Open Source: ‘Rescue Community Nurses from IT Exile’
In the second of our new ‘Open Source’ columns Mark Reynolds, managing director of TopCall UK argues for community nurses to be urgently provided with modern IT tools to end their ‘communications exile’. According to research by Intel, Hewlett Packard and Sendmail, the mobile nursing community is one of the most ostracised of all British […]
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Basque GPs Suspended over Centralised Data Protest
Two GPs from the Basque Country in northern Spain have been suspended without pay, apparently for refusing to use a centralised database of patient records, writes SA Mathieson. The Basque health service, Osakidetza, last year implemented a central database called Osabide. According to Dr Juan Gérvas, a Madrid doctor and visiting professor at Baltimore’s Johns […]
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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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Rise in Over 55s Using the Net for Health
Increasing numbers of over 55 year olds are using the Internet – and taking a very active interest in online health information, according to independent market analysts, Datamonitor. The company’s findings are derived from three waves of consumer research conducted between early 2001 and throughout 2002 in the US and Europe. 4,500 consumers were included […]
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10 Ways To Improve NHS IT – a Hospital Doctor’s View
Hospital doctor, Andrew Harrison, worked in IT before studying medicine. His unusual background prompted E-Health Insider to ask him to list the top 10 improvements he would like to see in healthcare IT. Read on for the result… Until the age of 29 I was a computer programmer working in the City. Then I decided […]
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Blair Pledges NHS Broadband Access
Tony Blair has pledged £6bn of public money to deliver high-speed internet access to every school and doctor’s surgery by 2006, as part of a ’21st century revolution’ in the delivery of public services. Speaking at a government conference to discuss its delivery of e-commerce and e-government initiatives, the Prime Minister said £1bn of investment […]
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Electronic Booking Shifts Up a Gear
A further 45 electronic booking programmes are to start as the NHS gears up to meet its target of making all hospital appointment booking electronic by March 2005, health minister John Hutton announced today. Speaking at a conference held to celebrate the achievements of the five ‘Enterprise Communities’ already experimenting with electronic booking, Mr Hutton […]
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Gateway Review Recommends ICRS be put on Hold
The latest Office of Government Commerce (OGC) review of the business case for Integrated Care Records Service (ICRS), the central component of the National NHS IT Programme, is reported to have recommended that the project be put on hold. E-Health Insider understands from industry sources that the latest OGC Gateway Review, Gate One, identified major […]
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Advice Paves the Way for National Clinical Audit
Advice is published this week on the National Clinical Audit Support Programme (NCASP) which will eventually yield comparative data on the performance of clinical services and on individual practitioners. The programme forms part of the government’s response to the Kennedy Report on child heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary between 1984 and 95. Kennedy […]
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Electronic Systems Could Free Up Millions of GP Appointments
Cutting out unnecessary GP paperwork, such as filling out repeat prescriptions and sick notes, could save up to 3.2 million GP appointments, concludes a new report. Freeing up GPs time by removing unnecessary and cumbersome red tape, and introducing electronic communications and electronic prescribing, would also provide patients with faster access to their GP. Routine […]
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