Bupa intros One Plan initiative

Private healthcare provider Bupa migrated all its data onto a new system that will provide a single record for each customer, reducing the number of records by two-thirds, reports Computing.co.uk.

The system will enable Bupa to introduce its One Plan initiative, which aims to bring new products to market more quickly and tailor offers and reductions for its 12.7 million members more accurately.

The project was a risky one, according to Steve Felton, director of business change at Bupa.

“We were very aware that consolidation of so many systems was a risky strategy and that the data migration element presented significant challenges and pitfalls," says Felton.

Newton is one of several companies working to develop the ultimate smart pill box, states CNET News.

Approximately the size of a textbook, 'Maya' holds 28 small plastic cups that can be designated separately for different pill types and detailed regimens.

When a pill is due to be taken, a white light flashes beneath the specific cup, a friendly little 'take me now!' reminder whose calm insistence bears some resemblance to Hal 9000. If the wrong cup is lifted, a low-level siren that ideally won't cause cardiac arrest informs the patient of the potentially egregious mistake.

Healthcare organisation New Hanover Regional Medical Centre has reduced help desk calls, improved availability of critical systems and lessened virus outbreaks all while better managing IT costs, with the help of Compuware, says Network World.

When an organisational assessment proved the IT department at New Hanover Regional Medical Centre couldn't adequately provide service equal to the demands, CIO Avery Cloud decided an investment in management software would improve the group's maturity level.

New Hanover's IT team supported 4 700 internal end-users and 500 physicians in the community, Cloud says, requiring future updates to electronic medical records, remote services, outpatient clinics and computerised physician order entry.