Keeping IT healthy
Outside Egton – 1st May 2015
In the News this week
King's College Hospital pilots Apple Watch app
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has
become one of the first trusts in the UK to use the newly
launched Apple Watch as part of patient care.
A limited number of cancer patients at the London trust
will have access to an Apple Watch app developed by
tech company Medopad to support their chemotherapy.
Patients using the app will receive reminders to take their
medication and a tap alert for personalised drug
regimens.
The app also allows patients to record their temperature
and any symptoms if they have a negative experience
with a medicine. This data is sent instantly to a doctor’s
Medopad platform on their iPad.
The aim is to allow doctors to adjust drug regimens when they are required, helping to
personalise chemotherapy care and reduce side effects.
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Date Published: 30/04/2015
Source: E-Health Insider
Link: http://www.ehi.co.uk/news/EHI/10005/king's-pilots-apple-watch-app
Medical apps need CE mark
Doctors should only use medical apps with an official CE mark, new guidance from the Royal
College of Physicians says.
The guidance, produced in consultation with the Medicines and Healthcare Products
Regulatory Agency and the General Medical Council, applies to medical apps that can be
classed as medical devices, which are bound by EU law to carry the mark.
The RCP says an app is classed as a medical device if it is used to “diagnose, support
diagnosis or clinical decision, make calculations to determine diagnosis or treatment, or are
used for any medical purpose”.
“If you are using an app that should have a CE mark but it is missing, then you are leaving
yourself open to problems and possible litigation,” the guidance says.
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Date Published: 29/04/2015
Source: E-Health Insider
Link: http://www.ehi.co.uk/news/EHI/10004/medical-apps-need-ce-mark---rcp
Keeping IT healthy
Scottish EPMA framework worth up to £20m
A framework worth up to £20 million is being set up for
Scottish health boards to buy electronic prescribing and
medicine administration systems.
NHS National Services Scotland has issued a prior
information notice for procurement of a national multisupplier EPMA framework.
NHS NSS head of the Business Advisory Group Mark
Salveta expects the contract to be worth between £10
million and £20 million over four years, depending on the
number of boards that call-off and what options they
might take.
“Most boards would like to do it. They certainly don’t want to be rushed into it because it’s a big
change in practice, but everybody accepts that having an IT aid when prescribing is a good
thing and should be rolled out when appropriate,” he told EHI News.
The formal tender will likely be released at the end of May with plans to have the framework
established before the end of the year.
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Date Published: 28/04/2015
Source: E-Health Insider
Link: http://www.ehi.co.uk/news/EHI/10000/scottish-epma-framework-worth-up-to%C2%A320m
CCGs issue 40% of contracts to private providers
Two fifths of NHS contracts have been issued to private providers since the introduction of the
Health and Social Care Act by the coalition in 2013, the Labour Party has claimed.
A Labour FOI of CCGs found that 40% of all contracts put out to tender by CCGs have been
awarded to private firms, compared with 41% being awarded to NHS organisations.
Labour’s findings contradict the Government’s line that just 6% of contracts go to private
providers, and shadow health secretary Andy Burnham pledged to repeal the ‘market
framework’ that was introduced by the HSCA and which he said had put the ‘founding NHS
principles under threat’.
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Date Published: 30/04/2015
Source: Pulse Today
Link: http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/political-news/ccgs-issue-40-of-contracts-toprivate-providers/20009882.article#.VUNq8PlVhHw
Keeping IT healthy
Commercial GP out-of-hours providers associated with worse
care
Patients reported a poorer experience of
care from commercial providers than from
non-profit organisations in the study
published in the BMJ.
Minority ethnic patients and those unable to
take time away from work reported the
worst experiences of care.
GP leaders said politicians should learn
lessons and move away from greater
private sector involvement.
The researchers said more work was required to better understand the reasons for the
findings. Professor John Campbell from the University of Exeter Medical School, who led the
research team, said it was important to exercise caution interpreting the results.
