NHS Urged to Adopt EAN.UCC Standard
UK-based campaigning group, e.centre, has welcomed a ruling by the US Food and Drug Administration mandating the use of a uniform system for barcoding pharmaceuticals. The pressure is now on for the NHS to follow suit. E.centre is a not-for-profit organisation which acts as the UK authority for the EAN.UCC (European Article Numbering and Uniform […]
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Spring Quiz: Try the Easter Brainteaser
Welcome to our Spring Quiz. Here are 20 questions to test your knowledge of IT acronyms, technology in fiction and quotable quotes. A bottle of champagne awaits the winner drawn from the very low-tech hat. Send entries to: linda@e-health-media.com by Thursday 24 April. Alphabet Soup Spell out these acronyms from healthcare IT: ICRS NN4B NSTS […]
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Let Pioneers Keep on Pioneering, Says Frank Burns
One of the best known pioneers of IT in the NHS has issued an eloquent plea for trusts that make the running to be allowed to stay ahead while national standards are raised. Frank Burns, chief executive of Wirral Hospital NHS Trust, Merseyside, and one of the principal authors of the 1998 NHS IT strategy, […]
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National Programme ‘Mobilises’ for Delivery
The shape of things to come on NHS IT started to become clearer during the course of Healthcare Computing with a series of key announcements made on how and when the NHS IT Programme is moving from its initial ‘mobilisation phase’ to focus on delivery, and the key personnel who will be responsible. Five Local […]
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Conservatives Detect Panic on Healthcare IT
A Conservative health spokesperson has told E-Health Insider that he is worried the NHS National Programme for IT is too big, has resulted in local progress grinding to a halt, and threatens to squeeze out local priorities. He calls for the programme to be broken down into more manageable pieces that better reflect local service […]
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Trusts Must Not Stop Local IT Investment – Lord Hunt
NHS trusts must put sustained local investment into their IT to complement investment from the National IT Programme, health minister Lord Hunt told a London conference this week. He said investment from the National Programme will be made “very much around a condition that the NHS locally invests its resources too.” The changes ahead were […]
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Information Will Play a Key Role in Diabetes NSF
The Department of Health’s new diabetes National Service Framework (NSF) envisages a key role for information in the management of this widespread and increasingly common condition. A Diabetes Information Strategy has been published alongside the NSF by the Information Policy Unit,a move described as “absolutely essential” by campaigning charity, Diabetes UK. Factors such as the […]
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AAFP Explores Open-Source EHR
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is considering developing and selling low-cost "open-source" electronic medical records (EMR) software to provide its members with access to low-cost electronic record systems. According to a report in American Medical News, published by the American Medical Association, the AAFP will submit a business plan to its board on […]
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Two Key Contracts Awarded to Consultants
Two vital contracts, covering technical and IT standards, and management of the National Information Programme, have been awarded to external consultancy firms who are not specialists in healthcare IT. ASE Consulting and computer services firm Xansa have been awarded a contract by the National Programme Office to establish a new ‘design authority’ for the National […]
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The NHS and the IT Industry: Over to You (part 2)
Last week, E-Health Insider published a round-up of comments from readers on the apparent new hard line on suppliers being adopted by NHS IT Tsar Richard Granger –The NHS and the IT Industry: Over to You. Since then your emails have continued to roll in. One reader emailed to ask about our readership: "Has anyone […]
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