Matching the right donor heart to the right recipient at the right time is a complex task. Now, experts point out how AI can provide unbiased decision-support for transplantation process.
A three-part ‘multiparametric’ MRI of the prostate is standard of care in the UK for patients suspected of having prostate cancer. Now, a study shows two-part scans are sufficient for diagnosis.
Large language models like ChatGPT have become a go-to point for health information. However, a new study uncovers a vital weakness: The AI gets confused when faced with actual scientific evidence.
Some year in this decade, AI tools will become ubiquitous within clinical laboratories. AI has the potential to increase the accuracy of laboratory testing and improve the quality and efficiency of operations and service of testing labs.
Awareness of the importance of women’s health is on the rise, but many challenges remain: At ECR 2024 in Vienna, we spoke with Hologic about their continued evaluation of healthcare efforts for women. At the congress, the company also shared how AI could be used to mitigate the effects of medical staff shortage.
Medical Taiwan, the premier international expo for medical, health, and care industries organized by TAITRA, is scheduled to be held at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 2 (TaiNex2) from June 20th to 22nd, 2024.
United Imaging showcased its full portfolio of AI-empowered products at the ECR 2024 in Vienna. The company highlighted its significant EU growth since establishing its regional HQ in 2019.
Why are we doing what we are doing to stop surgical infections? A new research review in the run-up to the ECCMID congress 2024 will look at improving preventive measures.
A newly-developed biosensor could be an alterative to MRI and mammography for breast cancer screening. The handheld device uses saliva on test strips to determine whether cancer is present.
In a new article, digital health experts discuss how medical data from citizens could be used for research in the future while respecting personal rights.
On 9 December 2023, NovaLife Polyclinic, with over 15 years of experience in the private healthcare sector in Timișoara, proudly inaugurated its state-of-the-art branch in the vibrant capital city of Bucharest.
Vending machines dispensing self-test kits for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) have proven to be an effective and widely accepted means of reaching individuals who rarely or never get tested.
AI technology holds promise for personalised cancer therapies. However, rigid and slow approval requirements impede its introduction, say experts – and point out how this might be changed.
United Imaging Healthcare Europe, a leading company in advanced medical imaging and radiotherapy equipment, proudly announces the introduction of its first Mobile Digital PET/CT solution in Italy, now fully operational in the Piacenza province under the auspices of the Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale Piacenza (AUSLP) hospital.
Pregnancy prevention apps, fertility-tracking wearables and more: Digital tools have expanded the range of contraceptive methods – but are rarely discussed at the GP's office, a new study shows.
Digital pathology brings benefits for sample management and optimisation, lets pathologists work on samples remotely: The UK Government has now approved the use of the technique for cancer samples.
A team comprising obstetricians, gynecologists, pediatricians, and biomedical engineers has found the key determinants for digital health solutions that support women from pre- to post-pregnancy.
Researchers have developed software able to disguise sensitive data in health care applications. This protects privacy while making datasets available for development of better treatments.
New research demonstrates how tiny nanomachines could greatly reduce bladder cancer by precisely targeting the tumour and attacking it with a radioisotope carried on their surface.
If healthcare professionals could get support making fast-paced, life-critical decisions from an AI tool, more lives could be saved, according to new research results from Sweden.
The Automa+ 2023 congress has brought fascinating insights into the pharmaceutical landscape. This article distills highlights from the congress, illuminating the paradigm-shifting strides that are set to propel the pharmaceutical industry into a future characterized by interconnected, empathetic, and forward-thinking practices.
The largest-ever study of patient views on online GP consultations saw a strong backing for the new option. Important benefits named were greater convenience and flexibility, but also efficiency.
Operating a surgical robot is complicated, but now, researchers may have found a surprising way to shorten the learning process: with electricity applied to the head.
AI plays an increasingly important role in medicine – and this should also be reflected in medical curricula. New work from an international team suggests how this could be done.
While having more centers adopt digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) for breast cancer screenings into their practice is a positive change, it also presents some challenges for radiologists—particularly the increased number of images for radiologists to review. This challenge has paved the way for AI to offer innovative workflow solutions for radiologists that do not sacrifice accuracy.
Gender equity is a key factor in achieving excellence in academic medicine. So far, however, this is only partly reflected in reality: In Europe, women represent 54% of physicians and 40% of radiologists. However, female representation in radiology decreases at increasing levels of leadership. A panel of experts assessed the challenges women have to face in radiology and explored strategies to…
A fully digital design-to-manufacturing process developed at Loughborough University has the potential to revolutionise lower limb socket production by allowing printing outside of hospital settings.
When a person has a cardiac arrest, using an automated external defibrillators (AED) can be life-saving. New research shows that AED delivery via drone is often quicker than an ambulance.
AI features for automation, integrated systems and more: the role of medical technology has never been as vital as today, and MedTech companies from Taiwan are putting their best foot forward to contribute. At the 2023 Medica trade fair, visitors of the Taiwanese pavilion not only had the opportunity to see the latest medical products on display, but also get acquainted with Taiwanese culture in…
Faster, more accurate and cost-effective testing: Experts outline the beginnings and evolution of “lab-on-a-chip” technology, and its benefits for advanced and next-gen operational platforms.
The field of lab-on-a-chip needs to meet important challenges around sustainability. This includes not only the development of smart analytical systems that are able to sense the changes that are occurring within the environment but also, more generally, the mitigation of single-use plastics in analysis and the use of low-power, recyclable microsystem technologies.
The world's leading medical trade fair MEDICA 2023 starts on Monday in Düsseldorf with more than 5,300 exhibiting companies from almost 70 nations and the kick-off event for the accompanying 46th German Hospital Day, which will be attended by Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (via video link) and NRW Health Minister Karl-Josef Laumann. COMPAMED 2023 will take place parallel to MEDICA. As…
Ultrasound technology now plays a vital role in clinical diagnosis and management. Significant advances in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) have made it a versatile tool for assessment, diagnosis, and follow-up across various fields. New developments continue to expand its applications, improving patient care and outcomes.
The Wallonia Export & Investment Agency welcomes the entire spectrum of the MedTech Industry on the Belgium Pavilion at Medica 2023 (Nov 13-16).
Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are playing an increasingly important role in medicine and healthcare, and not just since ChatGPT. This is especially true in data-intensive specialties such as radiology, pathology or intensive care. The quality of diagnostics and decision-making via AI, however, does not only depend on a sophisticated algorithm but – crucially – on the…
MEDICA trade fair (Nov 13-16, Düsseldorf) is a major event for start-ups entering the health sector. Hundreds of young developers seek business contacts for cooperation concerning funding, production, approval, marketing or sales of their products.
A new research collaboration aims to develop a forward-looking AI application to detect gender-specific symptoms earlier and further reduce mortality from heart disease, especially among women.
What role should artificial life play in medicine? Researchers from Denmark and the US explore the potential of hybrid peptide-DNA nanostructures for diagnosing and treating diseases.
A team at the University of Bristol has developed a robot manipulator that could carry out clinical breast examinations. The developers hope the device will revolutionise breast health monitoring.
Modern cancer therapies are tough on the tumours, but often, also on the heart of the patients. The “CARDIOCARE” project aims to reduce the cardiac burden of anti-cancer therapies through more patient-tailored treatment approaches. At the ESC 2023 cardiology congress, Professor Katerina Naka from the project’s consortium explained why older patients are at the highest risk of cardiotoxic…
From cancer to AI, from management to new medication: this year's Labmed Forum at MEDICA 2023 in Düsseldorf (November 13-16) once again features an exciting scientific programme.
Mammographic screening is used to detect breast cancer, but is prone to false findings. Could an AI reader help improve this? UK researchers compared the performance of man and machine.
Can per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) increase the risk of breast cancer? A new study by US researchers examines the effects of the so-called “forever chemicals”.
Machines are getting smarter every day, and companies across the world are discovering new ways in which they can use AI to significantly enhance engagement and customer experience. That is why decision-makers from pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and healthcare providers gather to network and discuss the latest innovations, as well as the potential for both AI and robotics, at Healthcare…
Experts have highlighted how precision pathology using Artificial Intelligence can provide an effective alternative to molecular diagnostics. This, say a team from the Karolinska Institutet (KI) in Stockholm, Sweden, can also offer multiple advantages within a clinical setting and support risk stratification.
With the recent recommendation changes from the European Council in 2022, how radiologists screen for breast cancer is changing. Mammography has long been an essential technology in screening for breast cancer, and in the recommendations the Council formally recognized the advantages of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). This landmark acknowledges the research on and benefits of DBT, advocating…
Combining ultrasound and MRI technology can help detect prostate cancer at an earlier stage and potentially save lives, according to new University of Dundee research.
New robotics technology that can provide remote medical treatment to casualties in high-risk emergency environments, has been developed by researchers at the University of Sheffield.
With the introduction of digital pathology, the University of Queensland and Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology aim to provide significantly improved tests in terms of cost, quality and speed.
Scientists have developed a tool to create a digital replica of an individual's heart, which could inform the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
VR and augmented reality are considered key technologies in healthcare, especially in nursing. Now, German researchers analysed the impact of smartglasses on patient interaction.
Scientists have designed an AI tool that can rapidly decode a brain tumor’s DNA to determine its molecular identity during surgery — critical information that can guide treatment decisions.
AI, robotics, climate change and more: Swedish researchers outline emerging technologies and trends that may define what the healthcare industry looks like in the next 50 years.
LLM-based generative chat tools such as ChatGPT or Google’s MedPaLM have great medical potential, but there are inherent risks associated with their unregulated use in healthcare.
Post-pandemic problems, ageing societies, the impact of climate change on human health: To find solutions for new and ongoing healthcare challenges, thinking outside the box is crucial. This year’s Medical Taiwan Health & Care Expo took this approach to heart: True to its motto “beyond healthcare”, the event showcased a wide range of innovative products, promising start-up presentations…
UK researchers find that digital health products, e.g. health apps, could make a substantial contribution to tackling NHS urgent care pressures, by keeping patients out of hospital in the first place.
Today, a large part of all further medical treatments is based on the results of laboratory analyses. The demand for complex test procedures remains high and the challenges for laboratories are growing.
Chatbots are increasingly becoming a part of health care around the world, but do they encourage bias? New research from the University of Colorado School of Medicine hints at this possibility.
Executive opening panel dedicated to the sustainable digital healthcare ecosystem is the highlight of the Automa 2023 Congress (September, 25-26, Zurich, Switzerland).
A trial of a new blood test for more than 50 types of cancer correctly revealed two out of every three cancers in more than 5,000 people who had visited their GP with suspected symptoms.
Smartwatches could soon benefit overstretched health practitioners and their patients, according to a preliminary study exploring the potential role of such devices in healthcare.
Against a backdrop of changing technology and reduced patient dose, a new momentum is emerging within radiology to eradicate patient shielding. The subject has been extensively debated and researched in recent years but there is now a growing consensus to end the practice, apart from with a few exceptions. The topic was the focus of a session at ECR 2023 in Vienna where different perspectives…
A University of Arizona Health Sciences-led study found that more than 50% of people don't fully trust AI-powered medical advice, but many put faith in AI if it's monitored and guided by human touch.
The "Future Pavilion", an immersive experience that showcases the latest in smart medical and digital health products and services, will be presented at Medical Taiwan (June 8-10).
A new online ‘European Cancer Pulse’ tool, created to compare cancer data across Europe, has highlighted that only 12 of the 27 EU Member States have an up-to-date national cancer control plan.
For patients with human papilloma virus associated oropharynx cancer, assessing the presence of cancer cells beyond the lymph nodes is critical in determining proper treatment.
A new artificial intelligence model could bring much-needed clarity to doctors delivering prognoses and deciding on treatments for patients with colorectal cancer.
Mammography has been an essential imaging technology for breast cancer detection for decades. As the industry has continued to innovate, one advancement in mammography has particularly changed the landscape of breast imaging: digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), also known as 3D mammography.
Wearable devices such as smart watches could be used to detect a higher risk of developing heart failure and irregular heart rhythms in later life, suggests a new study led by researchers from University College London (UCL).
Medical Taiwan 2023 (June 8-10) features a total of 250 exhibitors presenting their expertise in the fields of ‘Digital Leap,’ ‘Supply Chain,’ ‘Innovation Force,’ ‘People-centric Future,’ and ‘All Age Healthcare.’
In a study of over a million women, digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) showed improved breast cancer screening outcomes over screening with standard digital mammography alone.
Are you looking for a new software solution for your laboratory? Laboratory information systems by Clinisys offer future-proof solutions you can rely on!
Interactive mobile apps have become ubiquitous in daily life. The Covid-19 pandemic has escalated the use of disease-specific monitoring apps. Mobile apps enabling cancer patients to self-manage their physical condition and symptoms can help them to evaluate toxic side effects of their treatments, offer artificial intelligence (AI)-generated recommendations to minimize them, and alert them to…
Medical Taiwan is set to bring together leading manufacturers, suppliers, importers and experts from around the world to showcase the latest innovations, technologies, and products in the field.
The future of medical imaging will be shaped by AI, according to an expert panel hosted by Bayer at ECR in Vienna. Participants explored key trends in radiology and how AI innovation can help patients and their treating physicians.
A pioneering new method to assess the quality of organs for donation has the potential to revolutionise the transplant system, saving lives and tens of millions of pounds.
True or false: Webcams have only recently been introduced in neonatology and are a patient-side component of the Digital Health Portfolio. False! Already in 1989, Professor Dr Roland Wauer at Charité Berlin built his DIY system to transmit images from the neonatology ward.
60 percent of all administered drugs do not have the desired therapeutic effect. Even worse: in Germany alone about 60,000 deaths per year are caused by medication. With these shocking statistics Professor Dr Christian Franken started his presentation on “Pills from the 3D printer” at last year’s Medica in Düsseldorf. He hopes that his vision of personalized medication based on 2D and 3D…
US researchers are developing a highly accurate machine learning model for early detection of mild cognitive impairment and dementia in older drivers.
After 25 years of AI health tech research, computers are slowly beginning to listen to patients. This is the conclusion of a review of a quarter of a century's worth of studies on the topic.
January 28 saw the celebration of the “Data Protection Day” as it is called in Europe, or respectively the “Privacy Day” as it is referred to outside of Europe. It marks the date on which the Council of Europe’s data protection convention, known as “Convention 108” was opened for signature back in 1981. According to the Council of Europe, it is the ‘only international,…
At the ECR 2023 congress in Vienna, Austria, Fujifilm Europe will unveil new products, host an MRI symposium, and provide opportunities to meet the company's experts.
Philips is an active participant in the new European Federation for Cancer Images consortium (EUCAIM) – a project launched in the run-up to World Cancer Day 2023.
Compared to other common supplemental screening methods, breast MRI was superior at detecting breast cancer in women with dense breasts, according to a new study.
Medical imaging company Carestream Health has expanded its portfolio with 20 new patents for global advances in AI, image quality, digital radiography (DR) detectors and mobile imaging.
Healthcare Automation and Digitalization Congress 2023 is held on September, 25-26, 2023, in Zurich, Switzerland. Automa+ 2023 gathers leaders and digital experts from hospitals, healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies with the main aim to drive the healthcare industry towards successful digital transformation.
Better coordination beyond purely medical aspects: the Swiss national research programme “Smarter Health Care” shows how resources in the health sector can be used more efficiently.
The Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) will deploy a diagnostic platform from digital and computational pathology solutions provider Proscia, the company announced.
Bayer announced the acquisition of Blackford Analysis Ltd., a global strategic imaging platform and solutions provider for artificial intelligence (AI) in radiology.
A new study is among the first to survey the current landscape of FHIR apps, providing a snapshot of how the standard is used to enable the flow of health information.
Time for modernisation: The current model for randomised clinical trials must be redesigned for the 21st century, according to leading European and American cardiology societies.
New research shows the power of artificial intelligence (AI) applied to endometrial carcinoma microscopy images. This could improve diagnosis and treatment of uterine cancer.
Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä and the Central Finland Health Care District have developed an AI based neural network to detect an early knee osteoarthritis from x-ray images.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force in 2018, has reinforced the European Union’s (EU) reputation of being comparatively strict regarding the protection of personal data within its member states. While the GDPR is generally considered a success, setting standards even outside its jurisdiction, critical voices are becoming louder.
Tapping the thriving Radiology AI ecosystem, Bayer recently announced three collaboration agreements for its digital platform, Calantic Digital Solutions, as well as an AI accelerator program.
OpenRad announced at RSNA the launch of its enterprise remote reporting platform, which enables cloud-based reporting, collaborative workflows across companies and advanced mobile fleet management.
At the annual RSNA meeting in Chicago, Carestream launched a new series of digital X-ray detectors to help improve clinical outcomes, as well as enhancements to its existing product portfolio.
The need for breast cancer screening of transgender individuals has been a topic of uncertainty until recently, due to lack of reliable patient data, consensus by radiologists, published research, and recommended guidelines. A 2021 survey of Society of Breast Imaging (SBI) members revealed that ‘breast radiologists differ in their practice and knowledge regarding screening of transgender…
Innovative gastrointestinal imaging, medical panel PCs with hygiene optimisation, smartphone-based diagnostic tools, and sustainable hardware setups: At Medica 2022, manufacturers from Taiwan again showed their capability to adapt and provide solutions for a world radically changed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the “Taiwan Excellence” banner, outstanding products from the island nation’s…
This summer, The European Commission launched I3lung, a new research initiative as a part of Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation program. This research initiative aims to create a cutting-edge, decision-making tool to help clinicians and patients select the best lung cancer treatment based on each patient’s specific needs and circumstances.
With an estimated one million cancer diagnoses missed across Europe in the last two years, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is predicted to set back European cancer outcomes by almost a decade.
New changes made to the timetable for the In vitro Diagnostic Medical Device Regulation (IVDR) across Europe could have a significant impact on manufacturers and users, an expert points out. While the extension of the transition period was a welcome step, other changes which were hoped for remain painfully absent.
