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The plan focuses on expanding the diversity and reach of genomics in the UK as well as improving patient diagnosis, treatment and sickness prevention.

The medical facility is now reportedly seeking a HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Record Adoption Model (EMRAM) Stage 5 certification.

HIMSS research found that digital transformation has the potential to either decrease or increase healthcare workers’ stress levels, according to how it is implemented.

The trust's longstanding paper-light approach and digitally enhanced team were highlighted as the key components to achieving EMRAM Stage 5.

The Global Pathogen Analysis System sequences and analyses COVID-19 pathogen data in minutes, enabling scientists and governments worldwide to react faster and mitigate the risks.

Ireland’s health service IT system has been shut down as a precautionary measure, following a cyber attack today. The Health Service Executive (HSE) believes the attack is by international criminals attempting to extort money, although no demand has yet been received. HSE confirmed there had been “a significant ransomware attack on the HSE IT systems” and it had closed down systems “to protect them from this attack and to allow us fully assess the situation with our own security partners.” Irish health minister Stephen Donnelly said the attack was having “a severe impact” on health and social care services, but emergency services and the National Ambulance Service were still in operation. WHY IT MATTERS  Ransomware is a malicious software that encrypts files on a computer system. The attack has caused health services to temporarily return to paper-based systems, leading to delays and cancellations to patient services.  Hospitals affected include the Rotunda Maternity Hospital and the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin, which have both reported significant disruption to services, as they are unable to access electronic records. The UL Hospitals group warned of long delays for patients. In a statement on Twitter it said it was “largely operating manual back-up systems” and delays would continue “until such time as patient information, diagnostic reporting and other affected IT systems are secure and operational.” COVID-19 vaccinations and tests will continue, but the registration portal for vaccinations and testing referrals system have bene shut down. THE LARGER CONTEXT  The attack comes four years after the WannaCry virus attack, which affected more than 200,000 computers in 150 countries worldwide. It caused disruption to around 81 NHS trusts and more than 600 primary care organisations in England. More recently, the outsourcing firm behind NHS Test and Trace, Serco confirmed that parts of its infrastructure in mainland Europe had experienced a double extortion ransomware attack from cybercriminals. In February, French insurance company Mutuelle Nationale des Hospitaliers (MNH) suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted the company's healthcare operations.  Last year, the Vastaamo therapy centre in Finland was targeted by who obtained medical records from patient therapy sessions.   Cybersecurity expert, Saif Abed, founding partner of AbedGraham, told Healthcare IT News the threat cyber-attacks pose during mass vaccination programmes.      ON THE RECORD   The EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) said: “We firmly condemn this malicious behaviour in the midst of a health crisis. We are following the ongoing situation and possible developments closely with the authorities and at EU level with the CSIRTs Network. “The health sector is regarded as a vulnerable sector to cyber incidents and crises. In the ENISA Threat Landscape report, it was found that more than 66% of healthcare organisations experienced a ransomware attack in 2019. “In 2019, 45% of attacked organisations paid the ransom. The 45% of organisations that were attacked and paid the ransom, half still lost their data. “In relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals/labs/healthcare organisations have been prime targets for cybercrime related attacks. For example, hospitals in France and Czechia have been targeted.” Brian Honan CEO of Dublin-based cybersecurity firm, BH Consulting, said: “Ransomware has over the past few years has rapidly become a scourge that has impacted organisations all over the globe. Criminals have also deliberately targeted healthcare organisations during the pandemic as they are so critical in the fight against COVID19. High profile attacks like this, and indeed the attack against Colonial Pipeline, will hopefully serve as a wakeup call to governments that cybercrime is a serious threat to our society and way of live and needs to be dealt with accordingly.” Robert Golloday, an EMEA and APAC director at cybersecurity firm, Illusive, said: "This attack against HSE is the latest confirmation of how the professional-scale hack-for-ransom threat is spreading rapidly. Among other institutions, these groups are targeting hospitals and other healthcare providers, most likely because of the value of the personal information their servers hold.” George Daglas, chief operations officer at computer security service, Obrela Security Industries, said: "Ransomware is a particularly vicious threat because it is a double-extortion. Attackers are able to leak an organisations data, which also holds the organisation at ransom, putting the organisations and their customers, or in this case patients, in a very dangerous position.” The story was updated at 17.15 BST  

Also, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals puts £400M EPR tender on hold.

The Queen's Speech to officially reopen Parliament promised legislation to empower the NHS to innovate and embrace technology. In the speech to the House of Lords yesterday, she delivered the government’s plans for a pandemic recovery that would beat COVID-19 and back the NHS. “My ministers will bring forward legislation to empower the NHS to innovate and embrace technology. Patients will receive more tailored and preventative care, closer to home,” Her Majesty said. A background briefing on the speech to Parliament the Queen said the Health and Care Bill will “lay new foundations for a more integrated and efficient health and care system”, enabling staff to focus on delivering the best possible treatment and care for their patients and giving the NHS and local authorities tools to “level up health and care across England”. However, independent health think tanks the Health Foundation, the Kings Fund and Nuffield Trust have criticised the government plans for not addressing social care reform. WHY IT MATTERS The Health and Social Care Bill, which builds on the NHS Long Term Plan, is intended to support recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic by stripping away unnecessary legislative bureaucracy, empowering local leaders and services and tackling health inequalities THE LARGER CONTEXT In February, health secretary Matt Hancock set out plans to reform the NHS and deliver a more joined up health and care system. A government white paper outlined proposals to make integrated care systems (ICSs) the default across England, bust bureaucracy”, and better support social care, public health and improve the way data is collected and shared. ON THE RECORD Dr Jennifer Dixon, chief executive of the Health Foundation, said: “The Health and Care Bill may help improve collaboration between services but it will not fix the most urgent issues facing the service, with critical workforce shortages and a huge backlog of unmet need for care. Without significant investment in the workforce, infrastructure and technology, the backlog won’t be addressed quickly and the public will experience avoidable long waits for care. Richard Murray, chief executive of The King’s Fund, said: “The Health and Care Bill signals a welcome step towards delivering integrated care centred around the needs of patients. However, once the Bill is laid before parliament, we will be examining the details closely, particularly new powers for ministers to take control of national decisions about the NHS and intervene in decisions about changes to local services.” Nuffield Trust deputy director of policy, Natasha Curry said: "The NHS Bill included today has the potential to bring together health and social care services more closely - the pandemic has shown why that is important. But the NHS has been through many restructures before. The government should be very cautious about a Whitehall power grab from the NHS and seeing this as an answer to the challenges ahead.”  

Clinicians from the Pomeranian Medical University Hospital in Szczecin (Poland) use Olympus systems to create a new working environment. While MedPresence helps to streamline teamwork between clinicians, improve quality of care, educate surgery teams and students, VaultStream supports medical content management.

As Philips released the "Future Health Index 2021" report, industry leaders convened to discuss AI, sustainability and how the healthcare landscape has grown in the face of the pandemic.