Healthcare informatics

Electronic prescribing does not prevent most harmful paediatric prescribing errors, study finds

Electronic prescribing systems in England do not prevent the majority of harmful prescribing errors from occurring in the hospital paediatric setting, study results published in The BMJ show.…

USB memory sticks could help reduce medicine errors after hospital discharge

Giving patients a USB device containing electronic medicine records at hospital discharge could help prevent medicine errors as they move between hospital and the community, a study published in the British Journal of General Practice has found.…

NHS Digital may trial pharmacy access to patient records using a tablet this year

Pharmacists could soon access summary care records (SCR) using an Apple iPad rather than a smartcard, under a new NHS Digital pilot.…

Electronic prescribing and medication administration in hospital could be linked to error increases, study finds

Hospital electronic prescribing and medication administration may be linked with an overall increase in medication errors, a study published in BMC Health Services Research  has found.…

Rowlands Pharmacy plans to reduce pharmacy network in order to ‘invest in the future’

Rowlands Pharmacy has announced plans to sell 70 of its pharmacies — 69 in England and one in Wales — in order to focus its investment on automation.…

Community pharmacy vital to deploying ‘Big Data’ and artificial intelligence in practice, says PGEU

The Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union says community pharmacy could use new technologies to dedicate more working time to providing patient care, use patient data to provide a more personalised healthcare service and utilise mobile health tools to identify at-risk patients.…

The GP pharmacists leading a life-saving medicines safety project

A major initiative by pharmacists to reduce risky medicines use in the community will be rolled out across the country after it was found to reduce serious adverse events.…

NHS rolls out digital prescription prepayment certificates following successful pilot

Patients are now able to apply online for an instant digital prescription prepayment certificate following a successful national pilot.…

Electronic prescribing could have halted Gosport tragedy, RPS report says

The inappropriate use of opioid drugs, which was at the heart of the Gosport War Memorial Hospital scandal, could have been identified sooner if electronic prescribing had been in place.…

Pharmacists able to update GP patient records with flu vaccine data from winter 2019

Exclusive: Pharmacists will be able to share data on patients’ flu vaccinations with GPs from winter 2019, using NHS Digital’s new data sharing standards.…