HC 2003 – Pick of the Product and Service News

Healthcare Computing is a traditional launch pad for healthcare IT products and services and the industry did not disappoint this year. We list below a selection of the new launches, versions and deals announced at Harrogate last week. Click here for a full list of exhibitors.

Telemedicine Solutions from Tandberg

Tandberg demonstrated its videoconferencing solution, Health Care System III, for the first time in the UK. The Norwegian-based company’s system supports clinical applications in familiar areas for telemedicine such as dermatology, cardiology and pathology along with administrative meetings, consulting and research. In the continuing medical education arena HCS III offers telementoring which links healthcare professionals together for interactive instruction.

New Version of CSW Case Notes

CSW Health launched version 4 of its Case Notes application and tool kit designed to support the development and deployment of integrated, shared patient records and services in the NHS. This new version includes increased capabilities for care planning, order communications and results reporting and has been configured for enterprise integration across strategic health authorities in line with the requirements for the Integrated Care Records Service (ICRS).

IT Service Management Self-Assessment Tool from Fox IT

IT service management consultants, Fox IT announced a free IT service management self-assessment service for the NHS, run from its website. Healthcare managers can use the online tool to identify areas where they should be targeting IT resources to improve service management.

Roll Out for SchlumbergerSema’s Evidence Based Medicine System

A successful three month trial of SchlumbergerSema’s Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) system with doctors conducting medical disability assessments for the Department of Work and Pensions has led to a national rollout. The system guides doctors through the assessment, prompting questions and helping to facilitate a thorough assessment before producing a printed report.

Graphnet Launch OneLINK to Support ICRS

Graphnet launched its OneLINK application, a repository solution that enables the secure integration of patient records across a healthcare community. The application enables the secure linking of EPR systems using an overarching repository held at strategic health authority (StHA) level. Graphnet managing director, Dave Garnett, explained, “To achieve ICRS, health communities must link up patient records between a multitude of organisations including StHAs, primary care trusts, acute trusts, GPs and community trusts. Rather than providing direct links between all these organisations, which would take significant time and resource, the OneLINK solution enables all organisations to be linked via a top-level StHA repository.”

Misys Releases Enhanced Version of CoPathPlus

Failsafe recall functionality has been added to Misys Healthcare System’s CoPathPlus anatomic pathology information system. Misys says the new feature addresses patient safety by helping to ensure that doctors follow up results with treatment or repeat specimens. Reminder letters are generated automatically and either sent directly to the referring doctor’s office or printed in the laboratory and sent to the doctor.

Hanon Solutions Raise £400K

Information and knowledge management specialists, Hanon Solutions , announced £400,000 worth of third round venture capital funding from the business angel group, Archangel Informal Investments Ltd. The company also announced the acquisition of PRL Scotland.

Exposing the “IT Black Hole” for Brain Injury Patients

ComMedica published a map showing hospitals still using old technology – film carried by couriers – to transmit information about head injured patients to specialist neurology centres. ComMedica’s technology can provide electronic links between accident and emergency departments who received brain injured patients and neurology units able to provide expert opinions and support. A link between St Mary’s Hospital, London and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery was set up last year, but ComMedica’s shows that various parts of the country are still losing time in transmitting information.

iSOFT’s BLUEPRiNT for Integration

iSOFT demonstrated its BLUEPRiNT architecture, designed specifically to build integrated records of patient care across health communities, along with LORENZO, its flagship application in the iSeries portfolio. iSOFT says that BLUEPRiNT leverages value from current iSOFT solutions and, wherever possible, from third party solutions by extending capabilities and functions to support care record and service integration across all locations and all users in a healthcare community.

Appointment Reminders from Telephonetics

Speech technology specialists, Telephonetics, launched a new automated appointment reminder system that could help hospitals solve some of the problems caused by missed appointments. The system works by feeding selected data from the patient records into the company’s ContactPortal reminder system. Before the patient is due to attend the system calls to remind the patient about the appointment and the due time. It then asks the patient whether he or she is still able to attend. Patients who say “no” are asked to telephone the hospital and fix another appointment and a report is generated for the hospital. Telephonetics cite research which suggests that 49% of “no shows” at hospital clinics would attend if they received a reminder.

Fingertip Control for Access to Systems

ISL unveiled the latest version of its SentriNET biometrics solution for secure access to NHS applications. The company now claims more than 250 trust installations and 30,000 plus users for its secure authentication software which replaces passwords – and the management tasks that go with them – with a fingerprint scan.

Integrating Health and Social Care Systems

Jade Direct UK and the Harrow Unified Mental Health Service, North West London, gave a case history presentation showing how Jade’s software is being used to unite health and social care systems for a local solution tipped to become one of the government’s beacon sites for joined up health and social care. A five year contract with the Harrow service, part of the Central and Northwest London Mental Health NHS Trust, will provide a Jade Co-ordinated Care System bringing together clinical, therapeutic, diagnostic and administrative information as a single record, without scrapping existing systems. When the system’s final stages have gone live, Jade says borough-wide systems will be integrated making relevant information available to health and social care staff.

Swindon Success for System C

System C announced a successful implementation at the new £170m Great Western Hospital, Swindon which, the company says, is the first in the UK to benefit from a truly integrated patient information system that is both filmless and paperlight. System C was at the centre of the implementation working with other subcontractors including Mitel Networks and StorCOMM technologies to move services over to the new hospital from Swindon’s ageing Princess Margaret Hospital. A key task involved replacing IT legacy systems with System C’s MedWay systems.

Harrogate Debut for Diginus’ Digital Certificates

Open source service provider, Diginus, has set its sights on the healthcare sector with a managed digital certificate service which, the company says, avoids the cost, integration and supplier lock-in problems of other offerings. Digital certificates protect confidentiality by providing encryption of information and authentication of users in systems. Projects using Diginus’s certificates include an out-of-hours reporting service which transfers electronic records of NHS Direct consultations over the Internet for automatic insertion into electronic patient records at GP surgeries.

Capula Elan Wins Royal Surrey EPR Contract

Capula Elan announced that it had won the contract to supply its Oasis EPR system to the 530 bed Royal Surrey Hospital. Delivery will start immediately to all departments.

Bradford Health Community Chooses Telewest to Improve VPN

Telewest Business broke news of a new £1.7m assignment with Bradford Health Community to upgrade an existing virtual private network set up in 1999. The network enables health practitioners to access e-mail and the Internet and share confidential patient records and other clinical information in a secure environment. The upgrade, over three years, will boost 128Kbps connections to 2Mbps circuits able to transfer more complex and higher volumes of data and information. Telewest says the managed service it provides frees in-house staff to concentrate on core tasks such as strategy and applications delivery.

InFocus Launches HiPPO21

HiPPO21, said to be the first comprehensive health information analysis system to include three years of health episodes statistics data as standard was unveiled by InFocus Health. HiPPO21 provides hospitals with the opportunity to analyse and compare their own locally generated data with national data as often as they choose, providing benchmarks to assess performance against any group of English trusts or the whole country.

GFI Informatics Wins Cisco Accolade

GFI Informatics announced it had been named Cisco Systems Value-added Reseller of the Year for the UK and Ireland. The company designed, configured and managed the network implementation for the award winning Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust.