iSoft apps now on Blackberry after Elite Alliance

iSoft has joined the BlackBerry Alliance Program as a BlackBerry Alliance Elite Member under moves to introduce applications for care beyond traditional settings and hospital walls.

The company is working on a range of applications to help clinical staff deliver care more efficiently and patients to manage their conditions more effectively. These include apps for doctors to download daily workloads and appointments, for community nurses to record patient details and for patients to check vital signs, arrange appointments and referrals, and order repeat prescriptions.

"We aim to make apps available wherever appropriate for mobile phones," said Adrian Stevens, Managing Director of iSOFT UK, Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

"The NHS in particular is a prolific user of BlackBerry smartphones so already has the critical mass and requisite infrastructure, including security," Stevens said. "The security credentials of the BlackBerry platform are well documented, and a huge advantage given the obvious concerns of patient confidentially and privacy issues."

As an elite member, iSOFT has open access to BlackBerry development tools and development teams and will receive new devices before their general launch, which Stevens says "puts iSOFT at the forefront of new developments that will change healthcare delivery immeasurably".