A new system in a virtual training room is helping users practice and improve sports exercises and other motor activities: six research groups from the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) at Bielefeld University are working on the ICSPACE project to develop this virtual coaching space. CITEC is funding this large-scale research project with 1.6 million Euro and it will run until 2017.

British people are at their least happy while at work - except when they are sick in bed - according to researchers at the University of Sussex and the London School of Economics (LSE). The team analysed more than a million responses uploaded to a smartphone app, called Mappiness, that sporadically asks users questions such as how they are feeling, where they are and what they are doing.

Diabetic neuropathy is a type of nerve damage associated with the development of foot ulcers in patients with diabetes. Resulting from anatomical deformation, excessive pressure and poor blood supply, it affects over 130 million individuals worldwide. It is also the leading cause of amputation, costing the United States economy alone more than $10 billion annually.

A new app called QUiPP could help doctors to better identify women at risk of giving birth prematurely. The app, developed at King's College London, was tested in two studies of high-risk women being monitored at ante-natal clinics. Worldwide 15 million babies are born preterm (before 37 weeks) each year and over a million of these die of prematurity-related complications.

The Chief Information Officer of the HSE Richard Corbridge has launched a public consultation process on a range of matters regarding a new national Electronic Health Record (EHR). A national EHR is a comprehensive and combined solution that supports the creation, management and sharing of key patient information.

A part Department of Health owned joint venture, aiming to save the NHS £1 billion in efficiencies by 2020, has launched a new procurement framework designed to save the NHS, local government and the wider public sector millions of pounds on everything from security to catering.

The NHS will have the opportunity to save millions of pounds on important but traditionally costly IT prescribing systems that help healthcare professionals to choose the correct and most cost effective medicines for patients, following the launch of a new procurement framework from NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS).