Implementing PACS
Dr Mahibur Rahman explains the benefits and costs of introducing picture archiving, and shows what can happen if things go wrong.
Feature
Welsh medical students get training smartcards
Medical students and junior doctors in Wales are to receive their own smartcards containing their employment and training details. Each card will contain occupational health and HR information and will be electronically read and updated at each workplace that the student visits. It is hoped that the new scheme will save time on administration and […]
News
Life outside NPfIT: Wales
In the first part of a series, E-Health Insider looks at the developments in healthcare IT in Wales, under the Informing Healthcare programme.
Feature
Introducing the intelligent vaccine box
A vaccines transit box that can feed back alerts when high temperatures endanger the precious cargo is expected to save money, avoid waste and prevent useless vaccines being given to patients. The Medicase reusable transit box is due to be unveiled at a meeting of the EU Information Society Technologies (IST) programme in the Netherlands in November. One version of […]
News
The Quality Management and Analysis System (QMAS)
The quality and outcomes framework (QoF) is designed to reward practices for the quality of care offered to their patients and will be an important part of General Practice income for the next few years.
Feature
Charing Cross introduces robotic drug dispensing
Two newly installed electronic dispensing systems at London’s Charing Cross Hospital, one of which uses robotics, are improving improving the speed and accuracy of dispensing on wards and in the hospital pharmacy. One system, dubbed Pollyanna, is a fully-automated pharmacy storage and dispensing computer. Staff input the drug name and dosage from the paper-based prescription, and a […]
News
MPs told Wales, Scotland and NI passed on NPfIT
The NHS in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales were each approached and subsequently turned down the opportunity to participate in the £6billion National Programme for IT (NPfIT), a Commons select committee has been told. As a result, hospitals in England treating patients from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland face the prospect of having to maintain […]
News
Scottish GPs say GPASS is failing doctors
GPs in Scotland have warned the Scottish Executive that the official Scotland-wide IT system for general practice, GPASS, is failing doctors. The warning came when Scottish doctors recently debated and passed a motion at their annual conference which claimed that GPASS (the General Practice Administration System), a system for managing general practice, is "continuing to fail […]
News
Nurses in the dark on IT developments, survey reveals
UK nurses are generally positive about NHS IT developments, but over three quarters have received little or no information about them, a survey conducted by Nursix for the Royal College of Nursing reveals. Alison Kitson, executive director nursing, at the RCN, said: "Clearly nurses can see huge improvements in patient care with the introduction of […]
News
CSW to prove concept of Welsh ‘Single Record’
Oxford-based CSW Health has been awarded a contract by NHS Wales to develop a Technical Proof of Concept (TPoC) for the Integrated Electronic Health Record – ‘Single Record’ – for the NHS in Wales. The TPoC work represents a first stage in implementing the Welsh NHS IT strategy, Informing Healthcare and will inform the development of […]
News