DoH signs ambulance control room contract
The Department of Health (DoH) has taken a big step in its Ambulance Radio Programme (ARP) with the award of a contract for the supply control room software and associated services.
It has concluded the deal, valued at £8.2 million, with Austrian company Frequentis AG, to provide the software to the 11 NHS ambulance trusts around England. It will also be available to the national ambulance services for Scotland and Wales but they may choose not to take up the option.
The ARP is aimed at upgrading ambulance services’ control room and mobile data communications as the contracts for existing services expire over the next three years. It is being implemented alongside the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme.
Portsmouth Uni team works on security threat software
The University of Portsmouth has reported that a team of its academics lead by Professor Ashraf Labib is working on software to help security analysts identify critical information from large volumes of data to detect security threats. It is one of eight to be announced by the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST).
It uses the Dominance-based Rough Set Approach (DRSA) algorithm that captures the patterns and behaviour of the analyst. This is used to evaluate the consistency of analysts’ judgements at individual and group levels, as well as identifying key factors or biases which influence an analyst’s decision-making.
Labib said that judgements on security data can often be distorted by its sheer volume or a bias with which it is assessed. “We are developing an innovative analytic approach to address these errors and enable analysts to achieve better judgements and to test it in a group decision making context,” he said.
ICO appoints two new deputies
Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham has announced the appointment of two new deputy commissioners: James Dipple-Johnstone, who will be responsible for operations, and Steve Wood for policy.
Dipple-Johnstone was previously director of investigation and supervision for the Solicitors Regulatory Authority, and Wood was head of the international strategy for the Information Commissioner’s Office.
NHS Digital analytics chief moves on
Professor David Hughes, NHS Digital’s executive director of information and analytics, is due to leave the organisation in August to work on developing analytics around mental healthcare.
His work for the organisation included authoring its data strategy, which is central to the technology and innovation aspect of the NHS Five Year Forward View.
Image by Lee Haywood, CC BY-SA 2.0 through flickr
