This week we held our first international webinar since launching our sister site HTN International, where we were joined by a panel of health tech experts to discuss current digital capabilities, projects, and priorities from country contexts including Spain, Bermuda, and the UK. We welcomed Keltie Jamieson, chief health information officer with the Bermuda Hospitals Board; Tino Marti, digital health facilitator at the European Health Telematics Association (EHTEL) in Spain; and Penny Kechagioglou, chief clinical information officer and deputy chief medical officer at University Hospital ..read more

In a recent webinar, Andy Sheret, head of business development at ITHealth, and Chad Holmes, security evangelist at Cynerio, shared insights around securing patient data for safer care, highlighting the impact and risks of data breaches on hospitals, and the steps that need to be taken to proactively identify and secure healthcare systems. Cybersecurity in healthcare: outlining the issue To set the scene on the need for cybersecurity around electronic patient data, Chad talked about the current state of patient data security, highlighting how “cyber attackers have found a very profitable sourc ..read more

North Bristol NHS Trust has shared insight into a ‘green operating day’ held by the trust’s neurosurgery team at Southmead Hospital which saw a one-day trial run simultaneously across all neurosurgical theatres to explore how sustainably the operating list could be run. As part of their efforts, the team used technology in order to support remote follow-up and programming of devices where possible in order to minimise patient travel, with chief medical officer Tim Whittlestone emphasising the need to “experiment with new technologies and ways of working.” As part of the project, the sustainabi ..read more

For a panel discussion this week on digital careers and digital skills, we were joined by Martyn Perry, acting chief digital information officer at Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT), and James Freed, deputy director at NHS Digital Academy. Martyn and James chatted through topics including supporting the workforce with digital skills development; recruitment for digital roles; digital skills needs and assessments; and putting resources in place to ensure the NHS workforce can meet digital skills requirements in the future. By way of introduction, Martyn shared that sin ..read more

Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) is to implement InterSystems’ health information system and electronic medical record TrakCare Lab Enterprise as a fully hosted and managed platform across nine health boards, 13 hospitals and 23 laboratories in Wales, with the aim of improving efficiencies in pathology services and streamlining patient care. The implementation comes as the next step of an “established partnership” between InterSystems, DHCW and NHS Wales, with NHS Wales having originally implemented the TrakCare Lab Solution over ten years ago. Building on this, it is hoped that TrakCare L ..read more

Over on our sister site HTN International, we shared our interview with Inderpal Kohli, vice president and chief information officer at Englewood Hospital, New Jersey, to hear his insights on digital transformation, projects, priorities and challenges in the digital health space. Inderpal introduced himself by explaining how his career has been in the IT sector since leaving high school, including roles in programming and project management, and that crossing over into the health sector came up as a chance to work on a IT project for healthcare. “I landed at one of the best places I could ..read more

West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership has launched a new website focusing on eye health, with the aim of increasing awareness and prevention around eye care and “looking at eye care as a lifetime journey”. My Eye Health brings together information on more than 50 different eye conditions and offers guidance on treatment, self-care advice and post-surgery information; signposting information for non-emergency and urgent medical help; and a dedication section for children’s eye health, with information on testing, common childhood eye conditions, and videos and animations designed to suppor ..read more

In a recent interview, we caught up with Stephen Bromhall, chief digital information officer at East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust (EEAST), to talk about recent digital projects and priorities and the way that digital is being used to make improvements across areas such as workforce, operations and patient engagement. Offering a brief introduction to his role and background, Stephen explained that he has been in post as chief digital information officer at East of England Ambulance Service since the end of 2019. “I’ve been in healthcare since 1983 and I’ve been involved in o ..read more

Medway NHS Foundation Trust has published its clinical strategy for 2024 – 2027, mapping future clinical services and defining how the trust intends to “advance and innovate to provide the best possible healthcare services” for residents, including utilising digitally enabled care, AI in diagnostics and tech to support clinical pathways. In delivering the strategy, the trust highlights the need to “consolidate and build on changes made during the COVID-19 pandemic”, including embedding digitally enabled care and embracing alternative ways of working, and earning recognition as a “centre of exc ..read more

A two-year contract has been awarded to Dakota Integrated Solutions Ltd to support East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust with its Epic EPR implementation by supplying mobile devices, printers and barcode scanners as well as providing training, maintenance and support for data capture hardware and services. The initial solution deployment is reportedly worth just over £1 million, with the possibility of extending the contract for an additional 24 months. Samer Hassan, clinical informaticist nurse at at the trust, comments: “We are excited to be working with Dakota on this project. H ..read more