EHI’s industry news roundup 28.03.08

E-Health Insider’s industry news round up for the week ending 28 March 2008 featuring supplier news and appointments.

Supplier news

Care nurses to get online help

Nurses making more than 75,000 medical visits a year, to enable often seriously ill people to be cared for at home, are being given hi-tech help by University of Derby experts. Working with Healthcare at Home, the university is currently developing an online training and advice centre to replace the paper based system currently used by its 150 specialist nurses. The software system will eventually mean that regular changes to training materials and policies will no longer require time spent reprinting and distributing paper-based information to nursing staff across the UK. Staff will instead get their updates by logging on at home or in one of Healthcare at Home’s regional offices.

ANS Group wins new PCT contracts

Technology services provider ANS Group has announced that it has secured new contracts from Blackburn with Darwen Primary Care Trust (BDPCT), Stoke PCT and North Staffordshire PCT. The contracts are valued at £240,000. The software application that ANS has developed for BDPCT will enable the trust to replicate data for disaster recovery and maintain a 24-hour backup window without affecting the service.

Agfa HealthCare upgrade PACS in Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust

Agfa HealthCare has been selected by Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust to provide PACS, RIS and Cardiology solutions to its entire trust. It was one of the first trusts in the UK to implement PACS, installing the current system in 1998. Over the next six to eight months, Agfa HealthCare will install IMPAX PACS, IMPAX RIS and IMPAX Cardiovascular Suite, a suite of cardiovascular image and information management solutions, in both Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals.

Poor project management planning costs companies millions

UK companies are wasting millions of pounds every day on development projects because their planning process is flawed from the outset, according to PM3 Consulting. A new survey of 500 professional project managers shows a third of technology assignments in the digital, media and telecoms industries are doomed from the start because they have been so poorly conceived. The survey says companies often fall at the first hurdle because they have failed to establish a coherent or realistic business case for a project.

Appointments

NHS Direct appoints a new chief operating officer

NHS Direct has announced the appointment of Paula Higson as chief operating officer for the organisation. Higson starts work on 1 May. She will be a member of the NHS Direct Board and her role builds on and includes the work of Dr Mike Sadler who left NHS Direct in February to take up the role of medical director at Serco Healthcare.

If you have an industry announcement, contract or appointment news please email joe@e-health-media.com.