By Tim Hawkins, Managing Director of Clinical Solutions at Elsevier.
The call to create a "paperless NHS" by 2018 aims to deliver improvements in patient safety, experiences of patients and health care professionals, as well as delivering high quality care and increase efficiency. The focus so far has, largely, been on digitising patient records, especially with the launch of the £260 million "Safer Wards, Safer Hospitals" Technology Fund, which will provide match funding for NHS providers in England to support the move away from paper-based systems.

Eucomed, the European medical technology industry association, welcomes the majority of measures adopted in a plenary vote by the European Parliament on the revision of the EU Medical Devices Directive (MDD). Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted for much-needed measures to improve Europe's notified body system, increase the transparency and traceability of medical devices, introduce unannounced site visits and provide for better stakeholder involvement.

This year, Siemens Healthcare held its third contest regarding outstanding results in clinical imaging in computed tomography. Starting today, members of the public with an interest in CT are invited to go online and vote for the best image in the "Right Dose Image Contest." In addition to the public vote, winners of a "Right Dose Excellence Award" will be chosen by an international jury of experts for eight specialist categories.

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) reports third-quarter comparable sales growth of 3% to EUR 5.6 billion; operational results improve by 33% to EUR 634 million. Healthcare currency-comparable equipment order intake declined by 2% year-on-year, with lower order intake at Patient Care & Clinical Informatics, while Imaging Systems recorded a slight increase.

Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust (RLBUHT) has implemented a vendor neutral archive (VNA) to store millions of medical images from its new picture archive and communications system (PACS) to underpin its electronic patient record strategy. The new system will allow clinicians to access and share images and other electronic patient notes from any location or device in a fraction of the time previously taken.

GPs in Newham, London have freed up to half a day each week for patient care and are driving up clinical standards since their clinical commissioning group (CCG) switched to EMIS Web. One hundred per cent of practices in Newham CCG - 62 in total - have now moved to EMIS Web and are realising the benefits through reduced administration and increased interoperability with the local healthcare community.

By Shane Tickell, CEO of IMS MAXIMS.
The past is not a prediction of the future and much has changed in the 11 years since the inception of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT). Clinicians are more engaged in IT, technology is more affordable and a whole raft of new systems are available to address the challenges of the modern NHS. So why do many frontline staff continue to be sceptical about its benefits and will this ever change?