Innovative smart weighing scales are adding a new dimension to home monitoring for healthcare. By collecting data via sensors and proprietary technology as people stand on them, the scales can assess health metrics to give users more precise measurements for a deeper understanding of their body.
A smart-ring medical device is emerging as an effective and discreet wearable for round-the-clock blood pressure monitoring. Using photoplethysmography (PPG) signals to measure the bloodstream 24/7 through the wearer’s finger, a new feature of the “Cart-I plus” ring from manufacturer Sky Labs enables it to constantly monitor hypertension without user intervention.
Increasing accessibility of remote and home monitoring for patients with pulmonary diseases can help improve treatment and rehabilitation adherence, and support health systems and hospitals in tackling waiting lists. The various advantages of remote monitoring systems will be highlighted in a Medica session focusing on “Preventing chronic diseases with diagnostics and analytics”.
With the rise of syndrome-style infections, co-infections and the current antimicrobial resistance challenges, the need for multiplexed diagnostics is now more important than ever.
Patients affected by ovarian cancer can turn to "Olivia": The interactive digital resource provides information about diagnostics, treatment and life with ovarian cancer.
Deaths from cancer are currently estimated at 10 million each year worldwide. Conventional cancer staging systems aim to categorize patients into different groups with distinct outcomes. ‘However, even within a specific stage, there is often substantial variation in patient outcomes,’ Markus Plass, academic researcher from the Medical University of Graz, Austria, explained to Healthcare in…
At this year's Medica (Nov 14-17), the Health IT Forum offers a special focus on how health IT can contribute to more sustainability in healthcare, and on optimising treatment workflows.
Driving the healthcare industry towards digital transformation was the main direction of Automa+ 2022. The Congress gathered leaders from hospitals and healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, governmental bodies and institutions as well as medical device manufacturers, service providers and start-ups in Zurich, Switzerland on September, 26-27, 2022.
A new cloud-based ultrasound image sharing and reporting software will utilize image data to convey fetal growth projections and provide a platform for physician-to-physician and physician-to-patient communication.
Researchers at Nottingham Trent University and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust have developed a new biosensor capable of accurately monitoring the condition of a chronic wound.
Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to detect COVID-19 infection in people’s voices by means of a mobile phone app, according to research to be presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress.
Swiss researchers have demonstrated how sensors could help detect health problems in the elderly at an early stage. This could help seniors to live a self-determined life at home for longer.
Atrial fibrillation screening using conventional smartphones more than doubles the detection and treatment rate in older people compared to routine screening, new research finds.
UK researchers developed and validated a deep learning algorithm that can identify and outline a non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumor on a CT scan within seconds.
Exposure to ionising radiation is a major health concern for many interventional radiologists. To help attain an understanding for radiation distribution in a clinical setting, experts tap into the potential of virtual reality (VR).
Holding its ground during the challenges of the pandemic, Health and Care Expo Medical Taiwan 2022 saw a 13% increase in visitors compared with last year, the organizers report.
The portfolio Philips presented at ECR 2022 revealed that the company not only advanced their products, but also listened to medical professionals and patients – and took their feedback to heart.
Patients are 20% less likely to die of sepsis because a new AI system developed at Johns Hopkins University catches symptoms hours earlier than traditional methods, an extensive hospital study shows.
At the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) in Vienna, Fujifilm Europe showcased a new flexible, hybrid C-arm and portable x-ray machine, called FDR Cross.
Leading radiologists have debated whether working from home is a blessing or a curse amid the evolving impact of teleradiology. In a hybrid ECR session examining working from home in radiology, speakers discussed their own experiences.
Fujifilm partners with Gleamer to integrate an AI software called BoneView into its X-ray imaging systems to assist radiologists and emergency clinicians in the diagnosis of skeletal fractures.
Building artificial intelligence (AI) tools that clinicians and patients can trust, and easily use and understand, are core to the technology being successfully deployed in healthcare settings.
Dark-field radiography uses a part of X-rays that has hardly been considered so far to expand the spectrum of diagnostic imaging. At the ECR Overture, Theresa Urban presented the new method.
MIT researchers produced textiles that sense the wearer’s posture and motions. Their “smart” shoes and mats could be used in applications ranging from health care to prosthetics.
New research suggests that providing a break in treatment to patients with advanced bowel cancer could not only benefit a patient’s quality of life but could also help reduce costs.
After two online meetings and a teaser last March, the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) is coming home to Austria in July 13-17. We spoke with congress president Regina Beets-Tan about how radiologists must build bridges to go forward.
Automa + Healthcare is held in September, and gathers leaders from hospitals & healthcare providers, governmental bodies and institutions with the goal to contribute to further development of ongoing digital health trends.
Blockchain is a digital technology that allows a secure and decentralized record of transactions. Now, researchers leveraged blockchain to give individuals control of their own genomes.
Russia's war against Ukraine is also playing out in cyberspace. In the process, clinics in Germany could also be caught in the digital crossfire, IT experts warn.
An artificial intelligence (AI) model combining four methods of machine learning (ML) to accurately detect thyroid cancer from routine ultrasound image data has been developed by US researchers.
A new AI platform can analyze genomic data extremely quickly, picking out key patterns to classify different types of colorectal tumors and improve the drug discovery process.
Over the past years, the world has been transforming into a post-Covid era. Taiwan has stepped up to the challenge on innovation and taking the advancement of digital healthcare to a whole new level.
Medical imaging and radiotherapy treatment devices are essential lifesaving technologies. In an era when hospital information systems are increasingly being attacked by cybercriminals, just how protected and safe is this equipment?
Scientists have created a design and fabrication tool for soft pneumatic actuators for integrated sensing, which can power personalized health care.
Researchers have developed advanced computer models, or “digital twins”, of diseases, with the goal of improving diagnosis and treatment.
Reaching out across 15 hospitals and a population of six million people, a network established by the National Pathology Imaging Co-operative (NPIC) is an ambitious move to advance digital pathology in the North of England.
Mental disorders are among the leading causes of ill-health and disability worldwide, and the demand for a viable solution to battle the mental health crisis has risen. The past two decades have witnessed the emergence of extended reality (XR) as a tool for investigation, assessment, and management in mental healthcare.
A team led by scientists from Amsterdam have combined MRI and microscopy to produce 3D images of two entire brains with a previously unmatched level of detail.
During a webinar, health experts and clinicians highlighted the need for urgent changes to lung cancer services across Europe to create a more cohesive and equal approach to care.
The University Medical Centre (UMC) Utrecht, The Netherlands, collaborates with Fujitsu to realize their smart hospital initiative, using sensors, tags and IoT technology provided by the company.
Sleep problems could hint at a heightened risk of heart disease, caution experts at the ESC Preventive Cardiology 2022 congress.
Hygienic, single-use components are widely used in endoscopy to ensure patient safety but are considered wasteful. Reprocessing is a more sustainable alternative but requires special equipment and training to avoid equipment contamination. This creates an area of conflict for physicians, hospital staff, but also for manufacturers. We spoke with two experts at Pentax Medical about challenges in…
Contrast agents in the wastewater and power-hungry imaging systems: The eco-footprint of healthcare is huge, and radiology departments are among the main culprits. An expert panel at the ECR Overture explored ways to make the field “greener”.
To provide a solution for the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, Beckman Coulter recently launched the DxU Iris, a urinalysis solution which aims to improve lab workflows.
Hospitals that boost nursing staff engagement also find they improve the retention rate for senior doctors, according to a new study from the University of Surrey.
“With Your Stories – lifetime healthcare support” is the future-driven approach to benefit patients through even better prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up and thus help them in the pursuit of a healthy life.
Fujifilm aims to become an entity that can contribute to the advancement of human health by supporting the ongoing transformation in the healthcare industry – as a “One-Stop” solution partner.
Groundbreaking technologies have improved our ability to accurately diagnose breast cancer and reduce callbacks, focusing on compassionate care for patients as they move along their breast health journey.
The future of pathology is digital – for many departments, transformation requires major modifications but promises significant advantages. Professor Catarina Eloy outlines the vital elements.
Close liaison between pathologists and data scientists is pivotal in the successful introduction of digital pathology and artificial intelligence (AI) into clinical workflows, according to one of France’s leading pioneers in the field.
UK researchers have found that a new type of ultrasound scan can diagnose most prostate cancer cases with good accuracy in a clinical trial involving 370 men.
Canon Medical Systems Corporation has entered into an agreement to acquire Nordisk Røntgen Teknik, with the acquisition being completed following the necessary approval procedures.
Cardiac rehabilitation can be done just as well at home as in the hospital. This is the conclusion of the most extensive research into ‘tele-rehabilitation’ to date.
NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, first made a splash in the art world as a platform to buy and sell digital art backed by a digital contract. But could NFT be useful in other markets such as healthcare?
Un estudio de la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) analiza los factores que influyen en la percepción de las personas sobre la utilización de la robótica en las intervenciones quirúrgicas médicas.
Despite a five-year transition period for In-vitro Diagnostic Medical Device Regulation (IVDR), experts fear many actors in the field are still not prepared for the regulations coming into force.
E-mental health services could provide a response to these challenges and offer effective ways for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and aftercare.
Does artificial intelligence (AI) need more diversity? This aspect is brought up by experts in the context of AI systems to diagnose skin cancer. Their concern: images used to train such programs do not include data on a wide range of skin colours, leading to inferior results when diagnosing non-white patients.
Every day, elderly people fall – be it at home or in care facilities. Med-tech start-up Lindera developed an app that allows motion analysis via a smartphone camera to minimize the risk of falling.
Mark Nicholls reports from the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) virtual Festival, with four expert speakers discussing the role of liquid biopsy in cancer detection.
The number of gamified mobile applications is rising rapidly—especially in healthcare. Gamified apps or devices are used in many fields, from mental health therapy to stroke rehab to managing metabolic conditions. This article illustrates how gamification is employed in diabetes care.
A new pilot study suggests that machine learning algorithms which fuse electrocardiogram (ECG) and electronic health record data may help doctors screen for dangerous, lung-clogging blot clots.
Researchers in the UK and China have developed an AI model that can diagnose Covid-19 as well as a panel of professional radiologists, while preserving the privacy of patient data.
One of the crucial future technologies in surgery is Augmented Reality (AR). Most experts agree that AR will increase safety and efficiency, improve surgical training and decrease costs.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing our healthcare systems. It can help us detect diseases earlier, improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs. However, there is still a lack of trust, of rules and safety regulations and of broad data pools. How can we use AI successfully in healthcare systems and what role will it play in the future?
Providing innovative endoscopic solutions means understanding clinicians’ needs to optimally treat patients, based on their specific condition. Pentax Medical is expanding its offering, to present clinicians and healthcare providers with the power of choice. Pentax Medical provides a range of equipment to treat each and every patient in the most optimal way, in order to minimise the risk of…
Remote monitoring devices and pacemakers supporting patients with conditions such as heart failure could be vulnerable to cyberattack, according to a leading cardiology expert.
At the BIR virtual congress, spinal imaging specialist Professor Elizabeth Dick focused on approaches and protocols for a range of spinal injuries and discussed assessment and imaging strategies, choice of modalities, and other key factors.
A 'new technology shows promise by analyzing images of suspicious-looking lesions and quickly producing a detailed, microscopic image of the skin, bypassing several standard steps typically used for diagnosis - including skin biopsy, tissue fixation, processing, sectioning and histochemical staining.
Innovations in technology continue to improve clinical laboratory productivity. Total lab automation systems are responding to dramatic growth in internet-driven streamlined processes.
After the four-day run, organisers of Medica and Compamed express their satisfaction with the results of the events in Düsseldorf. From 15 to 18 November 2021, the world’s leading information and communication platforms for the medical technology industry and its supplier sector presented a wealth of convincing innovations as well as an accompanying programme that covered a wide range of…
Some ten years ago, it was unthinkable that virtually all company data was stored in the cloud. Now it’s what almost every company does. However, the increasing complexity of corporate IT infrastructures also comes at a price. The sheer size and complexity of the systems makes it difficult to keep track of everything that is going on digitally. And this leads to more and more successful…
For the Siemens Healthineers team developing new and ever higher performing computed tomographs is daily fare. But when they introduced their most recent CT system an unusual sense of pride was palpable. The photon-counting detector in the new Naeotom Alpha scanner is different from previous models and achieves a level of detail hitherto unknown.
Since Compamed could only be held digitally last year, due to the pandemic, the event now takes place publicly again. Almost 500 registrations from exhibitors prove that there is a high level of interest from medical technology suppliers – a huge step towards reaching normality again.
This September, the symposium 5G4Healthcare, organised by the Technical University of Applied Sciences (Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule - OTH) Amberg-Weiden, Germany, explored how 5G can contribute to greater efficiency in healthcare. The event was based on the insights from the 5G4Healthcare project at OTH. Launched in 2020, it is one of six research projects in the 5G innovation programme…
This year as every year, the very best in global HealthTech will be converging on Dusseldorf for the Medica trade fair. With more than 127 companies attending the event from November 15-18, France will have one of the largest contingents there. Grouped together under the brand umbrella of “French Healthcare”, the French MedTech companies will be presenting their many innovations to industry…
Considerable advances in point-of-care testing (POCT) devices are emerging from lab-on-a-chip platforms, innovations in smartphone-based technology and wearable technology. Cloud-based deep learning systems herald a future revolution.
How will digital technology impact healthcare in 2030? If challenges to acceptance and utilisation can be overcome, healthcare providers and patients will benefit significantly, according to physicians participating in a recent online seminar on this topic.
"Virtual Care & Digital Therapeutics", "Medical Artificial Intelligence & Robotics", "Fields of Innovation" and "Societal aspects of digitized healthcare" are the topics of this year's Health IT Forum at Medica. New this year: In line with the hybrid event concept of the trade fair, the Expert Panels, Tech Talks and Deep Dive Sessions can be…
Medica trade fair (November 15-18) is once again a welcome field for many healthcare start-ups to present their products. The joint stand at the 'Medica Start-up Park' in Hall 12 has become the central cross-national meeting point for the healthcare start-up scene, the fair's organizers are pleased to report. "We bring innovators and investors together. This time, more than 40 start-ups are…
Using surgical robotic systems in OR settings brings many benefits, but there are also challenges that must be overcome before implementing the systems into surgical routine. We spoke with Megan Rosengarten, president of Medtronic’s Surgical Robotics business, about the technology, as well as the company’s efforts to promote the spread of robot-assisted surgery across Europe.
Leading medical XR experts gathered at Shift Medical to discuss developments on the use of immersive technologies in medicine. We interviewed Doctor Egidijus Pelanis of Oslo University Hospital, about applying extended realities in the operating room.
Ransomware attacks are a highly profitable and flourishing business in the 21st century. They can have a drastic impact on hospitals, clinical laboratories, and patients. The Sophos Group, a British security hard/software company, has reported survey responses from 328 healthcare IT managers in 30 countries.
Researchers have leveraged the power of digital pathology and computational modeling to detect and quantify podocytes, a specialized type of cell in the kidney that undergoes damaging changes during early-stage kidney disease.
At their workplace, neurosurgeons often have to make compromises since most ORs were not designed with the specific needs of their discipline in mind. To address this issue the University Hospital in Essen, Germany, equipped an OR especially for neuro- and spine surgery. The aim is nothing less than revolutionizing the field with the help of digitalisation and cutting-edge technology.
With interoperability stalled, stakeholders are seeking new ways to create an interoperable ecosystem. IT specialist Jason Steen describes the state of interoperability in Australia and calls for more governmental commitment and international standards.
A research team led by Professor Lim Chwee Teck from the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Department of Biomedical Engineering and Institute for Health Innovation & Technology (iHealthtech), in collaboration with clinical partners from Singapore General Hospital, has developed a smart wearable sensor that can conduct real-time, point-of-care assessment of chronic wounds wirelessly…
Under the motto "new tech, smart future", the latest edition of the Chinese Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF) showcased technological innovations at the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center. The 4-day event, which covered critical technology advances in AI, deep learning, big data, 5G and much more, also served to display the technological and economic growth in China, with…
Roche announced that it has entered an agreement with PathAI, a global leader in artificial intelligence (AI)-powered technology for pathology. Under the development and distribution agreement, the companies will jointly develop an embedded image analysis workflow for pathologists. This workflow will allow PathAI image analysis algorithms to be accessed within Navify Digital Pathology, the cloud…
“An artificial uterus – the incubator 2.0 – will become a reality within 10 years,” says Jasmijn Kok, one of the founders of Juno, a spin-off from the Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands. Together with researchers from the department of Industrial Design from the University, including her twin sister Lyla Kok, she wants to bring a technology that increases the chances of…
Water, hygiene and infection prevention solutions and services provider Ecolab launches its Hand Hygiene Compliance Measurement (HHCM) System, a digitally connected technology to systematically monitor and improve hand hygiene in healthcare settings, across Europe. In healthcare settings, clean hands save lives. While the Covid-19 outbreak increased adoption of hand hygiene measures at first,…
Since 2015, the number of known ransomware attacks has not only increased substantially across many industries. Hospitals, and the healthcare industry in general, have also become favorite targets of ransomware attackers, leading to very real incidents in which patient care and patients’ lives have been put at risk.
The FDA authorized marketing of software to assist medical professionals who examine body tissues in the detection of areas that are suspicious for cancer as an adjunct to the review of digitally-scanned slide images from prostate biopsies.
A team of researchers are developing the use of an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm with the aim of diagnosing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) more quickly and as effectively as traditional radiologist-interpreted diagnostic scans, potentially cutting down long patient waiting lists and avoiding patients unnecessarily receiving drugs to treat DVT when they don’t have it.
For World Patient Safety Day, Health First Europe (HFE) published a comprehensive insight report on five disease areas that affect millions of European citizens each year and how the European Union could and should do a better job for its citizens.
