EHI’s industry news roundup 11.01.08

E-Health Insider’s industry news round up for the week ending 11 January 2008.

North Yorkshire PCT use digital pen and paper for SAP

Anoto partner Ubisys is to roll out digital pen and paper technology to 150 North Yorkshire Adult and Community services staff at North Yorkshire and York PCT to improve their procedures for assessing older people’s care needs under the national Single Assessment Process (SAP). Using Nokia E50 mobile handsets, staff can complete forms on their handsets and securely transfer them into a shared database over a secure GPRS network.

South Tyneside deploy Cognos business intelligence software

South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust has implemented the Cognos business intelligence system across its trust in an effort to cut costs, reduce hospital waiting lists, and reduce data duplication. The system takes information from three databases, including the trust’s electronic patient clinical records system from Silverlink Software, and consolidates over 50m rows of data and 500,000 categories, Cognos claims.

‘Fuzzy logic’ project to help the elderly

Leicester’s De Montfort University (DMU) and the University of Missouri are partnering in a £45,000 six-month project starting this month to develop ‘fuzzy logic’ technology – where computing is used to replicate the human decision making process – and specifically, how it can be used in technology designed to assist the elderly. DMU’s Dr Simon Coupland, said: “This project will look at how computational intelligence, and in particular fuzzy logic, can be used to address these kinds of problems.”

Changes to digital BNF will help doctors locate drug information

Key information on drug doses, side-effects and contra-indications are now easier for prescribers to access via the British National Formulary (BNF) online. The changes are part of an ongoing digital development programme to improve the display of BNF preparation records so that they show the corresponding drug monograph. The BNF says the move is an important step towards more efficient and safer prescribing practices and 92% of users already support the change as it means that the monograph information will be more readily available to users when they open a preparation record, thus increasing the likelihood that pertinent information and important warnings will be seen and acted upon.

HFMA renew partnership with Mede for business intelligence and analytics

The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), representing healthcare finance professionals across the UK, and MedeFinance (Mede), analytic technology solutions specialists, have renewed their partnership, enabling them to continue providing Mede’s business intelligence and analytics suite to NHS organisations. HFMA and Mede will partner to market a suite of web-based analytic solutions tailored to the UK healthcare environment and requirements of HFMA members to help monitor, manage, and improve their financial and operational performance.

The Barefoot Doctor launches online podcasts

The Barefoot Doctor, star of shows on BBC Style, Channel 4 ‘s Big Breakfast and London Live Radio has launched a new Podshow offering 60 second snipets of advice which can be found at http://barefootdoctor.btpodshow.com/. The shows offer advice and guidance on a variety of psycho-health problems to help people begin 2008 with a positive mind, body and spirit.

Glan Clwyd hospital uses Barco’s image visualisation solution

Barco has announced that the Conwy & Denbighshire NHS Trust based Glan Clwyd Hospital will use their Voxar 3D Enterprise solution to integrate into its Fujifilm Synapse PACS. The new visualisation solution will provide the hospital with ultra-fast access to large volumetric studies throughout the hospital enterprise, Barco claims.

Plain Healthcare say phone triage system helped norovirus patients

Plain Healthcare say its telephone clinical decision triage support software – TAS Odyssey and Reception Odyssey – has helped its customers provide a service to patients struck by the norovirus bug to follow government advice to stay at home. Patients at Plain practices were able to telephone in for self-care advice as the majority of sufferers were not at serious risk of complications. Plain Healthcare’s sales and marketing Director, Chris Coyne, said: “If there was a scenario tailor-made for our products it was this. Our customers praised how well the system worked under the pressure of a bug reaching almost epidemic proportions in what is already the busiest time of year.”