General Hospital (BDGH) has introduced a new smart-card authentication network, giving staff secure access to patient records, and, for the first time, e-mail from 300 flat-screen terminals on site. The cards and screens are part of a £1m five-year deal with private technology firm Azzurri Communications, and replace the old ‘green screen’ VDUs. […]
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Fears of patient abuse of e-mail not realised
Doctors’ fears that an e-mail consultation service would be abused turned out to be unfounded, the International e-Health Association Conference in London heard. Dr Paul C. Tang, Chief Medical Information Officer at the Paolo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), California, said that there had been concern about introducing a facility on the foundation’s web service, PAMF […]
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