Here’s a fun game for these rainy afternoons. Go to google and search for ‘NHS patient records lost.’
The results are impressive – the list of scandals gives the impression of data loss of an almost serial nature. A couple of thousand patient records lost on a stolen laptop here, another 2,500 left on a laptop [...]

A recent report by the Audit Commission has drawn attention to the standards of information on existing patient records.
In order to check the performance and finance of Primary Care Trusts, the Audit Commission does an annual check that the trusts’ bills match up with the patients’ original medical records. However, in an average of 8.1% [...]

The Tories have long been grumbling about the NHS IT project being over-centalised, over-budget, behind schedule and a waste of tax-payers’ money. Now, after a full report, they have pledged to dismantle the NHS IT system so far and cancel the contracts with current providers. E-health insider rightly points out this may be a false [...]

True to his name, the blogger The Yorkshire Ranter has launched a fierce (and in places rather convincing) attack on  Tory plans to hand over the NHS IT plans to Google or Microsoft. His cynicism stems from the rather philosophical point that ‘the purpose of a system is what it does.’
Unlike the NHS, nobody pretends [...]

The demand for electronic patient records from health professionals and researchers is becoming increasingly shrill. The House of Lords has now joined the chorus in a recent report that argues that they are essential to the development of genomic medicine.
Genomics is the next big thing in medicine. ‘Genome’ refers to the entire DNA of an [...]

Over at the Guardian’s Smarthealthcare, details of a new announcement by David Cameron may prove concerning for privacy advocates. Against a background of significant criticism of the NHS IT programme by the opposition, the Tory leader has suggested a different approach to the management of our healthcare data. His inspiration is Google Health and Microsoft [...]

The Sunday Herald reports that Scotland could be the first country to have entirely paper-free health records. The device that makes this possible is a ‘mobile clinical assistant (MCR).’ MCRs are essentially hand-held wireless computers which allow staff to move between patients in the ward, accessing and adding to their records without rummaging through paper [...]

There’s some big news breaking over at the specialist E-Health Insider blog, which today reports that the Department of Health has shelved plans for the expansion and development of HealthSpace.  Healthspace was intended to be an all-singing all dancing NHS website which let patients book appointments, look at their medical records and keep track of [...]

A news story this week, highlights the dangers of having multiple, confusing systems of patient records in the NHS. As the specialist news website E-Health Insider reports:
A North London Mental health trust has said that any patients who refuse to have their data entered onto electronic patient records will not be able to receive treatment.
Barnet, [...]

There’s been a couple of interesting stories on electronic patient records doing the rounds this week which highlight some of their potential – and some of their risks.
The Charm Project, which is beiing run by a coalition of British universities, will be using technology to help people control the amount of exercise they do. [...]