International health IT week in review: October 29

Pulse+IT's weekly round-up of international health IT and eHealth news for the week ending October 29:
Microsoft kills Kinect, but healthcare users will carry on
MobiHealthNews ~ Jonah Comstock ~ 26/10/2017
Microsoft is discontinuing the Kinect, its pioneering 3D motion-sensing camera. FastCo broke the news that the company will no longer manufacture the device, though it will support existing devices for the time being.
Bittersweet as Corbridge leaves Health Service Executive to return to UK
Digital Health News ~ Shireen Khalil ~ 26/10/2017
Richard Corbridge is looking forward to taking on his new role at one of the largest trusts in the UK but equally, he would have liked to see through one of the most significant and fundamental changes in the Irish healthcare system – the implementation of its electronic health record.
Scripps rolls out Apple ResearchKit app to predict risk of heart disease
Healthcare IT News ~ Tom Sullivan ~ 26/10/2017
People with genetic data from 23andMe can use Scripps’ MyGeneRank app to calculate a genetic risk score for coronary artery disease.
Hackers threaten to leak data from celebrity plastic surgery clinic
Digital Health News ~ Owen Hughes ~ 26/10/2017
Hackers are threatening to release customer data from a plastic surgery clinic in London known for its roster of high-profile clients.
Virtual reality connects surgeons from across the globe
Digital Health News ~ Hannah Crouch ~ 25/10/2017
Three surgeons from Mumbai and London all wore Microsoft HoloLens headsets in order to appear live in an operating theatre at The Royal London Hospital where professor Shafi Ahmed was operating to remove a tumour.
Cerner EHR project for VA will take 7 to 8 years, Shulkin says
Healthcare IT News ~ Jessica Davis ~ 24/10/2017
While the launch of the new EHR to replace the outdated VistA system will take just 18 months, but the whole system overhaul will take much longer.
Value-based care will drive more than half of health IT spending by 2025
FierceHealthcare ~ Evan Sweeney ~ 24/10/2017
The transition to value-based care models is driving healthcare spending across the board, and IT is no exception.
Dallas free-standing ERs want Google to identify the people behind 22 negative online reviews
FierceHealthcare ~ Paige Minemyer ~ 24/10/2017
A Texas court has granted a request from two free-standing emergency rooms to question Google about the identities of more than 20 people who left negative online reviews about the two facilities.
Somerset introduces web-based EPR viewer across all clinical services
Digital Health News ~ Shireen Khalil ~ 23/10/2017
The Emis Web EPR Viewer enables all healthcare professionals to view GP medical records for the patients they are treating, subject to patient consent at the point of care.
Judge dismisses CliniComp lawsuit against VA-Cerner deal
Healthcare IT News ~ Jessica Davis ~ 23/10/2017
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims dismissed a lawsuit against the federal government last week, which contested the no-bid deal made by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs with Cerner to replace its EHR platform.
Swindells says NHS’s digital best are ‘mediocre’ by international standards
Digital Health News ~ Shireen Khalil ~ 20/10/2017
NHS England’s director for operations and information has described the best NHS users of technology as comparing unfavourably with the best internationally.
Feds warn of DDoS attack vulnerability for connected medical devices
Healthcare IT News ~ Jessica Davis ~ 20/10/2017
As the number of connected devices is projected to grow to 20 to 50 billion by 2020, the FBI says the threat of DDoS attacks launched by leveraging flaws in IoT devices is not going away anytime soon.
Epic ranks high, Cerner falls short
Healthcare IT News ~ Bernie Monegain ~ 20/10/2017
While many vendors earned high marks, they all seem to have ‘too many clicks’ in the eyes of their users.
71% of providers say interoperability not attainable by 2020
Health Data Management ~ Greg Slabodkin ~ 20/10/2017
Less than a third of provider organizations believe that current federal policies, committees and regulations are sufficient to help the country attain meaningful health IT interoperability by 2020.
3D printed prosthetics helping breast cancer survivors
eHealthNews South Africa ~ Terri Chowles ~ 20/10/2017
Mechanical engineering technologist Nneile Nkholise is helping breast cancer survivors who underwent a mastectomy by creating 3D printed artificial breasts through her med-tech startup, the iMed Tech Group.
Posted in Australian eHealth