Does Dr Robot usher in new era of metal medics?
From automated call-centre systems to car assembly factories, it seems that wherever you look, a robot is waiting to take a human’s job. Now, in Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, a robot does the rounds instead of a doctor. Charmingly, with its beige frontage, retro TV screen and pointy antennae, Dr Robot (pictured) wouldn’t look completely […]
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NHS Direct to provide BMJ’s ‘Best Treatments’
Thanks to a deal between the British Medical Journal and Department of Health millions of patients will be able to get expert advice on common medical conditions from NHS Direct Online. Under the new deal information from the BMJ’s ‘Best Treatments’ will now be included on NHS Direct Online. Over six million individuals visited NHS […]
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Data spine key to Patient’s Passport, say Tories
Under a Conservative government the NHS Care Record Service would become the key tool enabling the introduction of the proposed Patient’s Passport initiative under which patients could choose between a range of health service providers taking their funding with them. In an interview with E-Health Insider shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, said that a future […]
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Granger repeats PACS warning
The head of the NHS’ £5bn IT modernisation programme has again warned suppliers of Picture Archiving and Storage Systems (PACS) to cut their prices, or be subjected to ‘radical surgery if they don’t come back with lower bids. In an interview with the Financial Times, NHS IT director-general repeated his warning, first reported by E-Health […]
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Gershon says NHS national programme is inherently ‘risky’
Peter Gershon, chief executive of the Treasury’s Office of Government Commerce (OGC) has described the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in the NHS as inherently risky and ambitious. The comments came as part of his oral evidence to the powerful House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on purchasing and management of software licences in […]
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Open Source: IT + GP Contract = Heady Cocktail
Roy Lilley, independent health policy analyst and author of “The New GP Contract – How to Make the Most of It!”, considers the cocktail created by mixing the new contract with 21st century IT. Will it leave us all shaken and stirred? Of itself, the NHS IT strategy is no great shakes. Overdue, yes, will […]
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Casualty Plus opens with TrakHealth
To contact Casualty Plus, call 08456 777 999. E-Health Insider is a news organisation and is not connected to Casualty Plus. London’s private ‘casualty’ centre, launched this month by Casualty Plus, incorporates a fully integrated electronic clinical and administration system supplied by Australian health IT supplier, TrakHealth. The MedTrak system installed at the centre in […]
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Patients positive on ICRS but worried about security
Patients are positive about the government’s planned Integrated Care Records Service (ICRS), but cautious about security issues and unhappy about the idea of people outside a close circle of trusted NHS staff having access to their records. The findings come from extensive qualitative and quantitative research conducted by independent market rearchers for the Consumers Association […]
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Torex Acquires Australian Supplier of Clinical Trauma Systems
Torex PLC has announced that it is to acquire Australian specialist health IT supplier HAS Solutions Pty Ltd. (HASS), a supplier of operating theatre and clinical trauma systems, for (AU) $28 million. The deal follows the acquisition in August of the operating theatre management and anaesthesia systems business from Civica Plc. Torex itself is currently involved […]
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Information Vital to Extending Patient Choice
Health Secretary John Reid has upped the ante on the Government’s patient choice agenda and the electronic appointment booking targets, with a new pledge that by 2005 all patients will be offered at least four different choices over where they are treated when the initial decision is made by their GP to refer them for […]
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