The Surface Pro 3's big, beautiful touch screen is a big part of it's appeal. But in a clinical environment it's important that touch screen devices be sanitized regularly to prevent the spread of infection. Luckily, the Surface team has released updated guidelines for sanitizing your device for use in a clinical environment:

"Healthcare customers can sanitize Microsoft Surface Pro 3 devices using one of our recommended solutions—PDI Sani-Cloth Plus, CaviWipes, Covidien Alcohol Prep Pads, any similar wipes with IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) solution under 70%, Total Solutions Full Spectrum Disinfectant Wipes, or Clorox Healthcare Bleach Germicidal Wipes--without risk of damaging the device.

The alcohol-based solutions can also be used to clean the entire Surface Type Cover 3 without damage. Total Solutions Wipes may leave cotton fibers on the bottom side of the Type Cover 3, but these can be removed by hand. Clorox Healthcare Bleach Germicidal Wipes may discolour the bottom surface of the Type Cover 3 with prolonged use, and therefore are not recommended to sanitize the Type Cover 3.

Users should not douse the items with solution, but rather use pre-moistened wipes or apply IPA to application cloth and use the cloth on the unit."

Learn more about how the Surface Pro 3 is creating new opportunities for health care providers.  

Over the past few years, I’ve been fortunate enough to see how businesses that transform to digital business are changing the landscape of the modern enterprise. We all know these changes result in larger profit margins, happier and more productive employees, greater work-life balance and a more secure business.

But every so often, I get to publish stories of digital transformation that are profoundly moving. On these occasions, I couldn’t imagine myself working anywhere else other than Microsoft.

The infamous Operation Smile is a conglomeration of medical professionals who travel the world, offering free-of-charge corrective surgery to children with facial deformities – most often, cleft palates. Anyone who has tried to nurse an infant or feed a child knows it can be challenging at the best of times; however, these anomalies in facial development usually impair the young at a level far beyond cosmetics, meaning they fail to get nutrition at the most critical stages in their growth and development.

Operation Smile has donated 220,000 surgeries since 1982, and typically administer three simultaneous clinics of surgeries in different locales across the planet. For a non-profit, globe-spanning enterprise: ease of scheduling, information-sharing and productivity tools are mission-critical, and time wasted on coordination means fewer patients obtain life-changing surgeries.

Their CTO says it all: “Nothing is more important to us than the health and well-being of children. Every dollar that we can save in how we conduct business goes directly to helping another child… that means a lot more children are getting the medical help they need.” Watch what happened when Operation Smile was able to pool its knowledge and streamline its coordination using Office 365. Sometimes, software really does save lives.

Watch more about Operation Smile:

 
Note: This video contains pre-operative images of several children Operation Smile has helped.

What’s that you say? That’s not enough? You want more excitement? You got it.

At Future Decoded on 10th November at London ExCel, we’ll take it up another level by giving the world of health apps the full “Dragon’s Den” treatment. Join Microsoft UK’s Matthew Chase as he listens to pitches from four cutting-edge health apps in four very different categories.

Will the winner be:

Adaptive Apps, with its next-generation app for cross-platform primary care?

Medepad, with its nurse observation apps that integrate with existing PAS, EPR, PACS, as well as other specialist and clinical tools?

Oncoassist, with its decision support tool for mobile oncologists including adjuvant tools, prognostic calculators and formulas?

Mira, with its in-clinic and at-home physiotherapy app using low-cost Kinect games technology?

The answer isn’t up to us. The winner will determined by audience vote – that means you! Be sure to join us for the “Healthcare showcase of 21st century mobile apps” at Future Decoded to learn more about the future of health apps and help us select our winner.

Learn more about all the amazing things happening at Future Decoded on 10th November at London ExCel.

