Orion Health Ltd, a leading provider of integration technology for the health care industry worldwide, has been appointed by Northern Ireland to pilot a new Electronic Care Record (ECR). The one year pilot phase will see hospitals and GP practices across two of the five Health and Social Care Trusts begin to share medical records and basic social care information using the Concerto™ Portal from Orion Health.

The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery is launching a new service to support people with epilepsy. This innovative service, offered in partnership with iPLATO Healthcare, aims to help the hospital's patients improve the management of their condition using web and mobile based technology.

Australia's largest listed health information technology company today announced the launch of iSOFT Aged Care - Enterprise Wide Health (EWH), an integrated management solution for aged and community care organisations.

Siemens Healthcare and SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) signed an agreement today whereby SAP will resell in selected target markets the Siemens Healthcare hospital information system (HIS) i.s.h.med - a leading health information system for the clinical setting that helps healthcare providers improve efficiencies, contributing to improved patient care and the management information system i.c.m.health.

Australia's largest listed health information technology company announced three new contracts in Germany totalling €1.34 million ($2.2 million), including iSOFT's Lorenzo Portal and the first order for the company's new picture archiving and communications system (PACS). All three contracts were finalised in November.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Royal Philips Electronics (AEX: PHI, NYSE: PHG) have signed a EUR 200 million loan agreement. The 10 year loan, provided under the Risk-Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF) will be used to finance research and development (R&D) activities across a range of innovative healthcare projects, including image-guided intervention and home healthcare, in Europe.

Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of diagnostic imaging and healthcare IT solutions, announced that NHS Blackpool has provided local healthcare professionals from Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation with access to the diagnostic imaging records of their patients.