New alliance could be US e-prescribing’s cup of tea
A group of IT companies involved in providing healthcare solutions have started up Café Rx, an open alliance devoted to championing the adoption of electronic prescribing across the US. The organisation, announced last week at the National Council for Prescription Drug Programmes’ (NCPDP) Educational Forum in San Francisco, promises to support and lobby for electronic […]
News
ETP might have blocked Shipman, inquiry says
Electronic transfer of prescriptions (ETP) could have stopped Dr Shipman from prescribing controlled drugs for so long without anybody noticing, the most recent Shipman Inquiry report has found. As long as ETP was made secure, and “all prescriptions, both private and NHS, were recorded on the common spine, there could be greatly improved regulation of controlled drugs,” […]
News
More information about Read Codes demise released
The NHS Information Authority (NHSIA) have revealed more details to E-Health Insider about the abolition of Read Codes in favour of SNOMED Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT), stating that all support calls for Read Codes after January 2006 “will receive a low priority". “SNOMED CT is at the cutting edge of clinical vocabularies and will offer choice and […]
News
Report predicts European growth of hospital e-prescribing
There is enormous potential for expansion within electronic hospital prescribing systems within Europe – a market that is already showing overall growth, according to a survey from analysts Frost & Sullivan. Their report states that by 2010, the market for e-prescribing is likely to be worth a total of £75.2m, growing by 29% every year, with inpatient […]
News
Electronic hospital prescribing brought forward to 2006
Health Minister Lord Warner is to fast-track the introduction of electronic hospital prescribing in response to the recent report by National Cancer Director, Professor Mike Richards. Professor Richards’ report stated that cancer drugs recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) are often unavailable in certain areas of the UK, and blames lack of […]
News
Charing Cross introduces robotic drug dispensing
Two newly installed electronic dispensing systems at London’s Charing Cross Hospital, one of which uses robotics, are improving improving the speed and accuracy of dispensing on wards and in the hospital pharmacy. One system, dubbed Pollyanna, is a fully-automated pharmacy storage and dispensing computer. Staff input the drug name and dosage from the paper-based prescription, and a […]
News
Scottish GPs say GPASS is failing doctors
GPs in Scotland have warned the Scottish Executive that the official Scotland-wide IT system for general practice, GPASS, is failing doctors. The warning came when Scottish doctors recently debated and passed a motion at their annual conference which claimed that GPASS (the General Practice Administration System), a system for managing general practice, is "continuing to fail […]
News
European census looks at 900 hospitals’ IT
A major census of 900 European hospitals’ progress in healthcare IT is underway looking at a range of key factors in e-health development. The European Hospital Census is being carried out by HBS Consulting on behalf of the Health Information Network Europe (HINE) , a service run by Deloitte working with healthcare IT specialists, Silicon Bridge Research. […]
News
FDBE aims to cut drug dosing errors
First DataBank Europe (FDBE) has announced that it is working with the National Patient Safety Agency on a project to improve the safety of patients on drugs requiring unusual dosage regimes. The NPSA, established as a Special Health Authority in July 2001, aims to improve the safety of patients taking oral methotrexate by incorporating new, […]
News
Dawn of globalisation in health IT, Granger tells HIMSS
ORLANDO, Florida – The NHS National Programme for Information Technology is drawing interest on both sides of the Atlantic, a phenomenon that Director General of NHS IT Richard Granger calls the dawning of globalisation in health IT, writes Neil Versel. “This is the first time someone else has done something that sits on scale with […]
News