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In this issue:
- A very healthy event
- Quicksilva's 10th Birthday
- US health reforms could hit other countries
- Scientists hope work with poison gas can be a lifesaver
- Blackpool set to choose Alert
- U2 gig to be streamed on YouTube
- Work begins on national e-health record network
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Another year older...
Are there "Company Years"?... something like "Dog Years"? If so I'm certainly feeling them... I have my own birthday every year and then the Company's as well and somehow the repeating cycles seem to speed up time.
It doesn't seem like two minutes since we crowded round a flip chart in our London office to map out our culture, products, services, etc. There's been many highs and lows since then, all of which I wouldn't have missed for the world... moving to Langley Gate... delivering projects in impossible timescales... originating products... developing structure, process and quality... growing the team…demerging... growing the team (again)... launching managed services...
...and then there have been the parties... wonderful nights in some amazing places... lots of fun and laughter...
We have people who have stuck with us through thick and thin…internal and external... company people and customers and suppliers too... and to all of them I would like to extend heartfelt thanks for making this last ten years just brilliant.
I’m looking forwards to the next ten...
Gayna |
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Quicksilva Caption Competition 19
How to enter
Email captions to captions@qxlva.com
Deadline: 26th November 2009.
We will include our favourite(s) in next month's newsletter!
Our favourite from last month
"Ryanair introduce their new cost cutting airline service" |
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A very healthy event
Here at Quicksilva the highlight of our social calendar is without question The eHealth Insider Awards. This is not only because they reward the people on the frontline, who rarely get the credit they deserve, but also because of its prevailing friendly, community spirit.
If we thought that this year people might be a bit down in the mouth because of the economic situation, and the rumoured impact this is to have on public spending, we were wrong. The mood, helped along no doubt by the well-staffed bar, was extremely buoyant.
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Quicksilva's 10th Birthday
Quicksilva was established by Gayna Hart, our Managing Director in October 1999. The company began life at offices in Paddington in London, but in those days there were only 4 employees. The company moved to Langley Gate, offices built out of the former potting sheds and greenhouses of a centuries old Wiltshire manor house. Due to the continued success of the business, the offices were extended in 2008, providing the capacity to maintain the steady growth of the company. During its 10 years of trading there have been many success stories. The majority of the long term goals set out at the inception of the company have now been realised.
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In the News... |
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US health reforms could hit other countries
From BBC News
The US spends 16.2% of GDP a year on its healthcare, twice as much per head as the UK does, and yet the average American's life expectancy is lower.
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Quicksilva thoughts...
Articles like this make me appreciate our derided NHS system much more. We are lucky in this country that we are provided free health care no matter what our current social or financial status. I have seen and read about the financial burden imposed on Americans who have serious health issues and who do not have health insurance. With most treatment potentially running into thousands of dollars this is leading more families to bankruptcy.
This article highlights the potential dangers of the American pharmaceutical companies lowering their prices to match the UK and Europe, eventually hampering medical research that Europeans will benefit from. What they fail to realise is that European nations pump a higher percentage of their profits into research, (23% compared to USA’s 17%) and have been stated to be more productive with their research than the USA. Maybe it’s time that the US took notice of how their profiteering is hurting their client base, the American public and make a change for the better. |
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Scientists hope work with poison gas can be a lifesaver
From CNN
Scientists are starting to understand that death isn't caused by oxygen deprivation itself, but by a chain of damaging chemical reactions that are triggered by sharply dropping oxygen levels.
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Quicksilva thoughts...
Prolonging life. What an interesting concept. But how many times would you be able to use this method before you are not brought back to ‘life’? There is only so much your body can take! What scenario would this actually be required to be used? They mention this to be used as “emergency medicine” but how many lives would be lost in testing this in an emergency situation before it is decided if it really is a medical breakthrough? If there is a difference in reactions between a rat and a pig then I think a lot more research needs to take place before even contemplating the thought of introducing this into a theatre.
Lots of questions need to be asked, time and money spent – I would definitely recommend that they weigh up the benefits before further experiments...
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Blackpool set to choose Alert
From E-Health Insider
Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust looks set to partner with Alert Life Sciences to supply its new electronic patient record system.
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Quicksilva thoughts...
I think that this is great news and, dare I say, maybe this relatively unknown provider getting a foothold in this marketplace signifies some green shoots of competition appearing in the sparse LSP domain. It's also great news for the smaller players to see the ASCC framework card being played to good effect.
It's interesting to compare the reaction to the news in July 2008 of CSC investing technical resources in evaluating and testing the Alert EPR, (E-Health Insider 8th July - CSC markets Alert to the NHS) which attracted no reader comments, to the current reaction with a plethora of opinion. A sign of quickly changing times. Happy days! |
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U2 gig to be streamed on YouTube
From BBC News
U2's concert at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in California on Sunday will be streamed live on video-sharing website YouTube, the band have announced.
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Quicksilva thoughts...
It's great to see how one of the biggest bands (in the world) will be using the internet to reach out to their fans that can't attend the upcoming concert but do you really want to watch it on a your laptop (or PC) monitor, as well as having your internet connection spoiling the video quality?
Although video streaming technology has improved significantly over the last 10 years, the real problem still lies in our internet speed. With the number of broadband users increasing every year, our Internet Service Providers are struggling to keep up the demand of high speed internet, causing the quality of live streaming to degrade.
Until they upgrade copper cables to fibre optic or place more exchanges around the country, I will be sitting on my comfy sofa, watching this concert on a laptop, instead of a big screen TV. |
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Work begins on national e-health record network
From Google
Dr. James E. Sanders is a big believer of switching patient records from old paper files to sophisticated computer databases.
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Quicksilva thoughts...
There is some interesting activity in the United States at the moment as the Obama administration starts the search for an appropriate model for a national healthcare programme. The sharing of records is a key element of that - and the problems associated in delivering it are even more difficult over there given the greater number of systems already deployed - all working to differing state requirements.
The creation of the National Health Information Network (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationwide_Health_Information_Network) would at first glance appear to be a carbon-copy of the english NHS Spine. However the Americans have taken a significantly different approach in that they are creating a common - and open - standard which allows participating systems to talk to each other, rather than a national system which acts as a broker between them. It even anticipates direct interaction with the patient. This federated approach risks creating a 'patchwork coverage' effect in the short-term, however take up of services seems to be extremely rapid so far, and the network-of-networks parallel drawn with the ATM system bodes well. To emphasise that very point the US government is now referring to the NHIN as the 'Health Internet', and when you think the Internet itself began as a US government network it is hard to imagine it not succeeding.
This approach would have major drawbacks for services requiring a single registry - such as Electronic Prescription and Choose And Book services, but it is an interesting model for data which needs to remain 'near' the patient, and could offer a quick route to the delivery of summary and detailed care record solutions that the NHS Trusts are waiting for. |
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"Humans are incapable of securely storing high-quality cryptographic keys, and they have unacceptable speed and accuracy when performing cryptographic operations. (They are also large, expensive to maintain, difficult to manage, and they pollute the environment. It is astonishing that these devices continue to be manufactured and deployed. But they are sufficiently pervasive that we must design our protocols around their limitations.) " - Charlie Kaufman, Radia Perlman, & Mike Speciner, "Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World, 1995 |
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