NHS told to secure patient data
The Information Commissioner has written to the permanent secretary of the Department of Health demanding immediate improvements to the lax treatment of personal data within the NHS. The demand for urgent action by Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, comes in the wake of a string of recent incidents where the institute has been forced to take […]
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Wandsworth abandons Cerner plans
NHS Wandsworth has abandoned plans to install Cerner Millennium at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton, saying the system is not suited to modern community-based services. The primary care trust said the change to its IT plans was due to repeated delays and concerns about security as well as the unsuitability of Millennium for federated Polyclinic models […]
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Virginia Department of Health hacked
An attack on the Virginia Department of Health Professionals (VDHP) website, resulted in a prescriptions website being hacked and a $10m ransom demand for the return of millions of allegedly stolen patient records. US press reports and blogs say the attack involved over eight million electronic patient records and some 35m prescription records. That an […]
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Professionals start using ContactPoint
Up to 800 health, education and social care professionals are to start using the national children’s database ContactPoint from today, the government has announced. The Department for Children, Schools and Families said selected professionals based in 17 local authorities in North West England, together with staff working for the charities Barnardo’s and KIDS, will be […]
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RiO upgrades suspended in London
Moves to upgrade NHS organisations in London to the latest NHS Spine-connected version of the RiO community and mental health system have been suspended after a series of performance problems.
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Interpol issues swine flu spam warning
The international police organisation Interpol has issued a warning about the potential for criminals to exploit the swine flu outbreak through spam emails and websites selling illegal, unlicensed or fake medicines. The organisation based in Lyon, France, which has 187 member countries over five continents, said internet security firms were reporting that 3-4% of spam […]
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UltraGenda revamps booking for Bruges
UltraGenda has revamped the booking application it built for the St Jan hospital in Bruges because referring physicians disliked the initial booking process. UltraGenda built UG Broka for the hospital in 2005. A case study written by Helga De Neve, chief information officer at the hospital, and released by the company says that “although the […]
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ICW works on New York e-prescriptions
German e-health firm InterComponentWare has partnered with the New York E-health Collaborative and Surescripts, the operator of the largest US e-prescribing network. The partners will create an e-health prototype project to enable e-prescription transmission between different healthcare organisations across New York, through the Statewide Health information Network for New York (SHIN-NY). If patients provide their […]
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EMRs named top priority in HIMSS survey
Implementing electronic medical records has become the top priority for senior healthcare information professionals, a major US survey has shown.
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Practice managers embrace SCR
A survey into practice managers’ attitudes towards healthcare IT systems has found that they are generally in favour of IT innovations, including the NHS Summary Care Record. The survey, carried out by Management in Practice magazine, found that of 435 managers and associated GP staff who responded, 66% believed the SCR would benefit patients and […]
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