Healthcare IT industry news in brief

The week’s round-up covers news frontiers for a UK-based patient portal supplier, a big infrastructure contract awarded in Gloucestershire and some new bells and whistles for a GP systems supplier.

Patients Know Best deployed in Germany’s testing

Tübingen University Hospital is testing Patients Know Best, bringing the patient portal software to Germany for the first time. The hospital is piloting the software at its paediatric gastroenterology unit, which sees patients from Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Patients Know Best is UK-based patient portal product focused on giving patients and their families great access and control over their health information. The portal is already used in parts of the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Updata awarded Gloucestershire contract

Updata Infrastructure has won a five-year contract with Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to supply and manage its IT networks. The company, which is part of Capita IT Enterprise Services, will manage a local and wide area networks across 140 sites.

It will also provide support for eight of the trust’s partner organisations, including Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust, Central Southern Commissioning Support Unit and the Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group.

New rostering software launched

HCL Workforce Solutions has released a new e-rostering product, ClarityROSTER. Developed in partnership with Skillstree, the software provides real time reporting, and manages “demand not people”. The product will be officially launched at the Health and Care Innovation Expo 2016 in Manchester next week.

Microtest links with new prescribing function

GP system supplier Microtest has integrated a prescribing decision making support function into its Evolution product. The function, FDB OptimiseRx from Hearst Health International, will be available within the Evolution interface. FDB OptimiseRx uses information from the patient record to give prescribers tailored “guidance messages”, based on effectiveness and cost.  

CSC on Gov digital marketplace

Health IT systems supplier, CSC’s care coordination and population health products are now on the government’s G-Cloud framework. The care coordination product handles referral and discharge management along with “patient access”.

Being on the framework effectively means CSC products meets certain standards necessary to supply to the public sector. Being on the digital marketplace gives suppliers better access to public sector contracts. Other health IT suppliers on the framework include IMS Maxims and CCube Solutions.