Dr Koop Lifecare files for Bankruptcy
Dr. Koop LifeCare Corp, the long-troubled US online health information provider, announced on Sunday that it and its wholly-owned subsidiary will cease operations and liquidate its assets after failing to come up with additional debt or equity financing. The Santa Monica, California-based company, once a darling of Wall Street, said its efforts to obtain additional […]
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US Alliance to Promote Electronic Medical Records
Leading US doctor, hospital and consumer groups have formed the Patient Safety Institute (PSI), a major new collaborative initiative designed to harness and integrate secure IT systems to improve patient safety and healthcare quality, The aim is to develop a confidential computer network, based on open standards, to electronically link medical records so doctors can […]
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Health Information More Popular than Games or Chat
More young people go online to search for health information than to play games, chat or take part in other popular Internet activities associated with the age group. A new US report, "Generation Rx.com", by the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that 68% of the population aged 15-24 use online media to learn about diabetes, AIDS […]
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Gates Says NHS Must Deliver in Digital Age
It’s not every day that you get to see the richest man in the world, and the gawp factor must have accounted for a good number of the 150-odd NHS chief executives and directors that attended last week’s Microsoft-sponsored Department of Health IT conference. But the man from Redmond offered them little in way of […]
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Milburn Pledges New IT Money and Partnerships
Health Secretary Alan Milburn used a Microsoft-sponsored Department of Health (DH) IT conference attended by Bill Gates to pledge an extra £85m for NHS IT in 2002-2003. Health secretary Alan Milburn admitted on 6 December 2001 that hard pressed hospitals had diverted IT allocations last year to meet other priorities. "I should have earmarked it […]
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Department of Health awards £325m HR and Payroll Contract
The UK Department of Health (DH) has awarded a £325 million contract — the largest IT contract yet awarded within the NHS — for an integrated HR and payroll system for the NHS in England and Wales to a consortium led by US health IT firm McKesson. The HR and Payroll contract, described as the […]
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Wanless on Information Technology
The UK health service has a poor record on the use of information and communication technology and spending in this area will need to grow at a faster rate over the next 20 years to catch up and keep up with other countries, according to the Wanless Report on NHS funding. Most of the headlines […]
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NHS Completes Alpha Tests of SNOMED Clinical Terms
SNOMED International, a division of the College of American Pathologists, and the NHS Information Authority have announced they have successfully completed testing of SNOMED (SNOMED CT). This next generation work of terminology combines the expertise of SNOMED RT and the NHS’ Clinical Terms Version 3 (Read Codes) to create the most comprehensive clinical terminology available […]
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First Generation of e-Health Practitioners Have Arrived
A new survey of US physicians argues that e-health is beginning to deliver tangible benefits and change the way clinicians work, leading to the conclusion that the first generation of e-health practitioners has already emerged. The Harris Interactive survey carried out for Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) ‘Vital Signs Update: Doctors say eHealth Delivers’, says not […]
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Talking Prescription System Wins Popular Science Award
En-Vision America Inc.’s ScripTalk talking prescription system has been named one of the year’s top 100 greatest achievements in science and technology by the US Popular Science magazine. The ScripTalk system has been developed to enhance the medication safety of the millions of Americans who have difficulty reading or understanding the instructions and warnings that […]
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