• We need to reimagine “Big Data.” Big Data might be a hot buzzword right now, but Berners-Lee argued we should focus on “Rich Data” instead. Our ability to turn data into insights doesn’t depend on the size of the data set, so much as its context, he said. At Microsoft, we’ve seen customers prove this time and time again. When you’re trying to use data to radically rethink your approach to customer service, you can’t look at just one facet of their transaction history. You need to be able to see whole people if you want fans instead of customers. The same principle holds true if you’re trying to transform elevators, an office campus, or even a whole city.
• We need openness in data. Everyone knows that information silos kill innovation. But most organisations don’t take their approach to openness far enough, Berners-Lee argued. “Don't give me a nice website with visualisations of your data. Give me the raw data, so I can merge it with what I want, so I can find out what that data looks like next to this data. That's open data!” We’ve seen that when organisations take a truly open approach to data, it can help improve service and even transform an organisation’s culture.
• We need to push the boundaries of data analysis. As important as the current generation of insights are, they’re nothing compared to what will come next. “Yes, computers are getting faster. But more importantly, they're getting smarter," said Berners-Lee. The advent of affordable cloud services means that anyone can have access to unbelievable processing power. We’re already seeing hints of how cloud tools will transform everything frommaintenance to language translation to medical imaging. But that’s just the start. The organisations that prosper from the next wave of Web innovations, will be ones will to push the limits today.

That future sounds pretty great, doesn’t it? But Berners-Lee took pains to impress on his audience that these ideas are just his hopes for the future of the Web. They are “instructions, not predictions” he told the crowd. It will be up to us to build a Web worthy of these ideals. "We have to remember that the future is something we build. Nothing will happen if we just wait,” he said.

If you enjoy listening to visionary talks from some of the brightest minds around, register to attend Future Decoded on 10th November at ExCel London. You’ll hear Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Sir Bob Geldof, Jeremy Paxman, Dame Stella Rimington, Sara Murray OBE, Sir Martin Sorrell and Ronan Dunne share their perspectives on the future of business, society, education and more!

Sign up today to attend a free event at Microsoft’s offices at Cardinal Place in London to learn about the latest cloud trends in:

Storage

It seems you can never have enough storage, and the more storage you require, the higher the costs for data management, back up, archive and disaster recovery.  Sound familiar? Microsoft Azure helps reduce costs and improve data management.  StorSimple, a Microsoft company is leading the way for Cloud Integrated Storage combining data management functions and optimising storage costs.

19th November: 9:30 am-1 pm

17th December

E-mail t-benko@microsoft.com to register.

Big Data

Knowledge is power -- but data is only useful when you know what to do with it.  Imagine being able to put your data to work and discover deep insights about your organisation.  You can do just that with Windows Azure HDInsight, a Big Data solution powered by Apache Hadoop.  Based on Microsoft BI toolsets, insights from the many facets of data can uncover patterns quickly.  Data sets are built as Hadoop clusters in minutes and can further integrate data into existing analytics. 

13th November: 9 am-1 pm

4th December 

E-mail t-benko@microsoft.com to register.

Security

Identity and Access management is at the heart of corporate security, whether you want to enable employees to access internal resources or let consumers make remote transactions. Windows Azure Active Directory is an Identity and Access Management cloud solution enabling easy management of user accounts and single sign on whilst matching protection to its’ given environment.  Developers will be able to deliver access control to their applications in a unified manner, based on an organisation’s centralised policies.

6th November: 9 am-1 pm

4th December

E-mail t-benko@microsoft.com to register.

File Management

Is there an easy way to clean up files on the server?  Wish you could measure resources at peak usage times without further added cost? If you combine SharePoint with Azure you will find the way to address these issues and more.  Gain further benefits from your existing SharePoint investments with Azure as it can handle your document storage and in addition host large amounts of SharePoint application data all within the cloud.

13th November: 9 am-1 pm

11th December

E-mail t-benko@microsoft.com to register.

Testing & Development

The cloud is a developer’s dream, as it allows you to self-provision as many virtual machines as you need for application development and testing -- without waiting for hardware, procurement or internal processes. Learn how to connect globally to your on-premises network with Windows Azure Virtual Network and confidently scale up, scale out, and generate load to deliver applications faster.

13th November: 1-5 pm

11^th December

E-mail t-benko@microsoft.com to register.

Location:

Microsoft Offices
Cardinal Place
80-100 Victoria Street
London
SW1E 5JL

Based in Cambridge, the East of England Collaborative Procurement Hub is an award-winning National Health Service organization that manages procurement of both clinical and non-clinical supplies for various health organizations across the region. It’s a lean, not-for-profit organization of 25 staff members, including just three employees who are responsible for providing IT and business support.

To augment its small IT staff, the Hub used a third party for certain IT services. Not only was this expensive, but Hub IT employees were increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of control it afforded, as it hindered the organization’s ability to function. The Hub also faced challenges around scalability and storage as the business grew. Regulation meant e-mails must be kept for seven years and it was thought that a cloud platform would be the most effective way of meeting those challenges, with the Hub only paying for what it actually used and required.