‘Although commercial providers scored lower overall, the best commercial providers scored
higher than many of the NHS and not-for-profit providers,' he said.
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Date Published: 30/04/2015
Source: GP Online
Link: http://www.gponline.com/commercial-gp-out-of-hours-providers-associatedworse-care/article/1345366?HAYILC=SHOWCASE
GP Online Account Access (To view full articles)
Email: alex.stead@e-mis.com
Password: egtonegton
Threat to hurl tablets into canal
Clinicians at a central London trust threatened to throw
their tablet computers in a canal before confidence was
built in adopting mobile working, an electronic patient
record clinical lead has said.
Melissa Andison said one of the early concerns for
clinicians was the ability of mobile devices to interact with
the trust’s core clinical record, which during the pilot was
still RiO.
“The technical complexity of integrating a mobile solution
that wasn’t native to our core clinical record caused
disruption sometimes and this made clinicians frustrated
and affected their confidence in mobile working,” said Andison.
“I had clinicians threatening to throw their tablets in the Little Venice canal.”
Staff initially feared that mobile working could cause isolation and were worried about the
security of using mobile and tablet devices in public.
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Date Published: 28/04/2015
Source: E-Health Insider
Link: http://www.ehi.co.uk/news/EHI/9999/threat-to-hurl-tablets-into-canal
Keeping IT healthy
Technology News this Week
Infrared implant brings practical sight to the blind
Pixium Vision's goggles for its human retina
implant
You can already get a retinal implant to restore
some sight when you're blind, but the quality is
usually too poor to be useful for more than
avoiding collisions. A better solution is close at
hand, however: Pixium Vision has successfully
tested an implant that should go beyond basic
vision. The tiny chip sits just behind the retina
and uses infrared light to both stimulate images in
your brain and power the whole device.
Tests in rats generate vision equivalent to
20/250. That's still far from flawless, but it'd be superior to the 20/500 you can get now -- good
enough that you could read the largest letter on an eye doctor's chart.
The eventual system for humans, which will use goggles to send images, should manage
20/120 and put wearers above the US' legal standard for blindness. Trial runs start in 2016
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Date Published: 28/04/2015
Source: Engadget
Link: http://www.engadget.com/2015/04/28/pixium-vision-retina-implant/
Tesla unveils batteries to power homes
Chief executive Elon Musk announced the firm would build batteries that store solar energy
and serve as a back-up system for consumers during blackouts.
The device would allow consumers to get off a power grid or bring energy to remote areas that
are not on a grid.
Tesla plans to start shipping the units to installers in the US by this summer.
In a highly anticipated event near Los Angeles, Mr Musk said the move could help change the
"entire energy infrastructure of the world".
"Tesla Energy is a critical step in this mission to enable zero emission power generation," the
company said in a statement.
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Date Published: 28/04/2015
Source: BBC Online
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32545081
Keeping IT healthy
And Finally….
American Airlines planes grounded by iPad app error
A faulty app caused American Airlines to
ground dozens of its jets.
The glitch caused iPad software - used by the
planes' pilots and co-pilots for viewing flight
plans - to stop working.
The firm's cockpits went "paperless" in 2013 to
save its staff having to lug heavy paperwork on
board. AA estimated the move would save it
more than $1.2m (£793,600) in fuel every year.
The company said that it had now found a fix for the problem.
"Our pilots have been able to address the issue by downloading the application again at the
gate prior to take-off and, as a back-up, are able to rely on paper charts they can obtain at the
airport.
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Date Published: 29/04/2015
Source: BBC Online
Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32513066
Christmas in April as town tries to make up for 'Britain's worst
Christmas tree'
Despite there still being 239 shopping days until Christmas one town has decided it is already
time to get out the tinsel.
Liscard in Merseyside had a disappointing Christmas tree last year and after a backlash on
social media it was decided that they would give it another go, today.
The tree came to be known as the 'worst Christmas tree in Britain.'
Outside EMIS
Last Weeks edition of outside EMIS
24 April 2015
Outside EMIS.docx