iSoft to launch RadCentre in the Netherlands

“Health IT specialist iSoft says it will launch its RadCentre radiology information system in the Netherlands this autumn.
RadCentre is a modern, scalable product designed for use in practices and hospitals. The system is said to be in use by more than 200 healthcare organisations across Europe.”
Article
Jon Hoeksma, e-Health Europe, 9 October 2008

Voice recognition: boldly going further

“In sci-fi land, the commander of the spaceship speaks to his computer – and the computer speaks back. Recent developments in voice recognition and wireless technology make this an increasingly reachable scenario within a hospital.
Already, some NHS staff are wearing badges that that they can use to contact any other badge-wearing member of staff. Telephone handsets are being piloted that allow nurses to say the name of a piece of equipment to find the location of the nearest item to them.”
Special Report
e-Health Insider, 11 September 2008

see also

Storing the Data Deluge

“If two trillion filing cabinets—or one billion terabytes—sounds like too much data to deal with, brace yourself. According to industry experts, health care data is increasing at such a rapid rate that by 2010, medical centers will need to be equipped to hold this massive volume of information. This exponential growth of data is straining storage and long-term archiving resources, says IBM’s Dr. Richard Bakalar, chief medical officer.”
Article
Cindy Atoji, Digital Healthcare & Productivity, 29 July 2008

Call for e-health to ‘permeate’ rural Scotland

“E-health should permeate thinking about every aspect of remote and rural healthcare, according to a newly-published report on healthcare in remote areas of Scotland.”
Article
e-Health Insider Primary Care, 27 May 2008

Fast. Forward. Finland. – Setting the eHealth benchmark

“There are 21 hospital districts for specialized care in Finland, of which – let’s keep it simple - 100% are using Electronic Medical Record Systems. The saturation point was in 2003 when 90% of the hospitals had adopted EMR solutions, while the 50% mark had been passed back in 1999.”
Article
HealthTech Wire, 8 May 2008

Balearic Islands connect to joint network

“All public hospitals and around 80 connected Primary Health Centers in the Balearic Islands are now connected to a joint network, where the use of a master patient index is enabling Balearic doctors to access patient data and medical findings anytime.”
Article
eHealth Europe, 5 May 2008

Dictaphone links lab to EMR

“Nuance Communications has introduced a new solution designed to bridge the gap between the lab and the electronic medical record. Nuance’s Dictaphone Healthcare Division this morning rolled out the Vocada Veriphy-Ready HL7 Integration Server (VIS), which allows Vocada Veriphy, the company’s critical test result management (CTRM) solution, communicate directly with internal diagnostic systems and enterprise-wide clinical information systems.”
Article
Eric Wicklund, Healthcare IT News, 31 March 2008

Philips buys Tomcat Systems

“Dutch IT giant Royal Philips Electronics has announced it will acquire Tomcat Systems Ltd, a Northern Ireland-based supplier of cardiac information systems, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Tomcat provides integrated cardiac care software said to provide a comprehensive, patient-centric presentation of patient data and the ability to address both clinical and operational needs.”
Article
e-Health Insider, 28 March 2008

Dedicated PACS Community is Launched for Radiology Professionals

“Medicexchange PLC (Subsidiary of MGT Capital Investments Inc, Amex: MGT) has launched a focussed Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) online community to highlight the most recent information on industrial news, research and clinical updates in this fascinating and fast developing field of radiology.”
Article
PRWeb, 9 March 2008

Microsoft Amalga Brings Health Information Together

“Microsoft has created Amalga, an enterprise-class Unified Intelligence System designed to enable hospitals to access any patient data from any legacy hospital system, regardless of the type of data file it is based on.”
Article
Sharon Linsenbach, eWeek.com, 28 February 2008

Microsoft launches health IT product suite

“Microsoft provide further details of its latest product launches and rebranded comprehensive software suite for the healthcare sector, under the Amalga brand at HIMSS today.
The wide-ranging Microsoft Amalga portfolio now includes a hospital information system, an electronic patient record system (EPR), a Picture Archiving and Communications System(PACS), a Radiology Information System (RIS) and Business Information software.”
Article
e-Health Insider, 25 February 2008

Forrester’s Top Health-IT Predictions for 2008

“Expect large institutions to make significant IT investments; RHIOs will still struggle with architecture and governance models; EMRs creep closer to reality, and health plans will continue to implement consumer-directed vendor partnerships.”
Article
Cindy Atoji, Digital HealthCare & Productivity, 15 January 2008

A View from An Ex-Pat Working Health IT in the UK

“The following arrived in my inbox a few days ago. As the writer needs to keep his job I am publishing it anonymously – but with his explicit written permission. I am sure you will enjoy what he has to say!”
Article
David More, Australian Health Information Technology, 15 January 2007