IT networks of hospitals and other healthcare institutions are currently very much in the focus of both hackers and IT security specialists. In a healthcare landscape in which both organizational and medical heavily rely on IT, keeping networks safe is key to protecting patients’ data and lives.
The role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most divisive issues in cardiology. Two leading experts argue the pros and cons of its use, exploring its benefits and advantages to cardiac care, as well as highlighting the pitfalls and shortcomings of AI, while underlining the need for clear guidelines and regulations for its use going forward.
Roche announced the introduction of the Roche Digital Pathology Open Environment that allows software developers to easily integrate their image analysis tools for tumour tissue with Roche’s uPath enterprise software, an application for pathologist workflow. This open environment allows for the secure exchange and flow of data so that pathologists can access advanced algorithms from third…
MedTech Europe, the European trade association for the medical technology industry including diagnostics, medical devices and digital health, ran an industry survey, which shows an urgent, high risk to the availability of IVD medical tests once the new IVD Regulation fully applies.
Although artificial intelligence (AI) tools and smartphone apps that help identify suspicious moles and potential skin cancers are starting to proliferate, dermatology informatics has far to go before becoming a clinically adoptable technology. Many challenges need to be resolved, not least of which is the need for more image data representing people of colour.
Patient-oriented innovations and cases of the processes digitalization are presented at the Healthcare Automation and Digitalization Congress 2021 (AUTOMA+ Healthcare Edition 2021). The Congress takes place online, at BGS Online Platform on September, 27-28, 2021, and gathers hospitals, healthcare providers, and pharmaceutical companies to network and share solutions regarding the personalized…
3D metal printing technology is producing personalised medical-grade titanium-alloy plates that perfectly fit individuals suffering arthritis of the knee. Engineers at the University of Bath’s Centre for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) working with 3D Metal Printing Ltd, are using the TOKA (Tailored Osteotomy for Knee Alignment) treatment to improve the surgical procedure and fit of high-tibial…
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has created a great deal of uncertainty about how key requirements should be interpreted. This means that collaborators in international genetic research projects do not always agree on fundamental issues such as whether they are processing personal data, consent requirements under the GDPR and on what basis genetic data can be transferred…
Triage HF Plus, highlighted in the BCS conference session ‘Digital Innovation in Cardiology - What's new?’ is a digital heart failure care project that uses a customised algorithm to detect early signs of deterioration in patients with implanted devices. During her presentation ‘Digital solutions to identify worsening heart failure’, consultant cardiologist Dr Fozia Ahmed discussed the…
Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in cardiovascular risk reduction and cardiac rehabilitation are offering new opportunities for increased diagnostic accuracy and more personalised exercise prescription. Experts believe it can be harnessed to design tools to enable cardiologists to make better decisions, and have more confidence in the decision-making process. The topic was featured at ESC…
Could machine learning (ML) help to predict sudden cardiac death (SCD)? According to Dr Sanjiv Narayan, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, California, many exciting studies are using ML to predict sudden death in ways not previously possible. ‘Complex data, such as MRI geometry, very large electronic health records or continuous data streams from wearables, are difficult to probe…
A solid diagnosis has always been the first step on any patient’s journey to health. However, diagnostic categories are necessarily oversimplifications. In the last decades, medical professionals and scientists have begun to uncover the true variability in patients’ physiological and biochemical make-up that is the principal cause for individual variations in the way diseases present…
Will telehealth replace traditional in-person healthcare? Healthcare and digital health professionals around the world have moved beyond this question. Telehealth scenarios are here to stay, and so is traditional healthcare. The relevant question is how both can be combined for optimum results. This is the focus of hybrid care models. Jonah Comstock of HIMSS recently presented a webinar on…
Siemens Healthineers presents its second pathway for its AI-Pathway Companion at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Global Health Conference 2021 (HIMSS 21). This new pathway is focused on non-small cell lung cancer, supporting personalized and standardized decision-making along the whole treatment process.
Healthcare software company Dedalus announced its strategic partnership in North America with Rx.Health, an AI-based digital health unification and clinical intelligence platform. The partnership will enable collaboration between Dedalus’ solution, Digital Connect for Health (DC4H) with Rx.Health’s platform that unifies and automates digital health through an EHR connected formulary and 250+…
Siemens Healthineers has recently started offering its customers WeScan, a new service that helps healthcare providers to perform MRI examinations if they lack qualified radiology staff. With the WeScan service, customers may seek access to a pool of skilled remote imaging technologists who help operate the MRI scanner using syngo Virtual Cockpit, the remote scanning software of Siemens…
Israel’s first virtual hospital has been created following the advances and applications learned from using telemedicine tools and techniques to care for coronavirus patients in isolation wards. Sheba Beyond was established in January and over the last few months has successfully delivered care to patients across a range of areas. The development of the project was outlined to the DMEA –…
In 2021, health data remains an untapped opportunity; we continue to fall foul of ‘digital silos' and operating systems that are both exposed to security threats and aren't optimised to unleash the potential of data driven healthcare.
Cancer informatics and digital pathology provider Inspirata announced that King’s Health Partners ECMC and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust will pilot its Trial Navigator software as part of an evaluation the organisations are conducting into how artificial intelligence based automation can improve the identification and efficiency of matching patients with cancer to early phase…
Medical data management company Flywheel announced a partnership and enterprise license agreement with Siemens Healthineers. Under the agreement, Flywheel will deliver a cloud-based research collaboration solution on the Siemens Healthineers teamplay digital health platform. Rolling out first in North America, the teamplay collaboration solution will enable Siemens Healthineers and its many…
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact people’s health across the world. This goes beyond the disease itself, as healthcare systems adapt how they provide services. Routine screening has been severely affected with screening programmes reduced or paused.
Cécile Geneviève is one of the few women who lead research and development (R&D) at a major company and her increasingly female team reflects women’s growing interest in the field. But while gender balance is an important criterion, it takes a broad palette of skills to innovate to alleviate pain for millions of patients, she explained in an interview with Healthcare in Europe.
Cancer care and the treatment clinicians can offer patients is being increasingly enhanced by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The technology has a role in diagnosis, with algorithms trained to design and deliver patient care, can match patients to clinical trials they may benefit from, and even help predict outcomes and those at greatest risk.
Artificial intelligence (AI) could match the impact of PACS on radiology. Covid-19 stimulated the development and testing of AI diagnostic-aiding tools in radiology, an unintended consequence of the pandemic. More image data sets have been created to train AI software – an unexpected benefit for radiology research.
Pioneering technology developed by University College London (UCL) and Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) researchers could transform the ability to accurately interpret HIV test results, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Academics from the London Centre for Nanotechnology at UCL and AHRI used deep learning (artificial intelligence/AI) algorithms to improve health workers’…
Experts at University College London (UCL) and spinout company Odin Vision working with clinicians at UCLH have used artificial intelligence (AI) to help detect early signs of oesophageal cancer. The first procedure in the world using the AI technology was performed at University College Hospital by UCLH consultant gastroenterologist Dr Rehan Haidry. The system, called CADU, uses AI to support…
Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds great promise for improving the delivery of healthcare and medicine worldwide, but only if ethics and human rights are put at the heart of its design, deployment, and use, according to new WHO guidance.
Computer models have been standard tools in basic biomedical research for many years. However, around 70 years after the first publication of an ion current model of a nerve cell by Hodgkin & Huxley in 1952, researchers at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), in collaboration with the Medical University of Graz and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, have finally…
Technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI) are considered the epitome of progress. However, the data AI algorithms use to draw their conclusions is outdated. It ignores the existence of biological sex and socio-cultural gender and their effects on individual health and disease states. German experts discussed the gender problem in healthcare AI at virtual.MEDICA 2020.
The contribution of Artificial intelligence (AI) has great potential in breast imaging efficiency, Professor Linda Moy MD told attendees at the 2021 Society of Breast Imaging/American College of Radiology (SBI/ACR) Breast Imaging Symposium this April. AI models for breast imaging have focused mainly on the diagnostic classification and detection of breast cancer.
Nanoelectronics and digital technologies company Imec presents a proof-of-concept for determining arterial stiffness, a risk marker for cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart failure, and monitoring blood pressure. Imec’s approach uses an ultrasound sensor to measure the central pulse wave velocity. Measuring pulse wave velocity closer to the heart is also a more reliable proxy for…
Aerosol generated by playing woodwind and brass instruments is less than that produced when vocalising (speaking and singing) and is no different than a person breathing, new research has found. The findings could be crucial to developing a roadmap for lifting Covid-19 restrictions in the performing arts, which have been significantly restricted since the start of the pandemic.
An in-depth analysis of more than 20,000 health related mobile applications (mhealth apps) finds “serious problems with privacy and inconsistent privacy practices.”
Digital transformation has been a significant factor in the way hospitals have responded to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, at HIMSS21 European Health Conference, experts were also quick to point out that the approach of the ‘human resource’ to the challenges and changes was a key factor.
Researchers from the University of East Anglia have developed a new urine test for prostate cancer which also shows how aggressive the disease is.
SmartXR is designed to make users' work easier and to support them in image acquisition, for example in aligning the DR detector, positioning the patient or setting optimal acquisition parameters. The intelligent assistance systems thus aim to optimize operative and clinical performance, for example. The new robust Dura XD detectors are particularly characterized by their long battery life, and…
Identifying new uses for approved therapeutic drugs continues to drive academics and clinicians to provide safe, affordable and rapid development of new treatment options for patients with common or rare diseases.
A new platform allows hospitals to deliver improved organisational and financial performance by deploying an Internet of Things (IoT) sensor network to collect data and using AI to analyse the gathered information in a HIPAA-compliant way.
People with long Covid could be monitored with the aid of a ground-breaking mobile phone app and clinical website. The system has been developed to help NHS rehabilitation teams manage the large number of people suffering from the debilitating effects of the illness. Patients will also be able to use the app to track their recovery. The app will initially be available to patients in 27 NHS trusts…
Communities benefit from sharing knowledge and experience among their members. Following a similar principle - called “swarm learning” - an international research team has trained artificial intelligence algorithms to detect blood cancer, lung diseases and Covid-19 in data stored in a decentralized fashion. This approach has advantage over conventional methods since it inherently provides…
One of the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic has been the suspension or postponement of many cancer screening services. Each year, these services help prevent and detect the presence of cancer at an early stage; timely diagnosis and care are crucial in preventing the spread of cancer. The National Screening Observatory has confirmed this, reporting alarming statistics: during the first…
Carestream Health is transforming and accelerating the way it develops and delivers AI applications for medical imaging that help improve patient care. The state-of-the-art initiative is based on Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) GreenLake for Machine Learning Operations (ML Ops). The machine-learning-optimized cloud service infrastructure makes it easier and faster to get started with ML/AI…
Specialist biorepositories are helping advance personalised medicine by supporting the availability of human tissue for research using digital pathology techniques. The pivotal role of the Glasgow Tissue Research Facility (GTRF) in making tissue available to shape new therapies and treatments was outlined in a presentation to the online “Transforming Digital Pathology – Integrating AI to Move…
Artificial Intelligence in health and care is being introduced across the UK via a major national project that is already producing a range of innovations. Latest developments were outlined to the online Intelligent Health conference in a headlining presentation by Dr Indra Joshi, Director of AI at NHSX, which is a joint unit bringing together teams from NHS England and NHS Improvement, and the…
Fresenius Medical Care announced an international campaign that recognizes and supports the organization’s nurses and clinical teams throughout Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Researchers used AI to identify which daily changing clinical parameters best predict intervention responses in critically ill Covid-19 patients. The investigators used machine learning to predict which patients might get worse and not respond positively to being turned onto their front in intensive care units (ICUs) - a technique known as proning that is commonly used in this setting to improve…
The majority of top-rated fertility apps collect and even share intimate information without the users’ knowledge or permission, a collaborative study by Newcastle and Umea Universities has found. Researchers are now calling for a tightening of the categorisation of these apps by platforms to protect women from intimate and deeply personal information being exploited and sold.
CliniSys Group aims to help healthcare professionals test, diagnose and treat millions of patients every day, saving or improving quality of life, the company reports. "CliniSys is a trusted partner to hospitals and private healthcare organisations across Europe. We routinely provide reliable, intuitive diagnostics solutions that help healthcare professionals spend more time focusing on…
Diagnostic data from the massive amounts of testing being conducted can help make health systems more resilient in dealing with future health crises and pandemics. The importance of diagnostic data was explored during the Medtech Europe online session, “Unlocking the Value of Diagnostic Information – how to make European Health Systems more resilient?” where delegates heard that…
Robotics, AI, and machine learning can make spinal surgery more accurate, efficient, and safer, thereby reducing costs, patient recovery time, and radiation exposure.
Every year, millions of children around the world are admitted to hospital for having anaesthesia and surgery. Many of them experience preoperative anxiety which negatively affects both their hospital experience and medical outcome, as well as their future relationships with healthcare services from both a short-term and long-term point of view. A new, internationally aimed website offers…
Researchers from the Canadian University Healh Network (UHN) have developed and validated a deep learning model to predict a patient's long-term outcome after receiving a liver transplant. First of its kind in the field of Transplantation, this model is the result of a collaboration between the Ajmera Transplant Centre and Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (PMCC). The study, published in Lancet Digital…
The pandemic has presented healthcare systems with new challenges, resulting in backlogs of routine screenings and delayed procedures which threaten the health and wellbeing of patients, as well as the ability of facilities to serve their communities. In order to address these widespread issues, we need to ensure that healthcare professionals are able to operate with precision, confidence and…
Royal Philips and Ibex Medical Analytics announced a strategic collaboration to jointly promote their digital pathology and AI solutions to hospitals, health networks and pathology labs worldwide. The combination of Philips digital pathology solution (Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution) and Ibex’s Galen AI-powered cancer diagnostics platform, currently in clinical use in Europe and the…
Medical technology company iCAD, Inc. announced that ProFound AI for 2D Mammography might notably reduce the risk of interval breast cancer, according to a new retrospective analysis. The aim of the study was to determine if adding AI to reading mammography as a supportive tool may help in decreasing the interval cancer rate in population-based organized mammography screening programs in Germany.
Accessible and affordable healthcare is one of the topics of Healthcare Automation and Digitalization Congress. It will take place in Zurich, Switzerland on the 27th - 28th of September, 2021. At the Congress, top-management from healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies, healthcare professionals, IT managers, and heads from technology companies will discuss the developing ways of the…
Experts from Sweden, Finland and Kenya are using digital microscopy combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to deliver a rapid and effective cervical screening service to rural locations in Kenya. The project sees AI and digital diagnostics bridge the gap between low-resource settings and the availability of centralised AI-enhanced expertise and pathology services, located in larger cities in…
Thermo Fisher Scientific and Artificial have announced a strategic technology collaboration to develop an integrated and comprehensive software automation platform for Thermo Fisher’s standardized COVID-19 Testing Platform. The integration will result in increased testing throughput and support global healthcare initiatives.
Healthy and cancer cells can look similar under a microscope. One way of differentiating them is by examining the level of acidity, or pH level, inside the cells. Tapping on this distinguishing characteristic, a research team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a technique that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to determine whether a single cell is healthy or cancerous…
Moderna and IBM announced their intentions to explore technologies, including artificial intelligence, blockchain and hybrid cloud, that could help support smarter Covid-19 vaccine management. Central to the effort will be a pilot of open, standardized, technology-enabled vaccine distribution approaches aimed to improve supply chain visibility and foster near real-time tracking of vaccine…
In the move to evidence-based medicine, healthcare budgets put more pressure on efficiency, while quality of care has to meet ever increasing standards. Agfa has chosen to direct its development of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions towards helping radiology departments meet these challenges. Agfa’s SmartXR AI upgrades for its digital radiography portfolio focus on supporting operational…
Brainlab, a digital medical technology company, announced today the acquisition of Mint Medical GmbH, a Heidelberg-based company that develops image reading and reporting software for clinical routine and research. The acquisition underscores the Brainlab commitment to digital health and aims to improve the structured diagnosis, analysis and treatment of cancer and other diseases to address the…
AI is revamping workflows and experts showed how radiologists can integrate it into their department to improve daily practice and healthcare at ECR. The panel also discussed the health economics side of AI to help radiologists define which products make more economic sense for their department. The session tackled automated organ segmentation, an interesting application for AI in radiology.
The Elisabeth-TweeSteden Hospital (ETZ) based in Tilburg and Waalwijk in the Netherlands is adopting a new digital training platform. It helps clinical staff optimize the use of its electronic patient dossier (EPD) system, Epic. The healthcare organization is rolling out Ancile Solutions’ uPerform platform after successful completion of an initial project in 2020. ETZ is a leading clinical…
Digital Covid-19 ‘symptom checkers’ may stop some patients from getting prompt treatment for serious illness, suggests an international case simulation study. Both the US and UK symptom checkers consistently failed to identify the symptoms of severe Covid-19, bacterial pneumonia, and sepsis, frequently advising these cases to stay home, the findings indicate. The availability and use of…
Our brains are non-stop consumers. A labyrinth of blood vessels, stacked end-to-end comparable in length to the distance from San Diego to Berkeley, ensures a continuous flow of oxygen and sugar to keep our brains functioning at peak levels. But how does this intricate system ensure that more active parts of the brain receive enough nourishment versus less demanding areas? That’s a century-old…
The impact of Covid-19 has been devastating; countless lives lost, millions of infections worldwide, health systems overwhelmed and economies rapidly shrinking. Screening, such as for breast or cervical cancer, is an area particularly affected, with numerous appointments delayed.
Implementation of artificial intelligence into Scotland’s national breast screening service is moving closer following an initial success with a trial project. While Scotland’s breast screening trial has delivered highs and lows, significant hurdles have been overcome in terms of approvals, governance and patient acceptance.
A new deep learning system to help radiologists improve their workflow efficiency when reading high volumes of screening mammograms is being developed at Johns Hopkins University’s Radiology Artificial Intelligence Lab (RAIL) in Baltimore, MD. DeepCAT (Deep Computer-Aided Triage) is focused on workflow prioritization.
Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) increases detection of breast cancer in symptomatic women under the age of 60, especially in dense breasts. A large, multi-institutional study conducted in the United Kingdom comparing the sensitivity of full-field digital mammography (FFDM), DBT, and FFDM plus DBT supports findings of two similar published studies, both conducted in China in the same time frame.
Siemens Healthineers has introduced a new software solution that speeds up the entire reading workflow for breast imaging: Mammovista B.smart. Also new is the Teamplay Mammo Dashboard, a tool for dashboard-based visualization of key performance indicators (KPIs) in the breast imaging process that serves to optimize workflows. With these two new solutions, the company is extending its digital…
Improving workflow is one of the major challenges that radiology departments face. The need to be more efficient, deliver timely and effective patient care, and keep an eye on costs are all factors that seem to be ever-present in the modern imaging department. With the added demands of the coronavirus pandemic as radiology departments continue to play a critical role in the fight against…
Carestream Health will highlight cutting-edge medical imaging technologies at the largest radiology meeting in Europe—the virtual European Congress of Radiology (ECR) in Vienna, Austria, beginning on March 3. The company will feature a wide range of products that demonstrates its leadership in digital medical imaging capture and processing, and improved user and workflow experiences.
Working in intensive care units poses special challenges for healthcare workers. They have to safely and reliably detect whether the condition of their seriously ill patients is deteriorating in a life-threatening way, and they have to do so under great time pressure because every minute counts. The stress level increases even more when the patients are children and adolescents. In paediatric…
To date, testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection mostly has relied on RT-PCR performed on a nasopharyngeal specimen. This testing method is very unpleasant for a patient: the professional tester has to tilt the patient’s head back slightly about 45°-70° to straighten the passage from the front of the nose, insert the swab through the nostril parallel to the palate, and the swab should reach a depth…
"Given the rapid transition towards digitisation, digital pathology is now unquestionably the future", reports pathologist Dr Talat Zehra from Pakistan. "However, some pathologists, particularly in underdeveloped countries, are still reluctant to accept its place in their labs. Among their many reasons, some feel that histopathology is a very complex and subjective field and…
Wearable devices can identify Covid-19 cases earlier than traditional diagnostic methods and can help track and improve management of the disease, Mount Sinai researchers report in one of the first studies on the topic. The findings were published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. The Warrior Watch Study found that subtle changes in a participant’s heart rate variability (HRV)…
Medics.Academy – a UK company delivering global access to medical education – and the Ethiopian Medical Women’s Association (EMeWA) have signed a partnership agreement to help women physicians in Ethiopia. The project will help EMeWA – an organisation established by female physicians in Ethiopia – to fulfil its vision to establish an excellence center for women physicians through one of…
Hybrid PET/CT imaging can fully play to its strengths and steer treatment towards more effective procedures for diagnosing prostate cancer. The examination of the specific antigen PSMA with hybrid PET imaging enables treatment monitoring with significantly higher diagnostic accuracy than conventional imaging and therefore, Professor Clemens Cyran believes, will soon become the standard diagnostic…
Medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra has received an order for its digital pathology solution from Amsterdam UMC in the Netherlands. This follows a recently announced radiology imaging contract. With radiology and pathology in one joint solution, Amsterdam UMC will be able to conveniently share images and information between the two medical specialties, enabling efficient…
Predicting cancer outcome could help with a clinical decision regarding a patient’s treatment. In his keynote speech during the online ‘7th Digital Pathology and AI Congress: Europe’, Johan Lundin, Research Director at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) at the University of Helsinki and Professor of Medical Technology at Karolinska Institute, discussed ‘Outcome and…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released the agency’s first Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML)-Based Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) Action Plan. This action plan describes a multi-pronged approach to advance the Agency’s oversight of AI/ML-based medical software. “This action plan outlines the FDA’s next steps towards furthering oversight for AI/ML-based SaMD,”…
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston have developed a novel blood test using an enhanced form of liquid biopsy capable of detecting the most common types of genetic mutations that occur in glioma brain tumors. The test is easy to use, inexpensive, produces results rapidly, and can be performed in most clinical laboratories. The researchers believe that the blood test has…
The Corona pandemic poses new challenges for health care facilities as well as manufacturers of health IT and medical technology. Marcel Herrmann, Marketing Manager Medical Imaging at JVCKenwood, explains in an interview what these are and how they can be solved.
Clinicians will be able to take a low radiation, digital X-ray image - without the need for an anti-scatter grid - thanks to new innovative ‘scattering suppression software’. Developed by photonics scientists at the Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), working in collaboration with innovation incubator ACTPHAST 4.0 and medical imaging company Italray SRL, the new algorithm ‘auto…
The Covid-19 pandemic came as a shock but not a surprise. Bodies around the world have been warning for years of a novel disease that could wipe out millions and crash the global economy. In February 2019, Dr Jonathan Quick, chair of the Global Health Council, told Raconteur: “Our greatest fear is being blindsided by a new virus, most likely due to animal-human spill over, which then readily…
AI can help tackle inequities and bias in healthcare but it also brings partiality issues of its own, experts explained in a Hot Topic session entitled "Artificial Intelligence and Implications for Health Equity: Will AI Improve Equity or Increase Disparities?" at RSNA.
Medicus AI announces the successful launch of its first live project under SafePlay, the digital platform supporting rapid antigen testing, which went live in partnership with Roche Diagnostics Germany and 21Dx in Munich this month. Medicus provides operators with a tech-enabled end-to-end solution that supports the logistical aspects of testing, managing the administrative workflow from…
A great deal of solutions using new technologies have been released to help tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and a panel of international experts shared a few examples during the Barcelona Health Summit last October. Contact-tracing apps are an interesting option to manage a pandemic, but the creation process can take a long time and must meet several requirements, according to a Dutch official who…
The deployment of conversational user interfaces (CUI) or chatbots to healthcare has started gaining momentum. It is fueled by the rising power of artificial intelligence (AI), the increasing popularity of mobile health applications as well as the desire for engagement and usability. The past few years have seen a myriad of innovations in chatbots that can automate and engage in human-like…
An Artificial Intelligence test has been shown to be able to rapidly screen patients arriving in Emergency Departments for Covid-19, using clinical information routinely available within the first hour of coming to hospital. Results of the CURIAL study, published in The Lancet Digital Health, show that the AI test correctly predicted the Covid-19 status of 92.3% of patients coming to Emergency…
RSNA 2020: International experts showcased new studies on chest CT’s role in Covid-19 diagnosis and treatment. A staggering volume of work and has been produced on the pandemic this year, with an average 367 Covid-19 journal articles published per week, according to Michael Chung, Assistant professor of radiology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NYC.
In a virtual roundtable 5G discussion five healthcare IT experts, three senior executives from major USA medical centres and two consultants, discussed questions posed by members of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
Agfa announces the launch of its SmartXR portfolio on 29 November 2020 at RSNA, being held virtually. SmartXR uses a unique combination of hardware and AI-powered software to lighten radiographers’ workloads and provide image acquisition support. This newest member of Agfa’s DR portfolio offers key assistance during the radiology routine, which has proven to be very important during the…
Low, light and with a field strength: 0.55-tesla with added new digital technologies. Indeed, this is a very new class of MRI scanner created by Siemens Healthineers. We interviewed Christiane Bernhardt, Vice President of Magnetic Resonance Marketing & Sales, Business Line MR, at Siemens Healthineers, about the technologies behind this development, plus its advantages and applications.
Health industry digitalization is one of the highest priorities in the healthcare sector these times. In perspective, it improves current living standards with quicker and easier access to help. The Healthcare Automation and Digitalization Congress business program will cover digital trends in the healthcare industry. The Congress will take place in Zurich, Switzerland on the 22nd - 23rd of…
For the first time in the history of MEDICA, the world-leading medical trade fair, and the industry’s number one platform for the suppliers of the medical technology industry, COMPAMED, held from 16 to 19 November 2020, took place entirely online due to the pandemic - but still won over their audiences due to their high degree of international resonance in this format too, as virtual.MEDICA and…
With its Magnetom Free.Max, Siemens Healthineers is presenting a new class of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems that the company calls “High-V MRI.” The scanner’s unique combination of digital technologies and the new field strength of 0.55 tesla broadens the range of clinical applications for MRI systems. Magnetom Free.Max considerably improves pulmonary imaging with MRI and allows…
Hologic, Inc. has announced it has CE Mark for the Faxitron Path+ Specimen Radiography System, the latest addition to the company’s growing portfolio of digital specimen radiography solutions. The Faxitron Path+ system features a superior, high-resolution imaging detector which enables pathologists to image a wide range of specimens of varying sizes, including bone, foetal remains and breast…
A UK biotech laboratory has used mass spectrometry in a new approach to coronavirus testing. MAP Sciences developed a gargle test, which collects samples from the back of the throat, and avoids the unpleasant sensation of the current PCR (polymerase chain reaction) swab tests. From there, the sample is tested for coronavirus using mass spectrometry (MS) with high levels of accuracy.
In early 1990, at Analytica, in Munich, a young US-American researcher Kary B Mullis received the award for biochemical analytics for his 1983 invention: the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) – a success topped in 1993 by the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Mullis’ work revolutionised DNA copying, a process which, before PCR, had taken weeks. Whilst initially PCR was used to create digital…
Cardiology tends to be surrounded by a maze of regulations, responsibilities and red tape. Leave it to the traditionally mercantile Dutch to streamline things. Case in point: HartKliniek, a chain of medical specialist diagnosis and treatment centres in the Netherlands which aim to transform cardiology to a more effective model – less personnel, more time for patients. We spoke with Menno and…
MEDICA in Düsseldorf is a world-leading platform for the medical technology business and the healthcare industry and has always been one of the places to be for the entire sector as it covers current digital health trends, innovative products and services for linking all of the major stakeholders in medical care. Consequently, digital health is a mainstay of virtual.MEDICA, which, due to the…
International medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra has signed a digital pathology contract with the Norwegian healthcare region Helse Vest RHF. The healthcare region already uses Sectra’s enterprise imaging solution, which will now include digital pathology. The region-wide solution allows Helse Vest to share resources among healthcare providers, and using the same system for…
Sony has announced an update to its vendor-neutral medical imaging platform Nucleus. This version built in direct response to the pandemic, introduces remote patient observation with new recording functionalities for use in the operating room (OR), Intensive Care Units (ICU), endoscopy suites, interventional rooms or anywhere else in the hospital.
Russian tech company Connectome.ai is bringing its innovative Directiva.ai hand hygiene teaching and monitoring system to two major clinics owned by the European Medical Center group, the leading private healthcare provider in Moscow and the surrounding region.
In clinical practice, planar X-ray images are usually the first imaging technique used. In musculoskeletal imaging, this can be a shoulder in AP and lateral projection. In many of these cases, the 2D technique is not sufficiently informative and further clarification is required, which means additional waiting times or completely new appointments. The DTS allows the diagnostic cycle to be…
This year, the MEDICA LABMED FORUM will offer a high-profile programme with top speakers which is free for registered online visitors.
oyal Philips announced the completion of a regional informatics project that consolidates radiology and nuclear medicine imaging data. The Region of Southern Denmark now has a single system for storing, retrieving, and viewing clinical images across all the locations and specialties in its extensive healthcare system.
Is mammography still the best method for breast cancer screening? For a number of breast cancers, the latest scientific findings suggest otherwise. For more than a decade, Professor Christiane Kuhl MD, Director of the Clinic for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the University Hospital RWTH Aachen, has researched the use of MRI in breast cancer screening.
AI in healthcare has been a trending, sometimes head-spinning topic for a few years – and, with the COVID-19 pandemic, clinicians have been presented with a whole new range of AI products that may or may not meet their needs. When it comes to choosing one’s own set of tools, which criteria should prevail?
While the debate on the added value of robotics and robot-assisted systems has been in full swing for a while now, the demand for robotic surgery throughout Europe’s medical institutions continues to grow exponentially, particularly in specialties like visceral surgery and orthopaedics. But what exactly are the benefits and downsides involved with the use of surgical robots?
Patients who have hip or knee replacements are set to get more support with their recovery following the launch of a new research study that uses wearable technology to monitor walking patterns. The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) has joined forces with Dynamic Metrics Ltd (DML) to develop and test a system to study mobility and improve a patient’s gait after a joint replacement.
TransEnterix, Inc., a medical device company that is digitizing the interface between the surgeon and the patient to improve minimally invasive surgery, announced that Hackensack Meridian Health Pascack Valley Medical Center, a hospital in New Jersey, successfully completed its first surgical procedures using the Intelligent Surgical Unit (ISU).
According to the German Federal Ministry of Health, 400,000 to 600,000 patients are diagnosed with hospital-acquired infections every year. The treatment of these nosocomial diseases is complex. Hygiene is a must, especially in the operating room. The IT environment should be designed accordingly.
Siri and Alexa are leading the way: the virtual assistants meet many daily needs. Soon, similarly programmed software and a ‘digital patient twin’, will be launched into the medical world – both IT applications based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). The virtual medical assistant and digital patient twin are two key aspects of a research project ‘Models for Personalised Medicine’.…
As Artificial Intelligence continues to impact on the development of digital pathology, potential users are still slow to implement key enabling technologies to harness the benefits, according to Dr David McClintock, who will detail critical steps for pathology departments to transition practice from glass (analogue) to digital (whole slide imaging) and embrace AI, to the 6th Digital Pathology…
Spatial analytics offers greater clarity in the assessment of tumours beyond routine microscopic analysis. High-capacity digital image analysis enables new methods of spatial statistics to extract features not immediately distinguishable by visual inspection. These subvisual features reflect complex properties, such as intratumour heterogeneity and have the additional benefit that they can target…
Medica 2020 and Compamed 2020, the information and communication platforms for the medical technology industry and supplier industry for the medical technology industry, will take place entirely online from 16 to 19 November. Within the framework of 'virtual.Medica' and 'virtual.Compamed', decision-makers from all sectors of the healthcare industry can then expect a comprehensive range of…
Taiwan, 15-17 October – A physical international exhibition and “virtual trade show” hosted by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) will run as scheduled at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center. ‘With both featuring exhibits at three-dimensional (3-D) booths simultaneously, Medical Taiwan will be a perfect online/offline platform that pulls exhibitors and buyers together and…
Carestream Health has entered the personal protection equipment (PPE) market with the launch of the CARESTREAM Shield, solving problems of discomfort and difficulty of use commonly associated with personal face shields.
Cancer informatics and digital pathology solution provider Inspirata announced a commercial partnership with Fujifilm. The partnership enables Fujifilm to supply and service Inspirata’s scanner-agnostic, CE IVD digital pathology workflow software globally and with exclusivity in the UK, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
More than 73,000 users collaborate on new online platform set up by the European Open Science Cloud Initiative, where scientists share COVID-19 data and accelerate our understanding of the virus to help develop treatments and vaccines quicker.
Sending a “selfie” to the doctor could be a cheap and simple way of detecting heart disease, according to the authors of a new study. The study is the first to show that it’s possible to use a deep learning computer algorithm to detect coronary artery disease (CAD) by analysing four photographs of a person’s face. Although the algorithm needs to be developed further and tested in larger…
Carestream Health has introduced a new digital radiography detector in the United States and Canada, enabling hospitals and imaging centers that specialize in long-length imaging to increase productivity while decreasing both patient discomfort and dose. With a single exposure, the Carestream DRX-L Detector captures long-length images by providing a large field of view and high resolution for…
Medical device approved 3-D printers are producing clinically safe and effective nasopharyngeal swabs for COVID-19 testing. A nasal swab may seem rudimentary, but is essential for testing COVID-19. Diagnostic test kits and components – nasal swabs, collection vials, and chemical reagents – have been in short supply worldwide, especially in March. Ironically, nasopharyngeal swabs are…
Researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven have developed a new algorithm for the rapid screening for COVID-19. The software is intended for use in Emergency Rooms (ER), to quickly exclude the presence of corona in incoming patients. As a result, doctors need to conduct fewer standard coronavirus tests, increasing efficiency. The quick scan…
Is my heart beating slightly fast? Is a heart attack coming? I didn’t sleep as much as I thought I had last night – is that bad for my heart? Health apps and fitness watches can shed considerable light on how our bodies work and make recommendations for a healthy lifestyle. However, self-measuring can have a downside too, according to a new study that examined the experiences of 27 heart…
40 years ago, anticipating the huge impact of computers in radiology, a group of visionaries formed the Radiology Information System Consortium (RISC). In 1989, RISC created the Society for Computer Applications (SCAR) to promote computer applications in digital imaging. Those organisations became the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM). At SIIM 2020, a virtual meeting, experts…
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a significant increase in video visits between patients and their doctors, but for many older adults, the shift has cut them off from care, rather than connecting them. A study by researchers at the University of California San Francisco has found that more than a third of adults over age 65 face potential difficulties seeing their doctor via telemedicine, with…
In recent years, technological and regulatory advances have made digital pathology a viable alternative to the conventional microscope. The obtention of a digital replica of the traditional glass slide and its use for primary diagnosis has revolutionized pathology and is shaping the future of the discipline. A digital pathology lab uses digital histology slides for routine diagnosis, and these…
The VeinViewer® uses harmless near-infrared (NIR) light which is directed towards the patient’s skin. Haemoglobin in the blood absorbs the NIR and the surrounding tissue reflects it back to the VeinViewer® device, where the data is processed into an image, colour is added and the image sent back to the skin to provide a real time visualization of the blood vessels and patterns up to 10mm…
Researchers have developed a novel three-dimensional imaging system to diagnose cervical cancer faster, non-invasively and more efficiently than conventional methods.
