Opinion Article by Lynette Ousby, UK Managing Director, Alcidion.Political will to move away from data being locked-in by deployed electronic patient record (EPR) systems has been reinforced in the NHSX draft strategy 'Data Saves Lives'.
Fujitsu in the UK has announced its support of the AWS for Health initiative from Amazon Web Services (AWS) by bringing Epic in the Cloud to NHS trusts and UK healthcare providers.
The development means healthcare organisations looking to deploy Epic have the option, for the first time, to run the electronic patient record in the cloud.
The access to the world's largest browsable resource linking rare protein-coding genetic variants to human health and disease was launched through a genetic exome sequence analysis collaboration between AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV), Biogen Inc. (Nasdaq: BIIB) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE). Managed by the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, the browser gives access to results from analyses of whole exome sequencing data from 300,000 UK Biobank research participants. 
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, and Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH), a world-leading professional services firm, announced a new collaboration to develop end-to-end digital health solutions that will enable healthcare organizations and life sciences companies to improve patient care and accelerate clinical trials. 
Exscientia has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gates Philanthropy Partners, as part of the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator. This is to expedite the optimisation of a new class of COVID-19 therapeutics created using its artificial intelligence (AI) drug design platform. Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, announced a strategic partnership agreement with NICO.LAB, a MedTech stroke care company. Together with the recently expanded stroke capabilities of Philips Image Guided Therapy System - Azurion - this new partnership significantly advances Philips' commitment to improving outcomes for people who suffer a stroke. 
Health and social care secretary Matt Hancock has been abruptly replaced by Sajid Javid. The Highland Marketing advisory board consider the huge agenda he is now facing, and what it could - and should - mean for health tech.
Matt Hancock's downfall as health and social care secretary was swift. On Friday, barely 12-hours after he had delivered the keynote speech to the NHS Confederation’s annual conference, The Sun newspaper published a CCTV grab of him enjoying a "steamy clinch" with an aide.