EMIS - the UK's leading supplier of GP clinical systems - has announced discussions on a landmark record-sharing agreement with another supplier in a further move to make the vision of 'joined up' NHS care a reality. The company is planning to join forces with TPP to deliver one-to-one local health community data-sharing for clinical commissioning group (CCG) areas using both EMIS and TPP systems.

Shearwater Healthcare Solutions, the business accelerator founded by Ian Denley and Markus Bolton, has made a major investment in Graphnet Health, the UK's leading supplier of IT solutions for shared health and social care records. Graphnet's CareCentric solutions are used by over 30,000 NHS and local authority staff, and hold data on over 17m UK citizens.

Agfa HealthCare announces that it has implemented its DX-D Retrofit direct radiography (DR) upgrade solution at Pius Hospital in Oldenburg, Germany. This cost-effective yet versatile solution has allowed Pius Hospital to upgrade its existing computed radiography (CR) system to a DR solution, while maximizing its existing investments in imaging equipment.

By Dr. Paul Shannon, consultant anaesthetist in the NHS and medical director at CSC.
Following heath secretary Jeremy Hunt's recent challenge to the NHS to 'go paperless' by 2018, doctors and hospitals are going to need IT tools to coordinate care electronically. Care coordination is essential to avoid duplicate treatment and to prevent medical errors.

Agfa HealthCare has signed an agreement with Belgian university hospital UZ Brussels to implement its DX-D 800 direct radiography (DR) solution in the hospital's emergency department. The DX-D 800 is a 3-in-1 solution that requires only one investment to deliver a broad range of applications for all types of examinations. It offers real-time images for fluoroscopy, general radiography and direct exposures, using a single detachable, tethered detector.

Carestream's MyVue patient portal will be available as a cloud service in March 2013. MyVue empowers patients to securely access, manage and share their medical images and radiology reports with healthcare providers.

Agfa HealthCare announces new solutions to assist healthcare providers in meeting the demands of an evolving healthcare landscape, including Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). By providing solutions that better engage clinicians and patients, as well as delivering disparate data to a single desktop, Agfa HealthCare is helping to accelerate the transformation of healthcare.