To answer medical questions that can be applied to a wide patient population, machine learning models rely on large, diverse datasets from a variety of institutions. However, health systems and hospitals are often resistant to sharing patient data, due to legal, privacy, and cultural challenges. An emerging technique called federated learning is a solution to this dilemma, according to a study…
Bringing a little bit of science fiction into an operating room, a team of engineers and physicians at Washington University in St. Louis has shown for the first time that using a holographic display improves physician accuracy when performing a procedure to treat irregular heartbeat. Jennifer N. Avari Silva, MD, associate professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine, and Jonathan Silva,…
Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, Post-Pandemic Global Healthcare Market Outlook, 2020, forecasts that 2020 will be an unforgiving but transformational year for the healthcare industry. As the world grapples with a global emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry is expected to witness a drop in growth from 5.3% to 0.6% in 2020, with revenues remaining below the…
The AI-Rad Companion family supports radiologists, radiation oncologists, radiotherapists and medical physicists through automated post processing of MRI, CT and X-ray datasets. It saves the clinicians' time and helps them to increase their diagnostic precision.
CT has a critical role to play in management of mass casualty incidents with the ability to image patients from head to toe, offering a rapid overview for clinicians. The benefits of CT were outlined by Dr Elizabeth Dick during an ECR session examining the role of radiology in the management of mass casualty incidents, terror attacks and assaults.
Despite its proximity to China, Taiwan contained COVID-19 successfully, without a lockdown or movement restriction measures introduced elsewhere. With few new cases reported, life almost returned to normal. Behind the scenes, however, efforts have continued to maintain that positive situation.
The coronavirus pandemic created unprecedented upheaval and challenges within health systems, economies, and society. In hospitals, new ways of working had to evolve. Social distancing led to virtual consultations and teleradiology has found an added dimension. We asked three radiologists about the relevance of teleradiology during the epidemic, and what the future holds.
Nanoelectronics and digital technologies R&D and innovation hub Imec recently received NASA funding to test a new technology in a gravity-free environment. Eventually, this will enable astronauts to perform blood tests to monitor their health. We discussed the project and technology with Nicolas Vergauwe, CEO of miDiagnostics, the Leuven firm that developed the diagnostic device, and Susana B…
While scientists recently confirmed the crucial role contact-tracing apps play in containing the COVID-19 pandemic, politicians are exploring which app architecture offers better privacy protection. However, there is no doubt that in Western countries such an entirely voluntary app can only be successful if the population at large supports it.
Focused on updating healthcare through digitisation, 41 experts and around 500 delegates gathered for the 4th ‘Digital Health Conference’ late in 2019. At the Berlin venue, they focused on solutions such as the potential lack of skilled staff, demographic changes, urbanisation and multimorbidity.
Hamamatsu Photonics invites you to join us for a panel discussion with pathologist Matthew Hanna, MD and IT Manager Nikolas Stathonikos on Thursday, 9 July at 17:00 CET. In this rapidly evolving healthcare landscape triggered by COVID-19, pathology, and remote diagnosis have been elevated to critical topics. These two experts, representing both the clinical and information technology areas, will…
Infection with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 follows a highly variable course: some of those infected do not even notice it, while others become so seriously ill that their lives are placed at risk. Scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and their colleagues from Leipzig and Heidelberg have now discovered that the immune system has a…
Imagine a dressing that releases antibiotics on demand and absorbs excessive wound exudate at the same time. Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) hope to achieve just that, by developing a smart coating that actively releases and absorbs multiple fluids, triggered by a radio signal. This material is not only beneficial for the healthcare industry, it is also very promising in…
The coronavirus crisis has accelerated the use of telemedicine in Spain with an increase in virtual consultation and positive impact on workflow. The challenge will be to make these changes permanent, according to a panel of experts who took part in a conference last June in Barcelona. Spanish patients and healthcare professionals have widely accepted virtual consultation as a new alternative to…
To develop and manufacture COVID-19 test kits in massive quantities was not part of their 2020 business plans. Yet, as the epidemic evolved into a global pandemic, the urgent need for diagnostic and antibody SARS-CoV-2 test kits triggered an unprecedented scramble among medical manufacturers.
Cardiologist Professor Martin Cowie raised an important issue on the challenges of the digitisation of cardiovascular healthcare at the ESC Congress 2019 in Paris. In his presentation, he confirmed that, within digital health transformation, the role of physician and the patient-doctor relationship will continue. However, much of the preparation may be conducted remotely.
A new joint report from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) presents the largest venture ever on precision medicine in diabetes. The report includes a detailed overview and roadmap for how this new approach to diabetes medicine can be evaluated and implemented into clinical practice.
Dedalus Group, leader in Europe and one of the world’s leading players in clinical and healthcare information systems supporting clinical professionals and healthcare facilities has appointed Andrea Fiumicelli as CEO of the Group. The manager returns to Italy after several years spent abroad as top manager of large international companies operating in the ICT (Information & Communication…
In the hustle and bustle of a hospital, properly disinfecting all surfaces in a patient room can be a challenging and time-consuming task. Now, in times of the coronavirus pandemic, it can also be life-threatening. To minimize the risk for their staff, hospitals are utilizing disinfection robots to sanitize surfaces and rooms.
Random Walk Imaging (RWI), a company developing novel software solutions for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), announced positive data from a study in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients using its proprietary scanning method and software protocol. Data from the study, which was conducted at the Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance, Copenhagen University Hospital Hvidovre, demonstrated a…
Early results from a study by researchers at Swansea University and The University of Manchester shows people are torn over whether they will use the COVID-19 contact tracing smartphone app planned for release in the UK. The study finds: Only one-third of people taking part said they will be downloading the app, with the rest either saying they will not be downloading it or are not yet sure;…
Tissue biopsy slides stained using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) dyes are a cornerstone of histopathology, especially for pathologists needing to diagnose and determine the stage of cancers. A research team led by MIT scientists at the Media Lab, in collaboration with clinicians at Stanford University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School, now shows that digital scans of these biopsy…
Researchers have developed an AI algorithm that can detect and identify different types of brain injuries. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London, have clinically validated and tested the AI on large sets of CT scans and found that it was successfully able to detect, segment, quantify and differentiate different types of brain lesions. Their results,…
More than one in four of the most viewed COVID-19 videos on YouTube in spoken English contains misleading or inaccurate information, reveals the first study of its kind, published online in BMJ Global Health. Public health misinformation on COVID-19 is reaching far more people than in previous pandemics and has considerable potential for harm, warn the researchers. While good quality accurate…
Almost five years ago, the plan to implement a wide-ranging digital pathology approach across the Netherlands began to take shape. As more labs across the country acquire digital pathology capability, with steps to create a strong and accessible image repository and a national image exchange platform, one of the project leaders, Professor Katrien Grünberg, offered an update and spoke of some…
A British cyber security company, VST Enterprises has signed a contract with international digital health technology firm Circle Pass Enterprises (CPE), owner of ‘Covi-Pass’, to supply 50 million of its ‘digital health passports’ to 15 countries. VST was founded by tech entrepreneur Louis-James Davis to integrate its state-of-the-art VCode & VPlatform technologies into the Covi-Pass…
The COVID-19 pandemic could, over the next year, lead to a 20% rise in the number of deaths from people who have been newly diagnosed with cancer, according to research supported by DATA-CAN. The analysis is the first to focus on the impact of the emergency on mortality rates in people with cancer and uses data from the health records of over 3.5 million patients in England.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought more strain on healthcare systems but it has also highlighted the necessity to integrate social care to healthcare to protect the most vulnerable populations in ageing societies, an eminent healthcare consultant told us in an exclusive interview.
Coronavirus can be identified automatically from sick patients’ lung X-rays using artificial intelligence (AI) developed at Brunel University London.
Accident and Emergency departments across the NHS have seen dramatic falls in attendances amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Senior A&E practitioners are becoming increasingly concerned that people who need to be seen for serious conditions such as suspected heart attacks are staying away – or not seeking help until much later – because they are frightened of contracting coronavirus.
The remote patient monitoring technology and devices market has attracted significant investment in the past decade and is growing at an extraordinary rate. Expected to reach around 28 billion euros by the end of 2023, this market is very attractive to many big name companies that want to be ‘connected’ such as Qualcomm Life, Inc., OSI Systems, Inc., Philips Healthcare, Abbott Laboratories…
Computational pathology has increased applications for diagnosis, prediction of prognosis and therapy response, facilitating the movement of healthcare towards personalised medicine. Coupled with deep learning, such tools are ever more efficient and robust within research and clinical settings. The growing role of computational pathology was highlighted by Professor Andrew Janowczyk at the…
Hamamatsu and KiKo Knowledge Hub Join Inspirata’s Initiative to Offer Free Remote Pathology Solution for Healthcare Institutions Affected by COVID-19. Inspirata gains strategic support in its initiative to allow pathology departments across the world to offer work-from-home opportunities for their pathologists during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
Heraeus Medical, makers of the market-leading PALACOS bone cement, has enhanced its online HeraeusCare orthopedic care coordination solution to a new digital health platform that connects healthcare authorities and providers with patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The coronavirus crisis is putting enormous strain on healthcare organizations, with worried patients filling emergency rooms…
Like most technologies, X-ray imaging software is evolving, delivering more automation and improved image quality. However, the fundamental imaging basics for radiologic technologists remain unchanged. In this article, manufacturer Carestream provides a helpful review of the imaging basics for rad techs. In today’s digital world, basic functions once performed by the operator are now…
Agfa announces the launch of its digital tomosynthesis solution, which offers a fast, economical and low-dose technique to separate anatomical overlap in a variety of applications. Powered by Musica, digital tomosynthesis automatically delivers 3D reconstructions with optimal contrast and consistent quality across slices and images. The digital tomosynthesis solution can add clinical value in a…
Cyber attacks on hospitals occur every day. However, if IT security works well, nobody needs even notice. But if defence measures fail the impact can be enormous and the outcry among the general public large. The new branch-specific security standard (B3S) of the German Hospital Federation (DKG) shows how hospitals can improve their IT security. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI)…
Chest X-ray is the first imaging method to diagnose COVID-19 coronavirus infection in Spain, but in the light of new evidence this may change soon, according to Milagros Martí de Gracia, Vice President of the Spanish Society of Radiology (SERAM) and head of the emergency radiology unit at La Paz Hospital in Madrid, one of the hot spots for viral re-production of COVID-19.
EIT Health and McKinsey & Company have published a Europe-wide report “Transforming healthcare with AI: The impact on the workforce and organisations” exploring the impact of AI on healthcare practitioners, as well as the implications and obstacles for scaling AI in healthcare organisations and systems.
Carestream Health earned the highest position in TractManager’s MD Buyline User Satisfaction Ratings across three categories—portables, X-ray detectors and room-based digital radiography systems—during 2019 survey periods. Carestream’s DRX-Evolution Plus and DRX-Ascend systems scored high marks for performance, reliability, installation and service. The DRX-Plus 3543 detector remains the…
A new strategy to transform imaging in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) has been unveiled after a major data-gathering project to assess the present state of the service. The process will see the creation of a national strategy for imaging networks designed to deliver improved care and better value services for patients. Key to this has been ‘The Model Hospital’ concept – a digital…
Blockchain is a concept that could have significant benefits for healthcare – particularly in radiology – but several challenges remain. Although an effective conduit through which to share data and medical images, particularly across health systems, one drawback is speed, given the amount of data that can be involved. However, Professor Morgan McBee, paediatric radiologist and imaging…
Unnecessary prostate cancer biopsies could be reduced by 60 per cent thanks to new research from the University of East Anglia (UEA). Researchers have developed new methods to identify biomarkers for prostate cancer by combining information from multiple parts of urine samples. It is hoped that the breakthrough could help large numbers of men avoid an unnecessary initial biopsy.
Researchers at ETH Zurich and Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, have developed a method for predicting circulatory failure in patients in intensive care units (ICU) – enabling clinicians to intervene at an early stage. Their approach uses machine learning methods to evaluate an extensive body of patient data. Patients in a hospital’s ICU are kept under close observation: clinicians…
A partnership between the Rwandan government and Babyl, the country's largest digital health service provider, creates the framework for Rwanda's ascent to be a world leader in digital health. The partnership will allow people over the age of 12 to have a consultation with their doctor or nurse through their phone within minutes. They will be able to receive prescriptions, lab requests and…
Virtual reality could help physiotherapy patients complete their exercises at home successfully thanks to researchers at WMG, University of Warwick, who managed to combine VR technology with 3D motion capture. Currently prescribed physiotherapy often requires patients to complete regular exercises at home. Outside of the clinic, patients rarely receive any guidance other than a leaflet of…
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) announced its shortlist of four research projects competing for a single £30 million award. The charity says it is one of many radical new approaches needed to address a frightening mismatch in research funding compared with the burden of heart and circulatory diseases. With the World Health Organization forecasting an increase in cardiovascular deaths…
Carestream’s Digital Tomosynthesis (DT) functionality—a three-dimensional extension of general radiography—has received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Simplifying workflow and reducing exam time, DT technology is an upgradable option on the Carestream DRX-Evolution Plus System, a versatile digital radiography system that can perform a wide range of…
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have developed a method based on artificial intelligence for histopathological diagnosis and grading of prostate cancer. The AI-system has the potential to solve one of the bottlenecks in today’s prostate cancer histopathology by providing more accurate diagnosis and better treatment decisions. The study, presented in The Lancet Oncology, shows that the…
The Protestant Hospital Wesel (EVK Wesel) is one of two reference centres in Germany and one of 25 worldwide for the Senhance Surgical Robotic System from Transenterix. ‘We wanted to be the first in the Lower Rhine region to go to market with a robotic system as we believe that this type of digital surgical assistance represents the future,’ explains Rainer Rabsahl, CEO of the 356-bed…
A popular proverb in Mandarin goes ‘Hearing something a hundred times is not as good as seeing it once’ (百聞不如一見). Visiting the Taiwan pavilion at this year’s Medica, it’s clear to see that the Bureau of Foreign Trade (MOEA) from Taiwan, together with the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and its foster companies, have taken this sentiment to heart.
A medicine that could control outbreaks of scabies in the UK is unlicensed and only available through specialist importers, researchers at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) have found. In July 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) updated its model list of essential medicines to include oral ivermectin for scabies-related infections. This recommendation follows the 2017 WHO…
Dramatic developments in digital technologies have fuelled the growth and need for a mobile workforce, with the number of mobile workers predicted to climb to 1.87 billion by 2022 – accounting for almost half (42.5%) of the global workforce. The healthcare industry is no exception to this. In fact, the global healthcare mobility solutions market is predicted to experience a 25% year on year…
At RSNA 2019, GE Healthcare launches more than 30 new, imaging intelligent applications and smart devices designed to drive efficiency in radiology departments, aiming to double productivity and cost savings for systems by 2025. For healthcare executives, the new offerings help systems to save costs, improve technology utilization, and increase patient volumes. Clinicians also will benefit from…
Agfa announces that it will launch the DR 100s high-productivity, ergonomic, mobile DR imaging solution, at RSNA 2019. With a customer-driven design that meets the needs of today’s healthcare environments, the DR 100s delivers a new force in mobile imaging. It combines agility, excellent DR image quality, fast image preview and a broad range of applications, including Chest, Abdomen, Skeletal…
Curious about how intelligent imaging can work with you in CT? Then join us at this year’s RSNA, North Hall, Booth #7530, where you can experience our new Somatom X.cite and myExam Companion.
Fujifilm Medical Systems U.S.A., Inc. will present research and development advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for digital radiography at McCormick Place in Chicago during the 105th scientific assembly and annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) from December 1 – 6, 2019. "AI has the potential to bring a wealth of advancements to the medical imaging…
Digital medical technology company Brainlab announced the launch of Mixed Reality Viewer, which brings spatial computing into daily clinical practice for surgical plan review, medical student training and patient consultation. Brainlab Mixed Reality (MR) Viewer uses the head-mounted display Magic Leap One from Brainlab strategic development partner Magic Leap to add a new dimension to patient…
It’s a world’s first. The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is collaborating with Amazon to provide reliable health information from the service’s website through voice-assisted technology. In a speech announcing the service, Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, addressed the need for dependable information.
AI has made headlines for years, including in such scientific publications as ‘Nature’, an indication of its high relevance, according to Dr Tobias Müller, Head of Digital Transformation at the Rhön-Klinikum AG. However, he also delivers a note of caution because studies are often aimed at demonstrating the equivalence of AI-based diagnoses with those made by doctors. ‘You have to read…
More dynamic, more digital, and more networked – the medical industry is striding into the future. Thus, it’s wise to keep a finger on the pulse, be informed and deepen communications with specialists. At Medica, the presence of start-ups has grown annually, largely due to the special attention they receive. This year, 36 out of several hundred of these mostly young and digitally-driven firms…
‘Electronic monitoring systems are proven to assist healthcare institutions to make sustained improvements in hand hygiene compliance.’ [Scheithauer S, et al. Do WiFi-based hand hygiene dispenser systems increase hand hygiene Compliance? American Journal of Infection Control (2018)]. ‘Using these systems,’ adds the manufacturer Ophardt Hygiene, ‘a continuous stream of objective data is…
Health tech Made in Taiwan is among the mainstays of every MEDICA; this year’s fair is no exception. In co-operation with the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) of the Taiwanese Ministry of Economics and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), 20 world-class healthcare companies are demonstrating innovative medical solutions based on national advances in Artificial Intelligence…
From an initial focus on innovative manufacturing, in-house ICT technologies drove production efficiency and quality. Today, Taiwan has advanced to become a leader with its "Asian Silicon Valley" concept. The government also wants to further strengthen Taiwan's key position by independently developing medical products that meet the high demands of international markets – at…
COCIR was proud to celebrate its 60 years of bringing the benefits of innovation in medical technology to society and patients. To celebrate this landmark, more than 100 healthcare stakeholders from the European institutions, along with medical technology industry leaders gathered for a Gala event and Conference in the Autoworld Museum in Brussels.
