EHI’s industry news roundup 07.12.07

E-Health Insider’s industry news round up for the week ending 7 December, featuring supplier news, appointments, and product launches.

Supplier News

Telecare Can Bridge the £11,000 Earnings Gap for Carers

Telecare technology can help full and part-time carers return to work, cutting their earnings losses and returning vital skills to the economy, according to leading charity Carers UK. New research published for Carers UK’s Carers Rights Day today, shows that the average loss in earnings last year by carers who had to give up their job, reduce working hours or take a more junior position because of caring duties, was £11,050. For those providing care for less than 20 hours, the average earnings loss was £6,481, and for those caring for 20-35 hours each week, the average per carer leapt to £9,472.

New website will give young hearts a boost

A fun, interactive website for teenagers was launched by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) today. The website, www.yheart.net, encourages young people to find out how their heart works and how to keep it healthy in an exciting and interesting way. The website, launched at the Emirates stadium, also has a password protected area called Meet @ Teen Heart which is specifically for teenagers with heart conditions. Here, young people can chat with each other, share experiences and talk to an expert. No other such website exists for teenagers who were born with heart problems, the BHF claims.

US agencies collaborate on portability standards for Personal Health Records

Health Level Seven, America’s Health Insurance Plans, and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to create a collaborative process for the maintenance of portability standards for personal health records. This MOU expands the number of stakeholders involved in the standards development process to help facilitate data portability between health insurance plans to give plan members the ability to move their personal health data when their health coverage changes.

Appointments

Agfa HealthCare NV Appoints Jo Cornu as New CEO

The board of directors of Agfa-Gevaert has appointed Jo Cornu as chief executive officer of Agfa-Gevaert NV, effective immediately. He succeeds Ludo Verhoeven, who – as Executive Chairman – had temporarily assumed the CEO position at the request of the board of directors.

New senior appointments announced at NHS 24

Three new non-executive member appointments to the board of NHS 24 have been announced. Anne Jarvie, formerly the chief nursing officer for Scotland until retirement in September 2004. Kay Blair, who owns and manages Business Perceptions, the Edinburgh-based marketing and communications consultancy and Martin Hi, formerly deputy chief executive and director of strategic planning and performance management for NHS Lanarkshire prior to his retirement have been appointed to the board for a period of four years, taking effect from 3 December 2007 until 30 November 2011.

Product Launches

NEC launches new medical imaging display screen range

NEC Display Solutions has launched the new GammaCompMD series. The new version now provides DICOM calibration support for the NEC MD205MG – a 21-inch greyscale display with 5-megapixel resolution suitable for mammography – and the NEC MDview262 – a 26-inch colour screen for secondary diagnostic imaging and review of radiology images. Significant improvements to the algorithms used to calibrate the white point of all NEC MD and MDview displays has led to a 75% reduction in calibration time, NEC says.

Joe Fernandez