The Hub engaged with Core, a member of the Microsoft Partner Network, to help it determine the best solution. Together, the organizations agreed that with mobility and scalability so important, a hybrid cloud model based on Microsoft Azure would be most effective. The Hub’s large shared drive, which needs to be maintained for seven years and accessed regularly, will still sit onsite but is also backed up to Azure. The Hub is required to keep e-mail for seven years, so the shift to the cloud meant migrating a great deal of data, but the move to Azure was straightforward, with minimal disruption.

The Hub also deployed Microsoft Office 365, a suite of productivity, including Microsoft Lync Online, and its enablement team now uses Windows Intune for mobile device management. All these products are cloud-based, which means that all updates are managed for the Hub by Microsoft. Moving to a cloud-based solution from Microsoft has improved the day-to-day operations at the Hub by providing increased scalability for the organization to grow. It has also improved collaboration, provided more control, and offered substantial cost savings.

Hub employees welcomed tools that let them to quickly reach each other and any information they need, regardless of location. System changes used to have lead times of anything from three days to two weeks with the old provider. Now change times have now been reduced to an almost immediate response since moving to Microsoft Azure. More than 90% of system changes are made within 24 hours.

As a not-for-profit organization, the Hub especially appreciates the cost savings that its cloud-based solution has delivered. Not only did the Hub avoid the capital expense of hardware, but the scalable payment structure of the Azure model has given the Hub the option to add new users as needed.

Learn more about the East of England Collaborative Procurement Hub story and register to attend Future Decoded on 10 Nov. at ExCel London to hear more about technology is helping organisations of all types achieve more. 

We’ve been told that tablets are consumer toys and laptops are boring, bog-standard tech. Everyone 

Tablets are about more than slick touch controls and playing Angry Birds on your lunch break. Tablets change how employees work and those changes have real, measurable effects on an organisation. A 2014 ROI calculation study from Forrester Research found a composite organisation stands to see a return on investment of 128% when investing in modern Windows 8.1 tablet devices for their business or organisation. Participants in Forrester’s study described three big benefits of tablet ownership.

• Higher productivity: When you give your employee a flexible device, you’re empowering them to work flexibly. Now your salesmen can take orders wherever they are, your managers can take notes during site visits and your executives can be productive on the go. When estate agents at Foxton’s began using tablets, they didn’t need to go back to the office in between client meetings since all their files and settings were available on their tablets. Doing away with the extra travel time meant they could meet with more clients each day. According to Forrester, mobile workers saw their productivity increase by 46% when they were equipped with tablets.
• Greater accuracy: When employees can take notes or enter data directly into their device, they dramatically reduce the risk of introducing typos. Now, instead of taking a note on paper or transcribing a note from one device to another, everything can stay in one secure digital location. Paperwork was a major drain on officers’ time at the Hampshire Police, until the officers got tablets. Now officers can take crime scene photos and capture case notes on the go. Those notes are locked into a single digital platform with multi-layer data protection and recovery options that protect that data even when it leaves the tablet. According to Forrester, a composite organisation stands to reduce errors by 51% after deploying tablets.
• Controlled costs: Modern tablets keep costs low because they replace laptops, rather than augmenting them. Windows 8.1 tablets don’t require special security software or mobile device management programs, which means you avoid incurring additional operating costs. The Scottish Government found that when they equipped staff with tablet devices that were secure and easy to use, they were able to rethink how staff worked and look for opportunities to innovate. Forrester found that a composite organisation was able to offset their tablet investment in less than 6 months.

Forrester Research designed a simple ROI calculator that makes it easy to find out how much tablets could save your organisation. Just answer four easy questions and you’ll have a simple return on investment calculation you can use to plan your business’ next Windows tablet deployment.

Interested in learning more about how technology will shape the future of business? At Future Decoded on 10th November. at ExCel London, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and a host of other thought leaders will share bold visions of the challenges and opportunities ahead. Act fast to secure a place at this event.

This post by the Department of Health's Dave Briggs originally appeared on Gov.UK's Digital Health blog. 

As part of my role on digital capability, I’m experimenting with different ways of delivering learning activity to people within the department.

The traditional course is fine as far as it goes, but with increasing limits on both budgets for learning and development and time to take out to attend courses, we need a blended approach that doesn’t rely on just one method.