Consider the diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities resulting from access to pertinent data from thousands of anonymized patient medical scans. What new patterns, options, or evidence for actionable insights could be derived from all this information? Cloud-based data is easily accessible via computer, smartphone, or tablet and is a valuable complement to the insights from the millions of…
PHE’s latest English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance (ESPAUR) report shows that there were an estimated 61,000 antibiotic resistant infections in England during 2018, a 9 percent rise from 2017.[i]
Carestream will introduce a three-dimensional extension of general radiography through its Digital Tomosynthesis (DT) functionality (Pending FDA 510(k) clearance) at this year’s Radiological Society of North America conference in booth #7513, North Hall. Simplifying workflow and reducing exam time, Carestream’s DT technology is an upgradable option on the DRX-Evolution Plus System. This DT…
Dr Clemens Martin Auer knows ‘disruption is an ambivalent concept’. Auer is president of the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG), in which healthcare policy is discussed annually from a European perspective: ‘For some, disruption is the promise of necessary change whilst for others it means suspicions and fears.’ The term – a synonym for ‘transformation’ but also for…
‘Compared to other sectors, healthcare is lagging behind in the systematic use of electronic data,’ says Martin Seychell, EU Deputy Director-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) and top official at the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG). ‘However,’ he adds, ‘this is changing and the digital transformation is happening right now.’
Beckman Coulter, Inc. announced that it has initially been awarded a contract of $1.25 million, with potential to be awarded an additional $6.5 million if all contract options are exercised, from the DRIVe (Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures) established by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), under the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness…
In recent years, whenever the German media reported on laboratory medicine, questions consistently arose: ‘How can excessive costs for lab services be cut?’ and ‘How could money saved be distributed among other medical specialists and general medicine practitioners (GPs)?’ The questions are myopic in their failure to address two important aspects of laboratory medicine – its…
Heart patients using a smartphone app reminder are more likely to take their medication than those who receive written instructions, according to a study presented at the 45th Argentine Congress of Cardiology (SAC 2019) in Buenos Aires. ‘We hypothesised that the app would increase adherence by 30%, but the impact was even greater,’ said study author Dr Cristian M. Garmendia, of the…
The current introduction of instant access to all patient clinical imaging and medical documentation in one picture archiving and communication system (PACS) for use throughout the Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust (PAHT), in Essex, UK, lies in the hands of Imaging Systems Manager and radiographer Stephen Townrow. In 2017, Townrow went to his hospital’s Board with a business case to consolidate…
A trial tele-ophthalmology system pioneered by the University of Strathclyde and NHS Forth Valley, has paved the way for what's believed to be one of the world’s first tele-examinations of an eye streamed live using a 5G smart phone. The system uses a live video feed to securely connect doctors, opticians and patient through a mixture of 3-D printed technology developed at Strathclyde, and the…
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is like a huge blanket that can cover anything from innocuous chess computers to robots which, depending on your viewpoint, could save, oppress or obliterate humanity. However, not every jar labelled AI contains AI. So what is intelligence and can it be created artificially, synthesised like a nature-identical flavouring substance?
Amid ever-growing demand for services, significant challenges face the pathology workforce in the years ahead but – there are also good opportunities. With advances in technology and the advent of artificial intelligence as a decision-making support tool, Professor Jo Martin, President Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) in the UK, believes there remain opportunities for pathology to play a…
Healthcare is going digital worldwide at an incredibly rapid pace. More and more applications for prevention, diagnostics and therapy are being made into apps (with matching hardware) for smartphones and tablets or are even available as wearables for direct use on the body. Digitalisation is also striding forward in Germany, where doctors, therapists and patients still take a fairly analogue…
A study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet shows that a treatment adjustment algorithm based on lung function and symptoms in a mobile phone can be an efficient tool in managing uncontrolled asthma. For fuss-free measuring of lung function, the phone connects to a wireless spirometer and the app can register respiratory symptoms and provide visual feedback on treatment. The study is…
The latest study by the German Society for Haematology and Oncology (DGHO), ‘Prognosis for population-based morbidity for common cancers in Germany – impact on provision’ has made it clear that due to demographic developments in Germany and to medical advances in oncology, the requirements for cancer patients’ care are ever more diverse. The increase in newly diagnosed cancer patients is…
A pioneering European research project designed to develop new diagnostic tests to assess patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) has expanded giving access to more patients. Liver Investigation: Testing Marker Utility in Steatohepatitis (LITMUS) funded by the European Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint undertaking, brings together clinical scientists from international…
Advanced computer models of diseases can be used to improve diagnosis and treatment. The goal is to develop the models to “digital twins” of individual patients. Those twins may help to computationally identify and try the best medication, before actually treating a patient. The models are the result of an international study, published in the open access journal Genome Medicine.
Royal Philips announced that it has expanded its patient management solutions in the US with the acquisition of Boston-based start-up company Medumo. Founded in 2013, Medumo has developed a diagnostic patient management platform for healthcare providers to deliver patient engagement and education services. “Efficient digital health services for a superb patient experience and enhanced…
Deployment of electronic health records (EHR) are increasingly cited as a factor in physician burnout. However, a senior figure with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) – which supports the transformation of health through information and technology – believes defined use of data and information can help off-set the impact of burnout among health professionals.…
Siemens Healthineers, University of Missouri System (UM System) and University of Missouri Health Care (MU Health Care) launch "Alliance for Precision Health.” The ten-year collaboration will bring the partners’ expertise together to improve health care in Missouri State, promote education and launch research initiatives. Among other things, the clinic receives the only 7 Tesla MRI…
A new way of detecting rheumatoid arthritis using infrared light could offer an objective way of diagnosing the disease and monitoring treatment effectiveness, a University of Birmingham study shows. The rapid, non-invasive technique could help clinicians diagnose the disease earlier, and assess how effectively the selected treatment is controlling the progression of the disease. Rheumatoid…
In the wake of an already devastating cancer diagnosis, European cancer patients often grapple with debilitating symptoms and side effects. For these patients, the eSMART (Electronic Symptom Management System Remote Technology) trial provides new hope for improved management of the side effects and symptoms of cancer, and with it, improved quality of life. Now, the eSMART Consortium presented its…
In view of the advent of personalised medicine and holistic therapy many experts predict the end of healthcare as we know it. However, in many places it is ‘healthcare business as usual’. In our interview, Dr Christoph Zindel, President Diagnostic Imaging at Siemens Healthineers, explains where he sees radiology bridging the gap between symptom-centred treatment today and the systemic…
FUJIFILM displayed its evolving portfolio of medical informatics and Enterprise Imaging innovations, by presenting REiLI, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Medical Imaging initiative at HIMSS & Health 2.0 Conference.
Staff shortages are among the most urgent healthcare problems. While digitisation might offer relief, unfortunately many hospitals lag behind in transforming their processes. As pressure mounts, the chorus is heard: ‘It’s high time for bold changes’. Indeed, this was the motto of the 2019 Western German Health Congress held in Cologne, an event that focuses on health policy and health…
Oxford Gene Technology (OGT), A Sysmex Group Company, has celebrated the opening of its new facility in Cambridge, UK. The opening ceremony, which took place at the company’s new premises on the prestigious Cambridge Science Park, was attended by the Department for International Trade (DIT) and local media as well as top-level representatives from OGT and its parent company, Sysmex Corporation.…
With mounting pressures on funding and making healthcare more affordable for national health services and private sector providers alike, technology providers must strive to continuously innovate in order to improve product portfolios. Thales’s strategy is underpinned by its world leadership in digital technologies, which are becoming intrinsic to medical imaging and radiology. The result of…
Point-of-care testing (POCT) is complex and its development continues due to digitisation in healthcare and increasing international partnerships among the healthcare actors. In a hospital, a number of factors need consideration to fully exploit the potential of bedside testing. POCT instruments and analysis methods must be thoroughly validated and quality assurance processes be in place.…
Using urine to obtain diagnostic insights has been done for thousands of years and still remains an important tool to obtain crucial information. Covering a range of tests, urinalysis may be used to screen for or help to diagnose ailments such as urinary tract infections, kidney disorders, liver problems, diabetes or other medical conditions, just to name a few. Because urinalysis has been around…
A team of seasoned European healthcare entrepreneurs announced the foundation of MCG motion capture GmbH (MCG), the world’s first precision motion analysis and digital care company. The team combines decades of expertise in the medtech, digital health and biopharmaceutical industry, including big data integration, analysis for decision support, and long-standing experience in clinical trials as…
CMEF, as a highly curated global platform to showcase technological innovations in medical and healthcare sectors, will bring forward a theme of "Intelligence-architected Future" to propel and spearhead these sectors and the trend of times at the National Exhibition Center (Shanghai) May 14-17, 2019. Driven by the intelligent technology core, the expo will reveal a new medical niche…
Artificial intelligence clinics and rehab bikes, exoskeletons and stylish protections masks – healthcare in Taiwan has many faces and facets as the international medical & healthcare exhibition Medical Taiwan in Taipei will show from 27 to 30 June 2019. We visited participating companies and hospitals to give you a sneak preview of some of the highlights that might well create a buzz in…
The 35th Korea International Medical & Hospital Equipment Show (KIMES) again proved to be a great success. Over 73,000 visitors from 96 countries entered the show in Seoul, attracted by, for example, the latest developments in AI-assisted diagnostics, robotic surgery and rehabilitation, healthcare solutions for the aged and comprehensive smart hospital systems. The KIMES motto, ‘Meet the…
Digitalization offers great potential for hospitals: diseases can be detected earlier, internal processes more efficiently organized, health expenditure reduced and patients better cared for. Artificial intelligence, robotics, sensor technology, big data, additive manufacturing or augmented reality - the technologies for this have long been available.
Digital pathology, combined with the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI), is one of the most promising fields for the delivery of precision medicine. In the first keynote address for the 5th Digital Pathology & AI Congress (Europe) held in London last December, Professor of Pathology, Marilyn Bui, focused on how digital pathology is impacting on precision medicine. During her address,…
As a result of the final phase of exhibitor registrations for the world’s leading medical trade fare MEDICA 2019 in Düsseldorf (running between 18 and 21 November), one thing is already apparent: Exhibitors have a positive view of the updated allocation of subjects to the trade fair halls and are aligning their participation to the new structure with regard to target group orientation and…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced important new steps to modernize breast cancer screening and help empower patients with more information when they are considering important decisions regarding their breast health care. For the first time in more than 20 years of regulating mammography facilities, the agency is proposing amendments to key regulations that would help improve…
With increased precision, speed of service and reduced cost, 3D printing presents an opportunity to transform traditional healthcare and its delivery, and radiology is at the center of this new technology. In the ECR 2019 Special Focus Session “The 3D printing lab from bench to bedside”, the speakers emphasized that 3D printing does not only enable a new and innovative way to display imaging,…
International leaders in medicine aim at analyzing, evaluating, and incorporating the major developments in the field into the ecosystem of Xpomet Medicinale. These leaders forming the Medical Board met on 20 March to discuss the trending topics and how to approach them regarding the structure and goals of the Festival. Christian Dierks, owner of the innovation consultancy for healthcare and life…
Extended reality applications like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are mostly known for their use in the gaming or movie industries. However, in recent years, clinicians have begun exploring potential medical applications for those immersive technologies.
Despite COCIR raising the alarm as early as 2014, the age of the installed base of medical imaging equipment in Europe continues to increase. To draw attention to this worrying trend, COCIR is presenting new data on the current situation in four modalities of medical imaging, graphically demonstrating the extent of the issue. These were launched tday at the European Congress of Radiology 2019 in…
The topic of artificial intelligence (AI) was omnipresent at RSNA2018, the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. From the opening presidential address, throughout scientific sessions and educational presentations, to the vendors’ technical exhibition, around 53,000 attendees learned about pioneering new products, research, plus challenges and opportunities to implement…
AI algorithms are making their way not just into diagnostic workstations, but will also in future be found in the diagnostic methods themselves. Prof. Mathias Goyen, Chief Medical Officer Europe at GE Healthcare, discusses AI algorithms in radiology. "According to a study by the consultancy firm Accenture, the estimated annual market volume for AI applications in healthcare in the USA will…
The professionals we all rely on to keep us healthy, they rely on X-Ray imaging systems empowered by flat panel detectors and software solutions provided by Thales. Our solutions offer superior accuracy and advanced image processing to help image interpretation while decreasing radiation exposure. They also include a variety of innovative features that simplify the daily workflow of healthcare…
Technological change is a major part of change management in radiology and it is inevitable. Artificial intelligence (AI) has slipped into every area of life including the hospital, and is already making decisions in radiology systems. The good news is that radiologists could win on two fronts, provided they play their cards well, a leading USA radiologist told delegates at a recent congress in…
Today the impressive development of drones by some people is happily regarded as the pinnacle of digitalisation in healthcare. Some groups are testing whether drones can quickly and safely deliver defibrillators to patients in need or whether they can transport laboratory samples or blood products. These developments catch lots of attention, but PD Dr Dominik Pförringer, trauma and orthopaedic…
Fujifilm is a pioneer in digital radiography technology since the early 1980s: since then we have continuously been developing innovative technologies, creating products that deliver greater benefits and improved care to both customers and patients. In the breast screening segment, Fujifilm's strong commitment to continuous technology evolution and a clear commitment in providing innovative…
Currently many researchers and experts assume that the next great socio-economic revolution will include a completely new definition of health and how we define illnesses and therapies. “Our health system today can no longer be sustained in its existing form. It has become too expensive and too ineffective,” Professor Harald Schmidt, head of the Department of Pharmacology and Personalised…
Several research groups at Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) are working on digitally combating cancer. The main goal is to combine and jointly evaluate existing information. With 500,000 new cancer cases every year in Germany alone, it is worthwhile comparing experiences with different diagnostic and treatment methods, thus allowing more patients to benefit from the most promising approaches. In…
Pete Valenti, Hologic’s division president of breast and skeletal health solutions, talks about how AI is driving innovation in breast health technology. Underpinning that evolution more recently has been the acquisition of two organisations – digital specimen radiography specialists Faxitron Bioptics and BioZorb marker manufacturer Focal Therapeutics.
Researchers have developed a prototype medical device based on silicon photonics for the screening of arterial stiffness and for the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases such as arterial stenosis and heart failure. This is a cooperation between imec, the world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technology and Ghent University, together with Medtronic and other…
International SOS Foundation Launches New White Paper, endorsed by the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth and authored by Leading Legal Authority, Nathaniel Lacktman, Esq. and the International SOS Group Medical Director for Assistance, Dr Neil Nerwich.
Today, artificial intelligence (AI) can be found everywhere: in our cars, our smartphones and even our working environments. AI has many areas of application, including in the healthcare sector. AI will change the interaction between doctors and patients, but most patients won’t even know it’s involved. That’s because improving the patient experience, helping to increase productivity,…
With Artificial Intelligence (AI) able to deliver diagnostic advances for clinicians and patients, the focus has shifted towards ensuring the technology is used in an ethical and responsible way. As evidence emerges of a gap in research on ethical deployment of AI, Dr Gopal Ramchurn is embarking on a three-year research project that will look at setting parameters for AI usage, with a key aspect…
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Leeds have announced a critical milestone in going digital, by scanning every glass slide they produce. The milestone represents a major step towards achieving faster and accurate diagnosis for cancer patients in the future. The Pathology Department, located in St. James’ Hospital in Leeds, is one of the largest in the UK processing over…
Built as the first commercially available scanner to deliver truly digital PET, the Vereos PET/CT, from Philips, offers revolutionary Digital Photon Counting technology. The science behind this scanner evolution is ‘quite complicated’, agrees Piotr Maniawski, Director of Clinical Science Nuclear Medicine at Philips Healthcare, yet the improved performance is significant, particularly when…
As 3D printing technology continues to evolve, read how radiology will be involved in managing digital workflow related to patient care. “3D printing is a part of medicine, and radiology is at the center of this impactful new technology,” said RSNA 3D Printing Special Interest Group (SIG) Chair Jane Matsumoto, MD, assistant professor of radiology and co-director of the 3D Printing Lab at the…
In future, healthcare intelligent IoT solutions for real-time and location-based management of assets, employees and patients will be integral. ‘Medicosolution is working on holistic digital concepts for the healthcare sector and offers a platform for integration for existing solutions,’ the IT firm reports. ‘All processes can be tracked in real time,’ Max Schröfelbauer, its CEO,…
Over in the United Kingdom Pavilion (Hall 16) you can expect quality among the latest medical devices, diagnostic software and digitally-enabled technologies produced by nearly 100 pioneering British health technology companies. ‘With over 97,000 people working in the UK’s HealthTech sector, it’s the life sciences’ biggest employer, and its importance has rightfully been recognised by the…
Language difficulties become even greater when a patient is foreign and in need of medical care. To improve communication between international patients and medical staff, a new translation app – Medicospeaker – is undergoing its first in-hospital tests at Muenster University Hospital (UKM) in Germany. The system aims to translate dynamic conversation processes, explained Lukas Fortmeier, CEO…
The Danes have shown for some time how e-health can work successfully on a national level. The health portal sundhed.dk (= health), initiated in 2001 and launched in 2003, is part of the public healthcare system. As of January 2018, the Danish national strategy describes sundhed.dk as a national access point for personal health-related data for hospitals, general practitioners and communities,…
Successful pilot scheme means TERR-eSanté will be rolled out for the whole of the Ile-de-France. The French have a reputation as early adopters of telemedicine driven by the desire to modernise healthcare by the judicious use of the latest technology. The first ‘carte vitale’ (national health card) with a microchip was introduced in 1998. Since 2011, the information stored on the cards has…
Growth! New hardware, new software, richer imaging, enhanced communication and image transfer plus artificial intelligence (AI) are all pushing the pace that medical organisations, radiologists and device manufacturers must run to keep up. We spoke with Dr Erik Ranschaert, President of EuSOMII, about today’s changing face of radiology.
