What would happen if our medical records were made available via Google or Microsoft?

This is the question currently being raised by politicians following the current NHS IT project, the Care Records Service, which is being criticised for going over budget and taking too long to set up following its introduction into England. Would it better to hand the job of storing medical records over to private firms, such as Google or Microsoft? Read on…

Apple’s App store has just celebrated its first birthday. There are now literally thousands of ‘apps’ available for the iPhone or iPod touch – from 3D games, to currency convertors, to software that transforms the device into a working spirit level.

While some apps are purely a distraction, others seek to make life easier. For example, there’s CashFinder, which helps you to find the nearest cash point based on your current location.

We were intrigued to discover that there are also many Healthcare apps, some of which are designed to help patients manage their conditions, or their adherence to courses of drugs. In no particular order, we’ve picked out our favourite ten. Read on…

I’ve got Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), a chronic disease that causes inflammation of the joints. Sometimes it hurts like hell, yes, but here a few other things to my disease apart from pain:

• I don’t personally know anyone else who has AS
• I get a whole lot of symptoms but no one I read about on forums seems to have the same combination of symptoms as me
• I need to maintain a positive attitude and accept AS as a part of my life
• I worry that people think I am faking my disease so that I can get out of stuff
• And lots, lots more…

So what’s my point here? This blog isn’t a place for disease sufferers to air their thoughts. My point is that these are my insights about my disease. They are patient insights – small nuggets of reality for a patient that are not necessarily common knowledge to non-patients. Read on…

We all remember the global furore early this year that followed the publication of the anti-islamic cartoons of Mohammed. The cartoons were orginally published in Denmark which led politicians there to trumpet the importance of freedom of speech as a fundamental building block of western society. Read on…