Opinion Article: Putting Agile Intelligence into Community Care
By Richard Tarring, Commercial Director at Sirona Care and Health Community Interest Company.Procurement processes and IT deployments in the health service are rarely known for their flexibility or agility. So what happens when you combine a not-for-profit community interest company (CIC) and two innovative UK technology suppliers? The answer for people receiving learning disability and community services in South Gloucestershire is starting to emerge.
Qualcomm Incorporated, through its venture investment group, Qualcomm Ventures, has announced it intends to create a joint investment company with Novartis Pharmaceuticals, a global health care leader, to target early stage companies who offer technologies, products or services that "go beyond the pill" to benefit physicians and patients. The joint investment company will leverage up to $100 million to support selected innovations. 
Hospital Marina Salud de Dénia is the first non-U.S. recipient of the prestigious HIMSS Davies Enterprise Award. Recognized by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Marina Salud is the first Davies winner in Spain, one of the first in Europe to achieve HIMSS Stage 7, and also one of the world’s few hospitals to be deemed fully paperless. 
By Dr. Adam Hill, Chief Medical Officer at Sectra.
Mental health chiefs in the West Midlands have chosen an e-prescribing system from Ascribe after winning £500K from a government fund to improve patient safety. Ascribe, part of EMIS Group, will provide its Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (ePMA) system to Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. 
The COCIR New Code, setting the standard for member companies in their interactions with healthcare professionals, preannounced in May 2014, is now enforced since 1 January 2015. It contains additional guidance on topics such as public procurement of medical technology, industry support of third party conferences, provision of educational grants and interactions with independent third parties (e.g. agents, distributors and consultants). 
Population health management specialist Orion Health™ has been named as top-ranked vendor in the annual Clinician Network Management (CNM) report from Chilmark Research. This follows just weeks after the company's work on the Northern Ireland Electronic Care Record (NIECR) helped win both the HSJ Award for "Enhancing care by sharing data and information" and EHI Award for "Best use of IT to support integrated health services" in recognition of its outstanding contribution to informatics.