Digital Technology Revolutionises NHS Patient Care in England

“State of the art digital technology that has revolutionised the way the NHS captures, records and uses patient x-ray and scans is now being used in every hospital trust in England, the Department of Health said today. Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) are replacing the old way of capturing x-rays and scans on film and paper enabling clinical images to be stored electronically and viewed on screen.”
Article
e-Health News Europe, 27 December 2007

Henry Ford Health System to digitize all referred patient records

“Henry Ford Health System, a six-hospital health system with annual revenues above $3 billion, has inked a management services deal that will provide for the digitization of records from all providers who refer patients to the system.”
Article
Richard Pizzi, Healthcare IT News, 13 December 2007

NHS chief chides vendors for promising more than they deliver

“Digitalization of health services in three countries — England, Canada and the United States — is progressing and gains are being made, according to officials who spoke at Thursday’s World of Health IT conference closing keynote address. ”
Article
Jack  Beaudoin, Healthcare IT News, 25 october 2007

Need for Speed - New Technology Hastens Transfer of Patient Data

“Under a new computerized records system implemented on the USC Health Sciences Campus, crucial radiology images and reports are reaching doctors faster than ever, resulting in shorter waits and better service for patients.”
Article
Beth Dunham, Los Angeles Downtown News, 15 October 2007

Belgian hospital a premiere site for digitized care

“Totally digitised computer radiography now defines Saint Luc Bouge Hospital in Belgium. Saint Luc, located in Belgium’s province of Namur, and one of Belgium’s leading private teaching hospitals, stands as a premiere site in the country’s French-speaking region for full digitization.”
Article
Pam Leavy, Healthcare IT News EU, 12 October 2007

NHS Scotland ready for national PACS roll out

“The Scottish Executive has announced that national deployment of Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) across Scotland will begin this month after successful pilots in hospitals across Glasgow and Dumfries and Galloway.”
Article
eHealth Europe, 12 October 2007

CSAM says portals the key to hospital integration

“CSAM, a Norwegian specialist in hospital systems integration using portal technology, has announced plans for ambitious international growth.
Already the company has installations in Norway, Denmark and China, with the system translated into local languages. CSAM is now gearing up for a push into new markets, and is busily targeting Russian and UK opportunities.”
Article
e-Health Insider, 18 September 2007

Roads to recovery

“Military health IT planners consider ways to meet recommendations from the president’s commission on improving care for wounded warriors”
Article
Kayt Sukel and John Moore, Government Health IT, 10 September 2007

Automated Login Using Proximity Badges - SIIM News Spring 2007

“Almost two years ago our facility began testing an off-the-shelf radio frequency identification (RFID) process for logging in to our Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) in several specialty clinics. The goal is to maximize the time clinicians spend in direct patient care and minimize the time required to gain access to images.”
Article
Terry Olsen, Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine, April 2007

Sharable EHR Systems in Finland

Kari Harno and Pekka Ruotsalainen
Helsinki University Central Hospital, Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa;
National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, Finland

Abstract

In Finland, the shared record is a virtual electronic health record (EHR). It consists of health data generated, maintained and preserved by different health care service providers. Two different kinds of technologies for integrating regional EHR-systems are applied, but mainly by using a common middleware. Services provided by this middleware are EHR location services using a link repository and combining EHR-viewing services with security management services including consent management and identification services for health professionals. The Regional Health Information Organization (UUMA) approach is based on a stepwise implementation of integrated regional healthcare services to create a virtually borderless healthcare organization - a patient centered virtual workspace. In the virtual workspace multi-professional teams and patients collaborate and share information regardless of time and place. Presently the regional health information network (RHIN) is comprised of three integrated services between primary, secondary and tertiary care within the county of Uusimaa. The regional healthcare modules consist of an (1) eReferral network, (2) integrated EHR service between health care professionals and (3) PACS system. The eReferral between primary and secondary care not only speeds up the transfer, but also offers an option for communication in the form of eConsultation between general practitioners and hospital specialists. By sharing information and knowledge remote eConsultations create a new working environment for integrated delivery of eServices between the health care providers. Over 100 000 eReferral messages (40 %) were transferred between health care providers. Interactive eConsultations enable supervised care leading to the reduction of outpatient visits and more timely appointments. One third (10/31) of the municipal health centers are connected to the clinics in the Helsinki University Central Hospital by the eReferral system. The link directory service extends the dimensions of networking between organizations by combining legacy systems within regional primary and secondary care. The link directory is an interface to diverse patient information systems, like HUSpacs, containing links pointing to the actual patient data located in remote information systems. The original data including images can be viewed with a web browser, but data can be accessed only with the patient’s informed consent. Currently the reference data base includes 9.5 million links from 1.4 million patients with over 2.000 daily users. We aim to create a new working environment for professionals by incorporation of innovative information and communication technology, new organization of work and re-engineering of workflows. In the near-future, the citizen will have an active role participating in decisions on his care, carrying out guided self-care and taking steps of pro-active prevention.