Opinion Article by Prof. Michael Thick, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Clinical Information Officer, IMS MAXIMSIn its winter flow report 2017-18, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine said it was: "the worst winter we’ve ever experienced."
Fujitsu announced development of Fujitsu Healthcare Solution Healthcare Personal service Platform, a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for the integrated management of consumer-facing offerings based on health and medical information. The new service can aggregate and integrate an individual's personal health record, enabling the safe and secure storage and use of such health and medical information. 
A clinical portal commissioned by four NHS boards covering some of the most remote areas of Scotland has gone live and started to sign-up clinical users. The North of Scotland Care Portal, built using Orion Health technology, gives staff working in NHS Grampian, NHS Highland, NHS Orkney, and NHS Shetland a single view of patient information held in different IT systems across the boards. 
Medicus AI GmbH announced the completion of the first tranche of its Series A funding round at €2.75 million, with the purview to close the second tranche of €2.25 million over the coming months.
Medicus works with diagnostic labs to deliver smart features and insights to doctors, in terms of smart testing and diagnosis support, and to patients, in the form of visual and interactive reports, powering continuous healthcare and coaching across all digital platforms.
Boehringer Ingelheim (Canada) Ltd. and IBM Canada announced at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference in Orlando, Florida, their plans to explore the use of blockchain technology in clinical trials. This collaboration underscores Boehringer Ingelheim's commitment to healthcare innovation and marks the first time that blockchain technology will be explored in a clinical trial setting in Canada. 
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced the launch of IntelliSpace Epidemiology, a solution that optimizes the detection of healthcare associated infections (HAIs) in the hospital. Philips IntelliSpace Epidemiology is the only decision-support solution in the U.S. that combines clinical informatics and genomic sequencing information from pathogenic bacteria, aiming to efficiently assist infection control prevention teams in identifying infection transmissions. 
Siemens Healthineers is planning to expand its location in Forchheim in response to the continuing strong demand for medical imaging devices, in particular for CT scanners and x-ray applications. The new "Siemens Healthineers Campus" will consist of an ultra-modern factory for medical components and a new R&D and logistics center alongside the existing facilities.