EHI's regular GP columnist, Dr Neil Paul, is a fan of old TV shows. Few people now remember the short-lived Star Cops from the 1980s, but it obviously made a big impression on Dr Paul, who 20 plus years later would still like a personal digital assistant as good as 'Box' in the show.

Dr Paul would like to be able to interrogate a modern version of Box, and have it come up with well-presented answers to queries about his practice population. A team in Cardiff is working on something quite like this - but it must be admitted that the Blue C supercomputer they are working with is the very opposite of 'mobile.'

Other GPs seem worried about the advent of mobile devices; or at least about the 'explosion' of apps that one expert predicts is about to hit them. One commenter on the EHI website said the "nightmare scenario" would be hundreds of apps with hundreds of user IDs and disconnected data.

But other developers are confident the problems can be overcome. There is no doubt that the mobile revolution is starting to happen, with more trusts using tablets, in particular, to give staff access to mainstream systems and collect mainstream data - including the new community information dataset, which is designed to help researchers answer some of the questions Dr Paul would like to ask.

Alder Hey trials 'bring your own device'

Alder Hey Children's and Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trusts are trialling a series of tablet computers in a 'bring your own device to work' scheme.

£213m IT plan for Guy's and St Thomas'

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust plans to invest £213m in IT over the next five years, including the procurement of an electronic patient record system, clinical portals and mobile devices for staff.

Northern Devon collects CIDS on tablets

Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust has given Samsung Galaxy 7 tablets to 800 of its staff so they can use purpose-built apps to collect key information while visiting patients.

Spire and Carestream put PACS on tablets

Spire Healthcare has implemented Carestream Health's Vue Motion viewer so clinicians can view patient images on iPads and Android devices.

Primary care faces 'app explosion'

A primary care IT specialist has predicted an "explosion" of cloud based and app technology in the sector over coming years.

Inhaler training by video game

Cambridge Consultants has created an asthma inhaler training device that provides real-time, visual feedback to the user via an interactive video game.