By Andy Clegg, Clinical Specialist, Orion Health
Integrating health and social care has been on the national agenda for over 20 years and despite the introduction of various policies, strategies and initiatives to deliver it, we are still not there yet. The well-documented drivers for joining up health and social care, such as capacity issues in acute hospitals and people living longer, is resulting in a situation which is unsustainable, meaning the way we deliver care should change in a radical way.

RaySearch Laboratories AB (publ.) has been awarded a contract to supply its RayStation® treatment planning system (TPS) to Tayside Cancer Centre, Ninewells Hospital & Medical School in Dundee, UK. Ninewells will be the first clinical installation of RayStation® in the United Kingdom. Ninewells Hospital & Medical School is one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe. It has a comprehensive regional cancer centre serving the Tayside region of Scotland.

Twenty-one leading healthcare organisations have joined a formal partnership to tackle the nation’s healthcare challenges by accelerating growth in the digital healthcare market. Founded and led by D Health, the partnership known as ‘the Catalyst’ involves major brands Celisio (owners of Lloyds Pharmacy) and Johnson and Johnson's LifeScan. Other founding members include SMEs such as Isansys, Grey Matters and Cardio QT and healthcare providers Red House Practice Group, Just Checking and Physiomedics.

For the fourth consecutive year research2guidance, in collaboration with Continua Health Alliance, is conducting a global market research about mobile Health applications to uncover their potential. Are you developing or publishing apps that help patients to manage their disease better, organize doctor's appointments, send medical reminders, track steps, monitor blood pressure levels or provide medical imaging solutions for radiologists? Are you an mHealth expert, a healthcare professional using mHealth apps for your work or a manager in a Pharma, Med-Tech or Health Insurance company that oversees mHealth activities?

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has successfully implemented a new patient administration system (PAS). Silverlink PAS replaced the previous McKesson TotalCARE system which the trust had been using for 17 years. The trust had been planning for the new system since the seven-year contract was awarded to Stalis Ltd in December 2011. It included the use of the STALIS CareXML® product for the data migration and business intelligence systems.

By Shane Tickell, CEO, IMS MAXIMS.
In the late 1980s, after the NHS started going through its largest period of change, I began working for a women and children's hospital, which was part of a larger group. At this time we were using a workflow system that was locally hosted on our site, however you could centrally report on all the individual hospitals. Despite being able to successfully administer our patients, manage our stock control, procedures and billing, we were missing the detailed patient notes - which were on paper.

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) reports fourth-quarter comparable sales growth of 7%; operational results up by 20%; 2013 financial targets achieved. Healthcare comparable sales grew by 4% year-on-year. Customer Services recorded high-single-digit growth, while Home Healthcare Solutions achieved mid-single-digit growth. Imaging Systems and Patient Care & Clinical Informatics recorded low-single-digit growth. In growth geographies, comparable sales showed double-digit growth year-on-year, with strong increases in China, Central & Eastern Europe, Latin America and Middle East & Turkey.