Spain has powerful regional e-health projects, but implementing a national strategy remains a complicated task. Lack of interoperability and low resources slow down data sharing across 17 autonomous communities, and sometimes even within the same region, key experts in the field explain. Although Spain transfers skills to its communities, everyone can benefit from emergency and primary care…
Following a report from software firm Nuance Communications that suggests technology firms should consider shadowing nurses to fully understand their workflows and inform the creation of solutions that work for them, nurses’ views on technology and data are to be consulted in a new Royal College of Nursing initiative alongside NHS Digital’s chief nurse Anne Cooper.
Royal Philips has been leading two healthcare innovation projects that will receive government investment as part of major cross-sector collaborations with the NHS, academia and industry partners from the UK Government’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, delivered through United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI). A joint multi-million pound investment by government and industry partners,…
A new dimension in data handling is not only emerging, but is already a reality in our lives. However, political discourse about this often lags behind real events. We spoke with two experts who have an overview of clouds, decentralised data flows and the evaluation of personal data with IT help in various areas. Engineer Professor Alexandra Dmitrienko is a Secure Software Systems expert at the…
Often referred to as the ‘Achilles’ heel’ of histopathology, the sample entry has posed considerable challenges in pre-analytics for several decades. We visited the Munich-based lab automation start-up Inveox GmbH. Time-intense, highly manual processes in labs are expensive, error-prone and the most common reason for irregularities in cancer diagnoses. In Germany alone, every year hundreds…
Hungary has one of the worst outcomes when it comes to cancer. Early detection and accurate diagnosis could significantly reduce the costs of oncological treatment. Pathology plays a crucial role in diagnoses, but is crippled by severe shortage and fragmentation. Digital pathology could help overcome those difficulties – and two projects underway seem particularly fit to help, László Fónyad,…
As in many other countries, Belgium faces a significant shortage of health professionals – particularly pathologists to guarantee the diagnostic quality necessary for adequate therapeutic choice. A digital pathology platform can be a true ally; the Brussels Erasmus Hospital opted for that solution. Project manager Dr Ali Ramadhan shared his experience – the good, the bad and the ugly – at…
The European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research (EIBIR) has published its Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) for Biomedical Imaging. The agenda identifies current challenges and needs in healthcare, illustrating how biomedical imaging and derived data can help to address these challenges, in order to stimulate dedicated research funding efforts and mechanisms.
Enthusiasm for an emerging digital health tool, the smart pill, is on the rise but researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have published a paper in the American Journal of Bioethics that cautions health care providers and policymakers to slow down when it comes to allowing this technology in patient care settings.
When two powerful products are combined, the outcome often becomes much more effective. One such proof is the digital pathology, where technology coupled with medicine. The introduction of technology has completely transformed the face of medical diagnosis, providing new hope to many sufferers. It has become essential to identify the cause of diseases to prevent them in the early stages to avoid…
While the role of the laboratory in disease diagnosis and management has expanded in recent years, causing an overwhelming rise in testing demands, the availability of skilled technologists and specialists has been diminishing. To meet the needs of an overworked and increasingly generalized workforce, today’s products not only must deliver more clinical data than ever before, but also must be…
Driving breast cancer screening compliance is an essential part of improving clinical outcomes, and one way to do this is to educate women about their breast density, advises Tracy Accardi, Hologic’s Global Vice President of Research and Development for Breast Health & Skeletal Solutions.
Tomosynthesis is under international review, with a surprising number of enticing studies carried out in Northern European countries, among them one headed by Professor Sophia Zackrisson at Lund University, Sweden. In our interview, she not only revealed surprising trial results, but also shared her thoughts on practical implementation and unusual speed-reading methods. ‘Our institute’s…
Scientists at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute (VTCRI) have found evidence that may disrupt conventional understanding about how electrical activity travels in the heart — a discovery that potentially can lead to new insight into medical problems such as heart arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death.
Rutgers University–New Brunswick engineers have created a smart wristband with a wireless connection to smartphones that will enable a new wave of personal health and environmental monitoring devices. Their technology could be added to watches and other wearable devices that monitor heart rates and physical activity.
Affidea Group, the leading European provider of diagnostic imaging, outpatient and cancer care services, announces the opening of a new ExpressCare Clinic in Tallaght in Dublin for minor injuries and minor illnesses, after an investment of €2 million. This is the second Affidea ExpressCare Clinic to open in Ireland this year, with the other clinic operating in Cork, and this adds to its network…
The need to ensure that laboratory medicine can meet the future challenges of a rapidly changing healthcare environment sits at the core of an innovative strategic conference for this sector. The agenda of the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) Strategic Conference in Mannheim (18-19 June) highlighted the challenges, and also outlined areas of discussion to…
Big Data can be a critical tool in helping clinicians develop advanced patient health risk assessment and stratification models as well as leading to a new level of patient empowerment. Professor Josep Roca outlined the benefits of Big Data in a laboratory context during the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFLM) Strategic Conference held in Mannheim, Germany,…
Carestream Health earned the top rating in MD Buyline’s User Satisfaction Ratings for its portable and room-based digital radiography (DR) systems and detectors in the second quarter of 2018. Carestream’s DRX-Revolution Mobile X-ray System and its DRX-Evolution Plus and DRX-Ascend systems scored high marks from healthcare providers for performance, reliability, installation and service.
The UNESCO World Heritage City Bergen is seen as the gateway to the fiords of Norway. However, for radiologists the city offers an even more interesting attraction than Scandinavian landscapes. Bergen features one of the largest randomised control trials to compare digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) with digital mammography (DM): the To-Be trial. Professor Solveig Hofvind, head of BreastScreen…
The digital revolution in healthcare in the United States is marching steadily forward, spurred by federal government regulations and financial incentives, by technological innovations, and by the necessities of increasing healthcare treatment efficiency, of lowering its cost and economic impact, and of elevating communications among providers, patients and payers to the norms of the 21st…
Machine learning is adding a new dimension to pathology and already outperforming experts during some tasks, according to several speakers at the 14th European Congress on Digital Pathology (ECDP) who revealed up-to-date developments. However, whilst AI is set to herald a new future for digital pathology, Johan Lundin, associated professor for biomedical informatics and research director at the…
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning are poised to transform healthcare, potentially freeing practitioners across many disciplines from routine tasks and saving lives through efficient early detection. Offering insight into the health of both individuals and populations, these ’deep learning‘ algorithms have the potential to process vast amounts of data and identify warning…
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and end-users in the field of dynamic radiology can now benefit from new detectors and imaging solutions to further enhance patients’ examinations. The digital technologies produce greater quality images at a lower dose for end-users and patients, which helps OEMs to make their systems more attractive on the market. Thales is driving the shift from…
ISPOR, the professional society for health economics and outcomes research, held its second plenary session, “Digital Health—Help or Hype?,” this morning at ISPOR 2018 in Baltimore, MD, USA. As digital technologies such as smart phones, social media, and wearables have increasingly become available, the potential opportunities for tracking health metrics and enhancing participation in…
The supervisory board of Messe Düsseldorf GmbH headed by its chairman Lord Mayor Thomas Geisel appointed Wolfram Diener (54) the new operative managing director in its meeting on 15 May 2018. He succeeds Joachim Schäfer (64) in this position, who will retire from the company in late August 2018 reaching his agreed retirement age. Diener will take on his new duty with Messe Düsseldorf on 1…
Weak, easily broken bones are an epidemic in the United States. They’re often tied to osteoporosis, a disease that causes bones to degenerate over time. This makes them less flexible, more brittle, and easier to break. According to the International Osteoporosis Foundation, more than 44 million Americans aged 50 and older either have or face the threat of developing osteoporosis due to low bone…
Digital bed management systems being trialled in NHS hospitals to improve patient flow are showing early signs of success. Innovations such as patient tracking and real-time location of equipment and staff to help make hospital stays more efficient are being tested at 10 sites. Project leader Bernard Quinn is particularly optimistic about technology that monitors bed availability and patient flow.
For the quality of medical care, Europe is increasingly relying on digitization and telemedicine. The Nordic countries are considered pioneers in the digitization of the health care system. European Hospital spoke with Professor Arild Faxvaag, Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Trondheim, Norway, about his presentation “Nordic…
At the 2018 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition, Siemens Healthineers showcases the Proactive Follow-up solution as part of its Siemens Healthineers Digital Ecosystem. The application prompts the appropriate physician to initiate a medically necessary response based on care gaps identified. For example, an incidental finding, an abnormality that appears in a radiology report intended for a…
Recognising malignant tissue remains a tricky task. While today, most patients undergo a biopsy, an invasive procedure where tissue is sampled, stained and assessed, researchers are exploring the potential of optical biopsy, the visual assessment of suspect tissue. The interest in optical biopsy ‘is indeed enormous,’ confirms Dr Thomas Bocklitz, physicist at Friedrich-Schiller University in…
The term telemedicine has been around since the 1980s. Ten years later Deutsche Telekom demonstrated the first applications designed to provide medical services to people living remotely such as (based on American ideas) astronauts in space, workers on oilrigs or injured personnel in field hospitals. Since then, the concept of medical care across long distances via telecommunication has not…
The international MedTech Summit and MT-CONNECT, an international medical technology exhibition (Nuremberg, 11-12 April 2018) is a key event in Europe. For many years, developments in digitisation and personalised health have been among core elements of the congress, the organiser points out. Around 1,900 visitors travelled to Nuremberg for the previous MedTech Summit Congress and MT-CONNECT,…
In the German healthcare system, innovations are difficult – Xpomet boss Ulrich Pieper is certain of this. Not because the system is different, but because the point of view is wrong. ‘The system assesses innovations according to how much money they save, and not according to whether they achieve healing,’ the industrial engineer explains. Precisely for this reason, he adds, the three-day…
Royal Philips, a global leader in health technology, and Hologic, Inc., an innovative women’s health company, announced a global partnership agreement to offer care professionals integrated solutions comprising diagnostic imaging modalities, advanced informatics and services for screening, diagnosis and treatment of women across the world. The collaboration combines Hologic’s innovative…
What beats digital mammography to detect breast cancer in asymptomatic women? Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) – was a big discussion at RSNA 2017. Sarah M Friedewald MD, medical director of the Lynn Sage Comprehensive Breast Center of Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and its division chief of breast and women’s imaging, discussed the clinical implications of DBT for routine…
In the next five to 10 years, artificial intelligence is likely to fundamentally transform diagnostic imaging. This will by no means replace radiologists, but rather help to meet the rising demand for imaging examinations, prevent diagnostic errors, and enable sustained productivity increases.
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology and its role and future impact on the radiology profession was the dominant theme at RSNA 2017, whether in scientific presentations or in the technical exhibitions. Keith J Dreyer DO PhD addressed this subject head-on in his presentation ‘Healthcare AI – Radiology’s Next Frontier.’ Dr Keith Dreyer, vice chairman of radiology informatics and chief…
‘With Your Stories – lifetime healthcare support’: this future-driven approach combines the best of two worlds, using Shimadzu’s insights and expertise in medical imaging systems and laboratory instrumentation to benefit patients through ever improving prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.
“With Your Stories – lifetime healthcare support” is the future-driven approach combining the best of two worlds by using our insight and expertise in medical imaging systems and laboratory instrumentation to benefit patients through even better prevention, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up and thus help them in the pursuit of a healthy life.
The Olympic Games are starting to prove themselves not just as a showcase for the world's elite athletes, but for leading-edge health IT initiatives. The International Olympic Committee and GE Healthcare announced the launch of a new analytics tool meant to enable personalized care at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in South Korea, as well as at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. GE Healthcare…
Half of cancers can be avoided if institutions would exchange knowledge, according to Joxel García, executive director of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who opened the Center’s meeting in Madrid in October 2016. Technology has progressed enormously and there has never been that much knowledge of cancer to prevent it and find treatment tools.
According to a survey carried out by the WHO in 2016, 70% of EU Member States have a national eHealth policy or strategy and 84% of Member States have a national universal health coverage policy or strategy. The research identified funding as the most important barrier to fully implementing eHealth programmes. In the recent years, it has become a key asset for improving how health information is…
Carestream is a dynamic, global company with more than 100 years of leadership. We are committed to doing whatever it takes to help our customers be successful – in Europe and hospitals around the world. By applying our insights and experience, we create inventive, elegant solutions that offer a smarter way forward.
The emerging field of psychoradiology is taking a major step ahead. A new study highlights MRI’s role in identifying people with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and classifies subtypes of the condition, a leading Chinese researcher explained at the ESMRMB annual meeting.
Radiographers are increasingly central to patient care, but the heterogeneous education and skills across Europe remain challenging. Dr Jonathan McNulty and Håkon Hjemly, of the European Federation of Radiographers Societies (EFRS), explained how they plan to improve radiographers’ visibility and work towards homogenising training across Europe, notably by launching a European Diploma in…
Communicating with patients can be tough. Reminder pamphlets often go straight into the rubbish and emails are deleted before they are read. But one doctor found that chatbots could be a key to patient outreach. Brett Swenson, MD, is no stranger to digital health. He runs a concierge practice in Arizona and started working with EMRs about 20 years ago when they were first introduced. He said he…
The tech world descended upon Las Vegas this week for the annual Consumer Electronics Show, and plenty of health IT’s biggest players were in attendance. While much of the discussion was on consumer-friendly health tools and novel digital interventions, there were still a handful of products and discussions between executives and entrepreneurs focused on healthcare’s largest roadblocks —…
GE Healthcare has entered into a strategic, long-term partnership with Roche to jointly develop and co-market digital clinical decision support solutions. The partnership will initially focus on products that accelerate and improve individualized treatment options for cancer and critical care patients. The two companies aim to develop an industry-first digital platform, using advanced analytics…
Blockchain technology can be a potential industry disrupter in healthcare. It is a proven game changer in the business arena. In a recent IBM study, they surveyed 200 healthcare executives, of whom 16% expect to have a commercial blockchain solution sometime in the very near future. So, what is blockchain technology? In a nutshell, the concept is based on a list of records, called blocks, which…
Danish, Finnish and Swedish organisations join forces to facilitate business partnering and networking at Arab Health 2018. At the event, 75 Nordic companies bring innovative life science solutions aiming to add sustainable value to the Middle East healthcare sectors and to build lasting relations between the Nordic participants and local stakeholders. Business Finland, Business Sweden, Danish…
Professor Jo Martin, the newly-appointed President of the Royal College of Pathologists in the United Kingdom, believes the National Health Service (NHS) is on the brink of embracing digital pathology more widely. A number of UK laboratories, he explained, are adopting digital pathology in histopathology – in line with some labs in Sweden and Holland, where it has become routine – and the…
3-D visualisation, augmented reality, automated tumour classification – today, the Republic of China produces cutting-edge medical technology and it’s a long time since ‘Made in Taiwan’ stood for inferior, copied products. Over recent years, this island state has successfully morphed into a productive and, above all, innovative manufacturer of medical technology available on the world…
- Future for Health - FTR4H Pavilion presenting cutting-edge solutions driving digital and mobile healthcare. - Community Care Pavilion focusing on medical innovations for the ‘silver generation’ and home care Solutions.
Samsung Electronics, a leader in medical imaging technology, will debut its OmniTom mobile 16-slice computed tomography (CT) scanner at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2017 Annual Meeting at McCormick Place in Chicago. OmniTom received 510(k) FDA clearance for the U.S. market on August 18 of this year, and attendees will get to see it for the first time at RSNA booth #2543 (South…
Early adoption of image analytical tools and artificial intelligence (AI) are crucial if health systems across Europe are to see the full potential of digital pathology, according to leading expert Professor Johan Lundin, Research Director at the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM) at the University of Helsinki. Although European institutions increasingly embrace digital pathology, he…
A study published in Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases demonstrated that physicians elected to perform fewer biopsies when Prostate Health Index (phi) testing was included in their overall, routine, clinical assessment. Phi testing is recommended for men presenting with elevated serum total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the 4-10 ng/mL range and a non-suspicious digital rectal exam…
How can newborn babies benefit from sensors with chip technology and what might the future hold for sensor data? Samuel Wehrli, Product Manager for Gas Flow at Sensirion AG in Switzerland explained during our EH interview at the MST Conference held in Dortmund.
Automation continues to conquer healthcare, including diagnostic imaging. Christian Kollmann, Assistant Professor at the Centre for Medical Physics and Biomedical Technology, Medical University Vienna, Austria, highlights innovative software, fast hardware and artificial intelligence in ultrasound – today and in the future. Automated analyses are already supporting the diagnostic work-up. In…
Intelligent IT solutions are key in meeting today’s and tomorrow’s challenges in healthcare management. Ensuring patients get the attention and individual care they need in time – in light of growing budget constraints and ever-increasing regulations, this is one of the key resource struggles healthcare organisations face today. Healthcare personnel only have as much time on their hands as…
Today’s healthcare IT market offers myriads of so-called comprehensive solutions to digitise administrative processes. However, in real life, long and verbose diagnoses and medical findings - and even paper-based documentation - are still widespread.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has enormous potential to revolutionise the delivery of healthcare, being able to remove the drudgery’ of routine tasks, join up fragmented care records, trigger alerts when abnormal results occur, speed-up the process of identifying clusters of patients by digging deep into electronic health records, and increase efficiency of healthcare staff resources.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken centre stage during the Medica Academy sessions. While talks focus on initiatives made in Germany, European Hospital took a look at Spain and spoke with Ignacio Hernández Medrano, a neurologist recently elected as one of the most influential people in healthcare (HC). At just 34 years old, Medrano has already founded two flagship AI projects, one of which…
Poor hand hygiene is a global problem. Washing hands with soap, under warm, running water is the single most important measure for preventing the spread of germs and infections.TEAL Patents – the world’s leading manufacturer of portable, hot water, hand washing units – has launched a campaign asking the world to ‘Stand up for Handwashing’ and break the myths surrounding hand gels.…
New technology being deployed across the NHS in central England is helping to deliver more secure mobile systems for healthcare professionals. The partnership between Toshiba and the Birmingham CrossCity Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is bringing the work of health and social care organisations closer together. One of the initiatives planned for the Birmingham area is the introduction of…
21st century challenges are multitudinous for all. Ageing populations, a changing disease burden; increasing obesity with associated morbidities – Type 2 diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease; climate change pressures and more. Any new build plan demands a low carbon footprint; respect for the environment is paramount. To capture all those elements, the plan to regenerate a previously 10…
A controversy regarding the benefit of early screening programmes for breast cancer continues. Germany, Austria and Switzerland have developed individual strategies. European Hospital asked three experts from these countries to outline each chosen system. Markus Hahn MD, senior consultant at the University Breast Centre in Tübingen, Martin Daniaux, MD, Head of Breast Diagnostics at the Breast…
There has been a sharp rise in self-harm reported in general practices for girls aged between 13-16 years from 2011 to 2014, compared with boys of the same age. In socially deprived areas, referrals to mental health specialist services were fewer, although self-harm rates were higher, finds a study published by The BMJ.
