EHI’s industry news roundup 30.05.08

E-Health Insider’s industry news round up for the week ending 30 May 2008 featuring supplier news, awards and information on newly published research reports.

Supplier news

Ascribe announces 12 new sales in last year

Ascribe has announced that during the last 12 months it has increased the customer base of its next generation hospital Web Pharmacy system from two UK sites to 12 sites in the UK and Asia Pacific. Ascribe’s pharmacy applications help to reduce risks of medication misadministration by supporting electronic prescribing and enabling hospital pharmacy departments to extend their services from the dispensary into hospitals’ wards.

Acrobot sign global distribution agreement

The Acrobot Company, computer-assisted surgery specialists, has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Corin Group for certain key markets, including the UK, Germany and Australia. Under the terms of the agreement, Corin has exclusive distribution rights in these markets for the Acrobot Navigation system for hip resurfacing procedures. Corin will purchase systems from Acrobot and market them through its own in-country sales infrastructure.

RD Research to create vulnerable families database

RD Research is to create a database for a new £250,000 project with the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. The system will help to record and monitor work done with vulnerable families. Managing director, Paul Williamson, said: “We specialise in database development, particularly in using the internet as a cost effective means of deploying large scale systems."

Talking anti-superbugs installed in Welsh hospital

Electronic boxes that shout out warnings urging staff and patients to “wash your hands” are the latest weapon in the fight against hospital superbugs in a Welsh trust. The devices, which cost £300 each, are aimed at killing infections. Twelve bilingual voice-message boxes have been dotted around wards at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in Bodelwyddan and some North Wales community hospitals, as part of a pilot by Conwy and Denbighshire NHS Trust

Clinical Solutions integrates with NetSuite.

NetSuite, a vendor of on-demand, integrated business software suites, has announced that Clinical Solutions, a provider of healthcare software solutions and services for clinical decision support, informatics, triage nursing and assessment, has integrated its worldwide, end-to-end business operations with NetSuite OneWorld. NetSuite OneWorld enables Clinical Solutions’ eight subsidiaries spread across three continents and five locations to have one suite of financial accounting software, including financials and revenue recognition, and CRM software, thereby making the existing finance staff more productive; reducing costs on IT and eliminating expensive on-premise business software.

Telephonetics VIP to host health speech recognition workshops

Telephonetics VIP, the speech recognition and voice automation specialist, is hosting a number of complimentary speech roadshows for the health sector. The days are designed for anyone who is concerned and involved with improving call handling within the health sector in a cost effective manner. Delegates will hear first hand from peer organisations, how speech recognition and voice automation is being used to improve services, meet targets and reduce costs. In addition, Telephonetics VIP will be sharing knowledge on next generation speech solutions. The health roadshows will be held on 18 June at the Royal Armouries, Leeds and 25 June at the F1 RBS Williams Conference Centre, Grove, Oxfordshire. Delegate places are limited. You can register your interest now by calling 01442 242 242 and ask for Melissa Bendon, email events@telephoneticsvip.co.uk or visit http://tinyurl.com/5gqdbh.

Awards

Entries open for BT e-Health Insider Awards 2008

New categories in the BT e-Health Insider Awards 2008 will reward excellent work by healthcare information and communications technology professionals in vital areas such as patient safety, security and wireless working. Details of the awards and online entry forms are at: www.ehealthawards.com.

Research Reports

EHI publishes new report focusing on web 2.0

Internet developments that brought us sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia are now set to revolutionise healthcare, according to a new research report from E-Health Insider. Titled ‘Web 2.0 in the Health Sector: Industry Review with a UK perspective’ the report concludes that new applications based on social health networks and content generated by health service users themselves will rapidly evolve to challenge existing healthcare systems and create new ways of delivering our healthcare. An executive summary of the ‘Web 2.0 in the Health Sector: Industry Review with UK Perspective’ report is available here.