I’ve also set myself some rules to help me focus on what people here really need from learning activities:

• In context - learning should be delivered to people in the context in which they would be using that learning and not in classrooms
• Task orientated - learning must be focused on the tasks people want to complete, rather than being conceptual or so high level that it requires a lot of work to make it relevant
• Timely - learners need to get the skills and knowledge they need when they need it, not weeks or months in advance when most likely it will be forgotten
• Accessible - learning should be delivered in a way that learners can access it when they want, where they want
• Scalable - we need to be able to deliver learning to large groups of people

One new experiment, which is kicking off this week, is using Yammer to deliver an informal learning course. In case you don’t know, Yammer is an internal social networking tool that provides a Facebook like experience only accessible to people working within an organisation.

It’s what I was alluding to when I wrote on my personal blog about using tools you already have, rather than always building something new.

There are a few reasons why this is a good idea:

• Time and cost - we can get started right away and without any additional investment
• Familiarity - hopefully everyone involved will be used to the system and the way it works
• No access issues - everyone can access Yammer, so we don’t have to do anything to make this happen

So, I have created a new Yammer network to run alongside the usual DH one – this keeps all the learning stuff from cluttering up the main one. Also it means that in future, people from outside the department could take part if we decide it would be a good idea.

Inside this new network, the structure is that each ‘course’ will sit inside its own group. Anyone can join the network, but course group membership is moderated to help manage numbers and so on.

Then it is just a case of using the functionality that Yammer offers in the groups to deliver the learning. These include:

• Updates - the core Yammer function will be used to post content and encourage conversation
• Files - we can upload files, including case studies, presentations and reports for learners to access
• Notes - are used for course documentation and for collaborative work among learners

The first course I am running, which starts this week, is for members of the digital team who want to improve their blogging.

The format is that it is a four week course, with each week being a ‘lesson’. The lessons are made up of bits of content, including stuff to read, videos to watch, and guidance to download. Discussions will be prompted inside the group to help talk through issues and embed learning, and there will also be a simple assignment each week.

The weekly format will mean that not everyone has to be online and interacting at the same time, whilst still getting the benefit of conversations with fellow learners.

I’ll be doing some simple evaluation of this method of delivering learning in the Department, and if it proves to be something people find helpful, I’ll be doing more of it.

Hopefully it’s also a model that others will be able to follow, and I look forward to reading about how that works out.

Giving blood is one of the easiest and most important ways you can help someone else receive life-saving care. Donating blood may not cost you anything, but it can mean everything to someone who needs a transfusion. The NHS collects about 1.9 million blood donations each year, but only about 4% of UK adults give blood, so there’s a constant need to attract new donations. To promote giving blood, the NHS needs a people-centric, mobile-ready approach to donor services.

One of the ways the NHS is encouraging blood donations is by making it easy for donors to book and manage appointments on a self-serve basis on their Windows Phone using the NHSGiveBlood app. Donors in England and North Wales can now use the app to register, look up nearby venues and session times, book an appointment or modify existing bookings. The app makes it easy to edit personal details and see a timeline of their donation history. Donors can also use the app to tell their Facebook friends about their decision to donate – and maybe even inspire their friends to do the same.

By offering donation bookings on a mobile-ready, self-serve basis the NHS is making blood donation as simple as possible. When a single donation can help as many as three people, that’s a very good thing indeed.

Check out the NHSGiveBlood app now for Windows Phone.

Belfast Health and Social Care Trust wanted to replace its existing communications infrastructure with something fully integrated, flexible and cost-effective. The trust opted for Lync 2010, in part because staff were familiar with the interface of other Microsoft Office products, which made adoption easier. But once the new system was in place, the trust found a host of new benefits.

Additional communication tools: Clinicians can use the Microsoft Lync 2010 client to send instant messages, initiate on-demand videoconferencing, and share their desktops so that they can view the same clinical information or patient record no matter their location.

Faster collaboration: The videoconferencing feature of Lync is important to Belfast Health and Social Care Trust because it enables real-time, face-to-face communication between healthcare providers wherever they are located. Access to on-demand communication has eliminated the need to meet in person, avoiding many scheduling challenges.

Lower costs: Belfast Health and Social Care Trust predicts organisation-wide savings of £1 million over the life of the contract. Lync allows the trust to maximise existing cabling infrastructure, reduce bearer circuits, trim maintenance costs and reduce the time needed to make a clinical decision with input from co-workers.

Learn more about the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust story and the difference Microsoft Lync can make.