Opinion Article: Being Open to Open Source
A new and frenzied debate has opened up in the world of healthcare technology- should NHS technology be open source? A move to open source would potentially mean vast reductions in licence fees for the NHS, the ability for the NHS to develop systems to their bespoke needs, no more supplier lock-in - which results in NHS organisations struggling to get the IT products they use to work with another supplier's - and of course, no need for "one size fits" all contracts such as we saw with the National Programme for IT.
Agfa HealthCare has signed an agreement with Ghent University Hospital (UZ Gent) in Belgium to implement its IMPAX for Nuclear Medicine solution, including the Oasis for IMPAX dedicated nuclear medicine workstation package, within the hospital. The solution is expected to be up and running by the end of 2013 and will complement UZ Gent's IMPAX Radiology Information System/Picture Archiving and Communication System (RIS/PACS). 
iPLATO Healthcare, a UK leader in cloud based mHealth and Analytics, welcomes the new government mandate to re-launch NHS Health Checks to reach 15 million patients over the next 5 years. In a number of trials in recent years the iPLATO service has proven to help engage target patients around NHS Health Checks and cost effectively reach screening targets. 
NHS Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust (CHFT) are working in partnership with leading telehealthcare provider Tunstall Healthcare, to provide advanced telehealth solutions that will help to support people with long-term conditions. Telehealth will initially be offered to 24 COPD patients in their own home at any one time, with the initiative expected to develop and to benefit many more patients in the region. 
By Elena Bonfiglioli, Senior Director, Health Industry, EMEA.