All articles by Lyn Whitfield
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Comment
Lyn Whitfield on personal medical data
Did anyone else feel a twinge of unease about the NHS's 60th anniversary celebrations? I couldn't help thinking they were very backward looking; all those 1940s-style logos and pictures of nurses holding babies in knitted cardigans.
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HSJ Knowledge
NHS60: All roads lead to IT
BT is dedicated to a future where information technology works for healthcare on all fronts, says Lyn Whitfield
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HSJ Knowledge
Training: cognitive therapy first
A nursing director has developed an online cognitive behavioural therapists' course as part of his MBA. Lyn Whitfield reports
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HSJ Knowledge
Lyn Whitfield on
When you’re in a hole, stop digging. It’s a well known maxim, but one the government seems completely incapable of applying to ID cards.Home secretary Jacqui Smith had the spade out again last month [subs March], when she re-launched the much criticised scheme for the umpteenth time.The BBC loyally reported ...
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HSJ Knowledge
security
The nation’s headline writers did not hold back when HM Revenue and Customs was forced to admit that it had lost the confidential details of every child benefit claimant in the country.Words like “shocking” and “fiasco” featured above the first stories about how the information had vanished after a “junior ...
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HSJ Knowledge
Lyn Whitfield on being over 30
I attended an IT conference recently at which the keynote speaker told me I could never be a 'digital native' because I was over 30 and hadn't grown up texting.
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HSJ Knowledge
Notes on a scandal: electronic records
The row over summary care records rages on, but what do patients in pioneer areas think about them and do they fear invasion of privacy? Lyn Whitfield visits Bolton to find out
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HSJ Knowledge
The benefits of picture archiving technology
The national IT programme is proclaiming a triumph at last, says Lyn Whitfield
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News
Lyn Whitfield on patient portals and information
There have been some interesting developments in health portals in the past few weeks. Over in theUSA, Microsoft launched HealthVault: a free site – paid for by advertising – that allows users to store personal health information and inputs from medical devices, and choose who to share the data with.By ...
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HSJ Knowledge
E-procurement strategy / launch.
Lyn WhitfieldImproving data quality and getting systems to work together are more or less the first issues to arise whenever IT is discussed in the NHS. They apply as much to commercial systems as to clinical ones.Yet the health service has tended not to take a common approach when it ...
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News
IT programme: pioneer sites of summary care records named
NHS Connecting for Health has announced that more than 50,000 summary care records have now been uploaded to the 'spine' that underpins the NHS care records service.
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Comment
Lyn Whitfield on information creep
'Sooner or later the NHS will be caught up in a major scandal involving records'
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HSJ Knowledge
The waiting game: technology and the 18-week target
Most agree the 18-week target is a worthy one, but how can it be measured? Lyn Whitfield asks whether current technology can keep up with the good intentions
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News
NAO quizzed on 'glowing' IT report
The National Audit Office has been told to continue to monitor the progress of the national programme for IT in the NHS after producing a report which surprised MPs with its positive conclusions.
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News
New scrutiny for IT programme as bigger role for SHAs mooted
Major changes to the national programme for IT in the NHS have been signalled as the NHS chief executive launched a review and MPs announced an inquiry.
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News
Charities fear 'nuisance' penalties will discriminate
Mental health charities have expressed serious concerns about proposals to introduce new penalties for 'nuisance and disturbance behaviour' on NHS premises.
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News
NHS Logistics vote to strike over transfer to DHL
Hospitals could be left without catering and medical supplies if a strike by 1,400 staff at supply agency NHS Logistics goes ahead.
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News
MPs demand rethink on IT as reforms 'sleepwalking to disaster'
Two members of the Commons' public accounts committee have called for the national IT programme to be dismantled and local IT decisions handed back to trusts and GPs.
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News
DoH to tighten cost planning
Trusts are to be given tight new guidelines on capital investment to ensure that running costs of new buildings and equipment can be covered, and that new income can be generated from treating patients.
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News
Hospitals told to focus on food and cleaning
Health minister Andy Burnham has told hospitals to focus on food and cleaning if they want to win good reviews from patients.