Tammy Lovell

The integration allows blood test results to be shared electronically with Cambridge University Hospitals.

Also: French academic hospital CHRU de Nancy announces 10-year enterprise informatics agreement with Royal Philips, former NHS England director Sir Bruce Keogh joins messaging app firm and others. 

Coroners have called for action to prevent further fatalities linked to the NHS Pathways system following 11 patient deaths.

GE Healthcare says its anaesthetic machines pose no patient risk, after concerns that the devices could be tampered with by hackers. Cybersecurity firm, CyberMDX, flagged a vulnerability related to the GE Aestiva and GE Aespire 7100 and 7900 devices, that could allow hackers to alter the amount of anaesthetic delivered to patients and silence alarms which indicate danger. According to researchers, if a machine was connected to a hospital’s networks via terminal servers, an attacker could remotely modify its parameters by forcing the device to revert to a less secure version of the communication protocol. But Hannah Huntly, global external affairs manager for GE Healthcare, said its investigation found there was no clinical hazard or direct patient risk. “There is no vulnerability with the anaesthesia device itself, and we generally recommend that anaesthesia devices not be connected to a network,” she said. The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) also stated there was no reason to panic over use of the devices. “In the unlikely situation where hacking of a single device may take place, patients should be reassured that their anaesthetist will be monitoring them constantly and will have received many years of training to rectify immediately the situation of a device failure,” said RCoA council member, Dr Helgi Johansson. WHY IT MATTERS Fears were raised that patients could be put at risk in NHS hospital trusts using the devices.   “We’re currently assessing the volume of these particular anaesthetic machines in use across England and will be sharing any subsequent advice with trusts in the coming days,” an NHS Digital spokesperson said. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said it is working with the manufacturer and the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland, to establish the effects of any vulnerability. THE LARGER TREND In May 2017 the WannaCry ransomware attack severely disrupted more than 80 NHS hospital trusts causing 19,000 patient appointments to be cancelled. A recent report by the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London, led by Lord Ara Darzi, called for investment in cyber-security to be prioritised to prevent the NHS being a “vulnerable target” for hackers. ON THE RECORD Axel Wirth, distinguished healthcare architect at US software company, Symantec Corporation, told Healthcare IT News: “Although a vulnerability may be exploitable when I have the device in front of me with full access to it, it doesn’t mean that under normal use an attacker could execute the same attack. “I don’t want to downplay the problem - medical device cybersecurity is an issue that has been ignored too long, but I also don’t think we need to panic. I advise proceeding with a sense of urgency, yet in a planned and coordinated approach.”  

The Patient Safety Strategy says new system will use AI to improve learning from care incidents.

Consultation proposes that primary care services, such as Babylon’s GP at Hand, need to focus on areas with doctor shortages to reduce health inequalities.  

The partnership will use Shimmer’s Verisense platform to improve analysis of sensor data for CNS diseases.

UK finance innovation ecosystem will promote collaboration with industry to ensure new technologies meet NHS priorities.

North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust has announced it will invest more than $15m over the next three years to revolutionise its clinical systems and improve patient care. Part of the investment comes from NHS Digital, which awarded $6.3m to the hospital trust as part of the flagship global digital exemplar progamme, while the other $8.9m will be funded by the trust. North Middlesex will act as a ‘fast follower’ to the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, by helping it to establish a model which can be rolled out across the NHS more broadly. The Royal Free will share its experience of being a digitally advanced trust and work with North Middlesex to create blueprints to enable other trusts to follow in its footsteps. WHY IT MATTERS North Middlesex University Hospital serves more than 350,000 people living in the London boroughs of Enfield and Haringey and surrounding areas. The trust hopes the investment will enable it to improve staff access to clinical information in order to improve decision-making and deliver safer and more effective care. It plans to invest in technology which will enable patients to better manage their own health and interact with health professionals through video consultations. North Middlesex is also aiming to provide better data that can be used to improve quality, efficiency and patient outcomes, and improve the way clinical systems across north central London interact so that clinicians can better manage patient care. To help deliver this programme of work, the trust will work in collaboration with System C Healthcare and JAC Computer Services. WHAT'S THE CONTEXT There are 17 acute trusts being supported by NHS England to become global digital exemplars, which can deliver improvements in the quality of care through the world-class use of digital technologies and information. Each of these has one or two ‘fast followers’ which support the spread of best practice and innovation. It was recently reported that the Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, a global digital exemplar, is using EMRAM as a benchmarking tool to help drive its ongoing digital transformation strategy. ON THE RECORD Maria Kane, chief executive of North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust, said: "With a rising demand for our services, we need to think differently about how we deliver patient care. “This investment will help us make the best use of digital technology so that we can improve the way we work and transform our services so that they better meet the needs of our local community."

Technology is helping to bring healthcare to the homes of the ageing population in Finland and nursing is at the forefront of this community-based care.