A consortium of NHS trusts that covers a population of circa 1.2 million will gain immediate access to important patient imaging, and will mobilise a regional workforce for patients, following a decision to procure a medical imaging system from Sectra.

Everything from x-rays to ultrasounds, CT scans, MRIs and more will become instantly available to relevant healthcare professions across five trusts in Surrey and Sussex, regardless of where in the consortium a patient has had their medical imaging captured.

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced it has signed a 12-year strategic partnership with IJsselland Hospital (Capelle aan den Ijssel, The Netherlands). As the hospital's strategic technology partner, Philips will target improved care for patients and care providers at IJsselland Hospital and in the surrounding region.

Oracle Corporation (NYSE: ORCL) and Cerner Corporation jointly announced an agreement for Oracle to acquire Cerner through an all-cash tender offer for $95.00 per share, or approximately $28.3 billion in equity value. Cerner is a leading provider of digital information systems used within hospitals and health systems to enable medical professionals to deliver better healthcare to individual patients and communities.

The first patients were recently enrolled in the FAST III trial at the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. This officially marked the beginning of a multicenter, randomized-controlled, open-label study in which the outcome of therapy for coronary artery disease is being investigated after fractional flow reserve (FFR) has been determined using different methods.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) Watson Health and Healthcare IT Leaders announced the integration of IBM Digital Health Pass with Healthcare IT Leaders Healthy Returns, a comprehensive suite of enterprise COVID-19 services.

The IBM Digital Health Pass is designed to enable organizations to verify COVID-19 test results or vaccination status for employees, customers and visitors entering their site, such as a sports stadium, airplane, university, government building or workplace.

WiFi SPARK will celebrate the festive season by offering NHS patients in beds with Hospedia entertainment and communication units three days of free TV.

WiFi SPARK's parent company, Volaris Group, recently acquired Hospedia, which manages 60,000 bedside units in hospitals across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG; AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Vesper Medical Inc., a US-based medical technology company that develops minimally-invasive peripheral vascular devices. Vesper Medical will further expand Philips' portfolio of diagnostic and therapeutic devices with an advanced venous stent portfolio for the treatment of deep venous disease.