UK National Health Service (NHS)

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3 Global Health IT Takeaways You Need to Know - Reflections from ONC 3rd Interoperability Forum

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) engages in several global health IT projects from a United States government perspective. ONC works with global counterparts to share experiences, and ensure alignment between global interoperability efforts and the United States' approaches to interoperability. This includes working through worldwide partnerships, bi-lateral and multi-lateral engagements, global networks, and memoranda of understanding. Through these engagements, we focus on advancing common health data standards for global interoperability, enhancing individuals' access to their data, progressing healthcare providers' experiences, and improving factors associated with transparency and competition.

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A Snapshot of ONC's Global Health IT Efforts

On today's World Health Day, I'd like to give you an inside look at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology's (ONC) global health IT work. Advancing digital health (or e-health) is gaining worldwide momentum as nations seek to leverage health IT. While each country and jurisdiction has a different approach to healthcare, global digital health advancements are becoming a common thread across the world. In December 2010, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the European Union (EU) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to galvanize cooperation on advancing digital health in both regions. The MOU focuses on three areas: interoperability, workforce, and innovation.

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Bio-IT World Announces the Winners of Its Tenth Annual Best Practices Awards

Press Release | Bio-IT World, Cambridge Healthtech Institute (CHI) | April 30, 2014

Bio-IT World announced the winners of its tenth annual Best Practices Awards competition this morning in a plenary session at the 2014 Bio-IT World Conference & Expo in Boston. Grand prize winners were named in five life sciences categories highlighting best practices in clinical trial IT, research infrastructure, bioinformatics, cloud computing and data management from AstraZeneca and Tessella, U-BIOPRED, the Pistoia Alliance, Baylor College of Medicine, and Genentech. Read More »

City of Leeds Blazing a Trail with an Open Platform Person Held Record

Press Release | Ripple Foundation | May 10, 2017

Leeds is leading the way in developing and piloting an open platform based Person Held Record (PHR) for local people. It follows extensive engagement with individuals, care professionals and stakeholders across the city to understand their needs and aspirations. It is believed a PHR will help people to better manage and control their own care and wellbeing and help prevent further health issues...

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Estonia Is Using the Technology Behind Bitcoin to Secure 1 Million Health Records

Oscar Williams-Grut | Business Insider | March 3, 2016

Guardtime, a startup that uses technology similar to that underpinning bitcoin to secure public and private data, has signed a deal with the Estonian government to secure all the country's 1 million health records with its technology. The deal with the Estonian e-Health Authority comes alongside a partnership with Estonian Information Systems Authority, which will see more government data move to Guardtime's technology...

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Google DeepMind, NHS Partnership Sparks Privacy Fears

Grant Ferowich | Fierce Healthcare | November 22, 2016

The artificial intelligence branch of Google and the Royal Free NHS agreed to a five-year deal that will allow Google DeepMind's algorithms to monitor the health data of 1.6 million patients. Google DeepMind and the National Health Service will partner in a move that alerts providers about abnormalities in patients’ vital signs and blood results—and privacy advocates have already started to cry foul...

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Google Taking Over Health Records Raises Patient Privacy Fears

Jeremy Kahn and John Lauerman | Bloomberg | November 21, 2018

Last year, the U.K. government privacy watchdog said an NHS hospital had illegally sent 1.6 million patient records to DeepMind to develop Streams, fanning public fears about data safety. In June, a group of outside experts DeepMind Health appointed to scrutinize its work urged the unit to "entrench" its separation from Alphabet. After the consolidation with Google was announced, Julia Powles, a researcher at New York University School of Law and a critic of DeepMind's work with the NHS, scorched the reversal. "DeepMind said it'd never connect Streams with Google," she wrote. "The whole Streams app is now a Google product! That is an atrocious breach of trust."...

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HHS cybersecurity center so unstable staff don't know if it exists, Congress argues

Jessica Davis | Health IT News | June 6, 2018

The Senate HELP and House Energy and Committees are highly concerned about the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ cybersecurity plan, preparedness and the lack of leadership of its Healthcare Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center -- and is demanding answers from HHS Secretary Alex Azar. The bipartisan letter to Azar outlines a laundry list of issues at HHS when it comes to its security plan. Among them, includes the temporary reassignment of two senior HCCIC officials in charge of the day-to-day operations.

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Moorfields Takes First Step Towards Paperless Systems

Press Release | Moorfields Eye Hospital, Hicom | June 23, 2017

Moorfields Eye Hospital has commissioned Hicom, a leading provider of clinical information software, to develop and improve the functionality of OpenEyes, the specialist Electronic Medical Record (EMR) application for ophthalmology. The investment will enable Moorfields to move towards a fully paperless system that will provide clinicians real-time access to patient records across the trust’s 32 locations. The first phase of the implementation will be rolled-out in summer 2018...

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NHS Launches Upgraded IT Backbone Spine, Powered By Riak

Press Release | Basho Technologies | September 9, 2014

London, Sept. 9 2014 – the Spine – the electronic backbone of the UK’s National Health Service – has been successfully rebuilt to harness new technology, including the use of Basho Technologies’ distributed database, Riak Enterprise. Read More »

Ubuntu 'Weaponised' to Cure NHS of Its Addiction to Microsoft Windows

Maxwell Cooter | The Register | June 30, 2017

A quiet revolution has been rumbling in Leeds, in the north of England. It may not seem revolutionary: a gathering of software developers is scarcely going to get people taking to the barricades in these uncertain times, but the results of this particular meetup could shape access to NHS PCs in the coming years...

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Why Giving Birth Is Safer In Britain Than In The US

Kate Womersley | Digg | September 1, 2017

At 11:58 pm this past June 25, Helen Taylor gave birth to her first baby, a boy, at West Suffolk Hospital in the east of England. At 11:59 pm, with 15 seconds to spare before midnight, his sister was born. The obstetrician and her team were pleased; the cesarean section was going smoothly, fulfilling Helen’s wish that her twins share a birthday...

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