Report challenges hospital mobile ban
A new report on electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and electromagnetic interference (EMI) in healthcare facilities challenges the wisdom of blanket prohibitions on mobile phones and other wireless devices in hospitals, writes Neil Versel from the annual Toward an Electronic Patient Record (TEPR) conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. According to a white paper issued by the US-based Mobile […]
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Three NHSIA offices to go in Lyons rationalisation
Three NHS Information Authority offices in south east England are to be closed and their 142 staff offered relocation and retraining, it was announced today. The offices are in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, which has 17 staff; South Ruislip, Middlesex, with 30 staff; and Winchester, Hampshire, the largest office affected, which has 95 staff. The Huntingdon office […]
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NPfIT claims discounts of up to 80% on PACS
The National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has stated that discounts of up to 80% have been secured in its negotiations with picture archiving and communications systems (PACS) suppliers, but has yet to provide details of how PACS procurements and implementations in English NHS trusts will be funded and delivered. Some £60m of central investment has been committed […]
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University Hospital Aintree wins pharmacy IT award
The pharmacy department at University Hospital Aintree, Liverpool has won the 2004 First DataBank Guild of Healthcare Pharmacist Information Technology Award for its effective electronic transfer of discharge prescriptions pilot. The University Hospital Aintree pharmacy department was chosen for its development of a system to transfer patient discharge information securely and quickly between the hospital […]
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Call for action on basic computer skills
At this week’s E-Health Insider/Chamberlain Dunn Associates conference ‘The NHS IT Revolution: What about the people?’ delegates called for urgent action to help provide training in trusts where up to 40% of staff lack basic computer skills. With the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) due to begin delivery this June, one of the major topics […]
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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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Agency due to lead NHS IT change management scrapped
The Government is to scrap the NHS Modernisation Agency (MA), the agency charged with delivering the change management programme that is meant to accompany the new computer systems to be delivered by the National Programme for IT (NPfIT). The MA, which has 760 staff and a £230 million budget, was meant to be responsible for […]
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NHS signs national deal with Oracle
The National Programme for IT (NPfIT) has signed a corporate licensing agreement with the Oracle Corp., that will provide NHS organisations with access to Oracle products at up to 50% below list price. Modelled on the NHS-wide corporate enterprise agreement signed with Microsoft in 2000, the new agreement with Oracle is designed to enable the […]
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Will the national programme pay for contestability?
Perhaps the most intriguing speculation to have emerged in recent weeks is the suggestion that iSOFT, triumphant in three of the four clusters contracts so far announced – the North East, North West and Eastern – is leveraging the economies of scale made possible by initial wins to offer a very low price for the whole of […]
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NHS deals just the start, say Forrester
The NHS’s deals on clinical applications are just a prelude to a much wider adoption these technologies according to US analysts, Forrester Research. In a list of the top 10 healthcare predictions for 2004, Forrester forecasts that 2004 will mark the shift of IT attention from back office to the clinical examination room in a […]
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