Qualcomm Incorporated, through its venture investment group, Qualcomm Ventures, has announced it intends to create a joint investment company with Novartis Pharmaceuticals, a global health care leader, to target early stage companies who offer technologies, products or services that "go beyond the pill" to benefit physicians and patients. The joint investment company will leverage up to $100 million to support selected innovations.

Hospital Marina Salud de Dénia is the first non-U.S. recipient of the prestigious HIMSS Davies Enterprise Award. Recognized by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), Marina Salud is the first Davies winner in Spain, one of the first in Europe to achieve HIMSS Stage 7, and also one of the world’s few hospitals to be deemed fully paperless.

Mental health chiefs in the West Midlands have chosen an e-prescribing system from Ascribe after winning £500K from a government fund to improve patient safety. Ascribe, part of EMIS Group, will provide its Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (ePMA) system to Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

The COCIR New Code, setting the standard for member companies in their interactions with healthcare professionals, preannounced in May 2014, is now enforced since 1 January 2015. It contains additional guidance on topics such as public procurement of medical technology, industry support of third party conferences, provision of educational grants and interactions with independent third parties (e.g. agents, distributors and consultants).

iMDsoft announced that Kerckhoff Klinik in Germany has implemented the MetaVision clinical information system across their entire continuum of care. The hospital, which specialises in cardiothoracic, vascular and rheumatic diseases, now uses MetaVision in their OR, ICU, general ward and intermediate care unit, in a total of 317 beds.

BlackBerry Limited (NASDAQ: BBRY; TSX: BB), a global leader in mobile communications, and NantHealth, a cloud-based information technology provider combining science and big data to transform healthcare, have announced the first secure clinical genome browser that gives doctors unprecedented access to patients' genetic data on the BlackBerry® Passport smartphone - the NantOmics Cancer Genome Browser™.

Virginia Mason Institute has recently provided lean healthcare training at Cerner Limited offices for four trusts. As the educational arm of Virginia Mason Institute, one of the safest healthcare providers in the world, the institute teaches organisations worldwide how to use the lean processes of the Virginia Mason Production System to improve safety, quality and the patient experience.