Health care congress

The annual World Health Care Innovation and Technology Congress is taking place in Washington from 9 to 11 November.

According to a statement, executives from Cisco Systems, GE Healthcare, IBM and Microsoft will convene to discuss the challenge of integration and interoperability in healthcare.

Talks will focus on the assimilation of clinical data and providing delegates with a global platform to discuss best practices in implementing inventive future healthcare strategies, policy-making, and technology solutions.

IBM plans to open up its patent portfolio to healthcare and education software developers royalty-free, reports PC Pro. This vault, containing over 45 000 patents, will not only provide developers with ideas, but also improve interoperability across the sector.

Although expectations are that initial uptake will be slow, IBM is confident that number will increase dramatically once it is explored.

Access will be strict and although no exact terms have been decided yet, IBM threatens that third-party abuse of this programme will be "extraordinarily regrettable".

Stanford and Eindhoven Universities and EPCGlobal US recently announced the release of the EPC Value Model for the pharmaceutical industry, says Genetic Engineering News.

The Value Model is a result of researched conducted with seven of the world`s pharmaceutical manufacturing giants and is designed to provide companies with specific projections based on the real-world variables they input themselves.

This tool will enable pharmaceutical manufacturers to employ Electronic Product Code technology to automatically track goods in the supply chain anywhere in the world.

This strategy was as a result of the need to secure the pharmaceutical supply chain - it is estimated that 5% - 10% of the world`s pharmaceuticals are counterfeit, which could run as high as 25% in developing countries.