Better Information Needed for Sexual Health Services
Services struggling to cope with Britain’s deteriorating sexual health could be helped by a new approach to performance management underpinned by modern IT, according to a paper submitted to the Commons Health Select Committee. In June, the committee published a report that highlighted spiralling rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and long waits for appointments […]
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US SNOMED Licence Raises Questions Over NHS Deal
A $32.4m contract signed by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and the US National Library of Medicine will make English and Spanish versions of SNOMED clinical terms – developed in collaboration with the NHS – available free-of-charge in the US from 2004. It is unclear, however, whether the NHS, as major investors in and […]
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Survey Makes “Compelling Case” for Electronic Records
Findings from an international survey highlighting problems with quality of care and wasted resources make a “compelling case” for electronic medical records and computerised prescribing systems, according to Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund. The survey, conducted by the Commonwealth Fund, the Harvard School of Public Health and Harris Interactive, investigated the experience of […]
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US Physicians Sceptical IT Can Cut Medical Errors
A new US study has highlighted a major gap between the strategies recommended by medical error experts to reduce errors, and the views of physicians and members of the public. Relatively few US physicians identified increased use of IT as a very effective part of strategies to reduce medical errors in hospitals. Keynote studies, such […]
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UK E-Health Association Conference
Highlights from the UK e-Health Association Conference, Cardiff, June 11-13 E-Health Media listened in on some of the presentations at the UK e-Health Association’s well-attended conference last week. Building Clinical Value Through Data Linkage An example of building real value for diabetes patients and clinicians through data linkage came from Dr John Parkinson, client services […]
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Information Guidance on Shifting the Balance of Power
Guidance on maintaining or improving information flows and structures during the NHS’s Shifting the Balance of Power programme has been published by the Department of Health. Part of a steady flow of guidance from the DH aimed at smoothing the transition in April to the new NHS structure of strategic health authorities and primary care/hospital […]
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Misys Wins its Biggest Health IT Contract
UK IT firm Misys plc has signed its largest ever healthcare contract – in a deal to supply an enterprise-wide laboratory information system to Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS), the second largest public health system in the United States. With an initial value of $17.7 million, the contract will see Misys Healthcare […]
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MD Consult Donates Online Medical Library to Latvia
Physicians, medical students and other health professionals in Latvia now have access to a comprehensive collection of medical resources available on the Web through MD Consult, a division of Elsevier Science. MD Consult has donated a license for the MD Consult Core Collection to the Medical Research Library of Latvia and its nine branch libraries, […]
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