Carestream Health makes converting to DR easy and affordable with the launch of its Carestream DRX-Transportable System/Lite. The system equips facilities to convert room-based or mobile imaging systems to digital radiology through use of a wireless tablet PC that gives users complete control of the X-ray system and displays diagnostic images as they are acquired.
Shimadzu, a worldwide leading manufacturer of diagnostic imaging equipment, achieved the ‘Global General Radiography Product Line Strategy Leadership Award 2017’.
Agfa HealthCare celebrates 150 years of expertise and innovation at RSNA 2017, showcasing its contemporary solutions' direct impact on productivity and costs. Demonstrations of "Care You Can See" include highlighting the company's signature integrated platform approach to elevate medical imaging as network-wide assets throughout the continuum of care.
Siemens Healthineers employees Dr. Klaus Engel and Dr. Robert Schneider have been nominated for the German Future Prize along with Professor Franz Fellner, MD, for the development of the visualization technology Cinematic Rendering.
Pentax Europe, a healthcare industry leader in endoscopic imaging, and Hitachi Medical Systems Europe, a leading company in medical imaging, recently announced renewed joint collaborative efforts to enable further innovations in the development of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). In this latest joint development, the two companies are launching a new ultrasound video bronchoscope for endobronchial…
Among the earliest centres to embrace the concept of digital pathology, the Leeds Digital Pathology Project began in 2003 thanks to a Department of Health grant. Today the centre is Europe’s largest.
Early adoption of image analytical tools and artificial intelligence are crucial if health systems across Europe are to see the full potential of digital pathology, according to a leading expert. While a growing number of European institutions are beginning to embrace digital pathology, Professor Johan Lundin remains concerned about the slow pace of progress. He acknowledges that more…
Certain members of Generation Y, who grew up alongside enormous information technology (IT) advances, now occupy decision-making roles. Meanwhile, generation Z is emerging into the continuing IT revolution; the digital world surrounds us.
In the nineties Deep Blue, the famous chess computer, defeated Kasparow. Only a year ago Google’s Deepmind managed to master the ancient Chinese Go, known for its utmost complexity.
The first health economics data from the Global Anticoagulant Registry in the Field – Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) was presented at ESC Congress 2017, organised by the European Society of Cardiology, in Barcelona, Spain.
Leading cardiologist and healthcare researcher Professor Harlan Krumholz has warned that medical practitioners must embrace the potential of digital data generated by patients if they are to avoid being left behind as the digital revolution moves forward at an ever-advancing pace
With 4,500 accepted abstracts, 600 sessions and 30,000 expected attendees, ESC Congress 2017 is undoubtedly the world’s largest cardiovascular event. On healthcare-in-europe.com, Dr Stephan Achenbach, Congress Program Committee Chairperson, gives an overview of issues and events unfolding in Barcelona from August 26-30.
Event location: Millennium Gloucester Hotel London Kensington 4-18 Harrington Gardens, Kensington, London SW7 4LH, UK United Kingdom
With MEDICA 2017 drawing ever nearer, Joachim Schäfer, Managing Director of Messe Düsseldorf GmbH, sets the stage with the following statement:
Siemens Healthineers has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Epocal Inc., a subsidiary of Alere Inc. Epocal Inc. develops and provides point-of-care blood diagnostic systems for healthcare enterprises, including the epoc Blood Analysis System, a handheld, wireless testing solution.
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) Biennial Congress was held at the end of May in Barcelona, Spain with 8,000 nurses attending. ISfTeH was represented by Dr. Claudia Bartz and other members of the ISfTeH Telenursing Working Group.
Medical Fair Thailand 2017 will be its largest edition yet, with booth space fully sold out since May, featuring 700 exhibitors from 45 countries including 18 National Pavilions and country groups on a show floor that has expanded by 20% compared to 2015, at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center. Held biennially, Medical Fair Thailand 2017 confirms its position as Thailand’s most…
Research from the Stowers Institute provides evidence suggesting that cancer cells might streamline their genomes in order to proliferate more easily. The study, conducted in both human and mouse cells, shows that cancer genomes lose copies of repetitive sequences known as ribosomal DNA. While downsizing might enable these cells to replicate faster, it also seems to render them less able to…
San Carlos Hospital in Madrid has undertaken a number of projects to promote artificial intelligence (AI) use in clinical practice. Dr Julio Mayol, Medical Director and Head of the Innovation Unit, explained these initiatives and the direction he wants to take in an exclusive interview.
Access, accuracy and efficiency are at the core of Samsung’s healthcare strategy, explained Insuk Song, Vice President of Product Planning, Healthcare and Medical Equipment at Samsung Electronics, during our exclusive European Hospital interview. Samsung, the Korean giant, is now proceding with its artificial intelligence (AI) deployment, notably with the S-Detect software to help ultrasound…
Tens of thousands of "ransomware" attacks have targeted organizations around the world on March 12. The hackers locked down particular files on a computer and asked the computer's administrator for a payment in order to regain control of them. Groups hit included hospitals in the UK that had to cancel outpatient appointments.
CEOs are getting increasingly concerned about the availability of key skills. While other key concerns such as over-regulation are mainly external factors that can’t be influenced, the availability of key skills can be proactively addressed. With the online learning experience PEPconnect from Siemens Healthineers, clinical institutions can offer each staff member continuous training. What’s…
‘From an IT perspective, medicine is now networked to a very large degree, no matter which departments you look at,’ says Stefan Bücken, IT Security Officer at Erlangen University Hospital, Germany.
By definition, biobanks are collections of specimens of human bodily substances, such as tissue, cells, DNA, proteins, blood or other fluids, with data on the donor attached.
In her keynote speech at this year’s Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) gathering Ginni Rometty, Chairman, President, and CEO IBM, endorsed cognitive computing and its potential: ‘Cognitive is an era that could usher into a golden age if we shape it wisely.’
This year’s edition of MEDICAL FAIR THAILAND is set to be its biggest yet with more than 700 international exhibitors expected. 17 national and country pavilions will present more than 5,000 state-of-the-art medical and healthcare products, equipment and solutions to a targeted audience of 10,000 medical and healthcare professionals. The impressive figures highlight once again, MEDICAL FAIR…
The healthcare industry is a competitive environment and clinical institutions have to deliver an ever higher quality of care. Keeping up with trainings and certifications is thus of utmost importance. The online learning platform PEPconnect from Siemens Healthineers enables caregivers to conveniently access continuous education and performance support anytime and anywhere. At the same time, it…
Andrew Su, a professor at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), was sitting in an exam room with his newborn son when the idea for a new scientific study hit him.
Laboratory medicine delivery, regulation and accreditation vary between countries, e.g. Norway, Serbia and France recently aired at FiLM 2017. Leading figures explained the shape, scope and funding of healthcare and lab services and roles played by different professionals and challenges they face.
In addition to demonstrating their speed, agility and strength at the 2017 National Football League Scouting Combine, top college football players also undergo comprehensive physical examinations that include X-ray exams. This year a CARESTREAM DRX Plus 3543 (see video link) detector was used with the existing X-ray system at Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis, Ind.) to produce high-quality…
When it comes to automation, clinical microbiology has for many years lagged behind other laboratory disciplines. Robotics and computer processing revolutionized chemistry and hematology instruments decades ago. Meanwhile, clinical microbiologists continue to open specimen containers by hand and grow bacteria using methods familiar to microbiology’s founding fathers from the 19th century.
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) and LabPON, the first clinical laboratory to transition to 100% histopathology digital diagnosis, today announced its plans to create a digital database of massive aggregated sets of annotated pathology images and big data utilizing Philips IntelliSite Pathology Solution1. The database will provide pathologists with a wealth of clinical information for the…
Big reveal is going to happen at KIMES fairs in Seoul. SMARTTECH together with its Korean Distributor, the KAIS Company, will present the 3D scanning technologies dedicated to medicine. KIMES provides attendants with the opportunity to identify and confirm the great potential and prospect of the future medical industry as well as the latest medical industry trend as a venue where 1,200 domestic…
Structured reporting in radiology is easier to say than do. Initially radiologists must agree on the structure of the report itself. Then they need to agree on what to report. Those two very different challenges help to explain why migration into the Digital Age of radiology reports is moving at Ice Age speed.
Digital mobile X-ray systems equipped with a Flat Panel Detector (FPD) are used to examine patients during hospital rounds and for urgent cases in A&E and neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Leading medical equipment manufacturer Shimadzu (www.shimadzu-medical.eu) reports that its new MobileDaRt Evolution MX7 digital mobile X-ray systems provide ultra-modern and extensive mobile digital…
‘I am sorry, the electricity will be cut off because we’re going to simulate an attack, or emergency exercise, this morning,’ explained Dr Wim Develter, when he suddenly delayed his interview with Mélisande Rouger of European Hospital. They were about to discuss computed tomography, and its role not only in advanced healthcare and other more unexpected areas, such as the arts and…
From the extremely new, but not generally available, to the somewhat new… very available and highly useful… Walter Kucharczyk outlines potentials and practicalities in advanced brain tumour Imaging.
An alliance between Siemens Healthineers and IBM Watson Health aims to support service providers in the healthcare system, such as hospitals, health networks and other providers.
Dr Ralf Doyscher, from the Department of Sports Medicine at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, has a close association with soccer at both professional and amateur levels. He recently participated in a scientific project focusing on preventative check-ups for the general health of elite young soccer players, and took the opportunity to simultaneously investigate the potential of…
At the Health IT Conference (HIMSS) 2017 in Orlando, Siemens Healthineers has announced a digital platform for healthcare providers as well as for providers of solutions and services, aimed at covering the entire spectrum of healthcare. The platform is to foster the growth of a digital ecosystem linking healthcare providers and solution providers with one another as well as bringing together…
International medical imaging IT and cybersecurity company Sectra (STO: SECT B) has signed a contract with the organization Pathology Projects (SPP) in the Netherlands to offer all 50 pathology labs in the country to connect to a shared telepathology solution. Sectra’s cloud-based image-sharing solution will enable pathologists to efficiently share digital pathology images on a national scale.…
From the extremely new, but not very available, to the somewhat new, very available and highly useful, Walter Kucharczyk will cover the potentials and practicalities in advanced brain tumor imaging.
Britta Böckmann, Professor for Health Informatics at the Technical University of Dortmund summarises the lack of feeling for terms such as eHealth, mHealth and telehealth with the description xHealth.
Installing a complete diagnostic radiology solution to network six sites of a hospital group, to process, manage and archive image data acquired across all modalities, is a ‘challenge’, acknowledged by Professor Dr Peter Landwehr, Medical Director of the Clinic for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology of Diakovere Henriettenstift, Hanover, Germany. In 2010, he and his team overcame that…
A team of UCLA bioengineers has demonstrated that its technology may go a long way toward overcoming the challenges of treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, among the most common types of cancer in children, and has the potential to help doctors personalize drug doses.
The ability to digitise results from patient samples has been one of the key enabling technologies that make personalised medicine possible now, says Dr Fiona Carragher, the Deputy Chief Scientific Officer for NHS England.
In today’s digitised world, hospitals are already embracing the benefits which technology brings to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Against a backdrop of stretched resources and operational scrutiny hospital managers are able to address the needs of multiple stakeholders through hospital-wide digitalisation.
EDMA and Eucomed members have voted to dissolve their respective European associations. A new MedTech Europe single entity has been created, representing the European medical technology sector, from diagnosis to cure. The new MedTech Europe is operating immediately.
Samsung Electronics showcases the GM85 Digital Radiography (DR) system which received 510(k) FDA clearance November 17 for the US market, at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) 2016 Annual Meeting at McCormick Place in Chicago.
The Sony Healthcare Solutions Team supported Alder Hey on its journey to a new site designed with the children it treats in mind, complete with new ORs and the latest technology throughout.
The billions of medical images taken and diagnoses made every year across the globe are as varied in quality, detail and structure as the situations in which they are obtained.
Not having to visit hospital daily, or stay there too long, can improve the lives of patients tremendously. The Vic Hospital Consortium, in Catalonia, Spain, has begun to use a new remote monitoring system that enables it to monitor patients wherever they are. European Hospital spoke with Enrique de la Vega, digital product manager at Catalonia’s technology centre Eurecat, the organisation…
Carestream is highlighting the results of its collaboration with Materialise NV by showcasing a Web-based printing service, AnatomyPrint, which generates 3D anatomical models from STL files at RSNA (Booth #4704).
Clarius Mobile Health, a digital healthcare company, is showcasing handheld ultrasound scanners with a mobile application for iOS and Android smart devices at Medica 2016, Hall 10, A25.
21st century technology has outpaced our expectations. One such example is the invention of advanced digital manufacturing techniques, better known as 3-D printing. Patients and the medical community are yet to see the full implementation of this technology within healthcare.
In the past, insoles for patients with diabetes were hand-made by orthopedic shoemakers. In the future, these specialist shoemakers will be able to produce insoles more cost-effectively thanks to new software and the use of 3D printers. This approach means the mechanical properties of each insole can be assessed scientifically and more effectively.
Decision makers from all sectors of the international health industry meet again in Düsseldorf from Monday to Thursday. The world’s biggest medical trade fair, MEDICA 2016, and COMPAMED 2016, as the international leading trade fair for suppliers of the medical technology industry, take place from 14 to 17 November.
International medical imaging IT company Sectra and digital pathology company Visiopharm A/S have reached agreement on an open exchange of pathology images between their respective digital pathology systems. The companies agree that open solutions and the free exchange of information between the various healthcare IT systems without “internal company formats” are of benefit to both customers…
Wearable monitoring devices are offering patients the chance to play a greater and more active role in their own healthcare. They are alerting physicians and carers when a patient may be unwell, or their condition needs closely monitoring, and they have potential to improve the accuracy of findings within clinical trials. Report: Mark Nicholls
A European health consortium is developing a set of low radiation, low cost, flat panel X-ray detectors that use novel photonics technology to make diagnosis safer for patients, hospital and dental staff, generating some of the highest resolution images ever seen in rapid moving body functions, such as malicious growths or the beating heart of a baby.
Increasingly powerful computers using ever-more sophisticated programs are challenging human supremacy in areas as diverse as playing chess and making emotionally compelling music. But can digital diagnosticians match, or even outperform, human physicians? The answer, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard Medical School, is “not quite.”
FUJIFILM SonoSite has been named a Silver winner in the 36th Annual International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) announced by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). SonoSite’s SII Ultrasound Machine is among more than 1,700 projects from 30-plus countries that competed in IDEA 2016.
IBM and Siemens Healthineers today announced a five year, global strategic alliance in Population Health Management (PHM). The alliance aims to help hospitals, health systems, integrated delivery networks, and other providers deliver value-based care to patients with complex, chronic and costly conditions such as heart disease and cancer.
Konica Minolta Healthcare displays its latest Medical Imaging products on the Medic East Africa Congress that’s taking place in Nairobi, Kenya from 26-29th September. The East African region continues to strive for advanced and affordable medical infrastructure in order to fulfill an increasing demand for Healthcare services.
Exuding the aroma of hi-octane fuel, the glamour of multi-coloured racing leathers, flashy sponsored brands and the glitz of the circuits, motorcycle racing can be an irresistible fast-action sport. Amid the roar of engines, the world’s leading motorcycle aces, such as Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi or Jonathan Rea, hit around 300kmh on tracks across the globe. High-speed duels thrill the…
Healthcare organizations are now using modern technologies to enable digital healthcare to improve the quality and efficiency of their services. Digital healthcare emphasizes the provision of patient-centric medical services to deliver a superior patient experience, reduce operation costs, and enhance medical staff workflow. To facilitate digital applications in the medical environment, ADLINK…
Do a middle-aged man’s lightning-bolt headaches spell a garden-variety migraine, or do they call for a brain MRI to rule out more pernicious causes? Does a young woman’s recurring flank pain warrant a CT scan, or is she better off undergoing an ultrasound? To help practicing clinicians choose the most appropriate imaging test for each patient, Harvard Medical School is launching Library of…
Starting immediately, Sectra and private care provider Unilabs will offer preventive bone health testing for individuals with risk factors for osteoporosis, thereby enabling measures to be taken to reduce the risk of fractures. The analysis technology to be used by Unilabs will be provided by Sectra. One in two women in Sweden will suffer from a fracture due to osteoporosis, making osteoporosis…
Healthcare and business professionals as well as scientists consider Big Data a promising technology to advance medical research and patient care. “Big Data analysis allows us to better tailor therapies based on the individual patient’s status, that is to implement personalized healthcare,” says Dominik Bertram, Development Manager at SAP and Head of the development field “Personalized…
From the beginning of MRI scientists dreamed of not only translating data sets into images, but also classifying tissue directly. Five years ago this would still have been inconceivable.
Big Data has the potential to turn the approach to science and research on its head, according to leading expert Professor Viktor Mayer-Schönberger. In the future, he believes, researchers could adopt a position where they ‘start with the data and then come up with the question.’
Defined processes and competencies are essential in the operating room along with the allocation of staff. Yet the OR-Barometer 2015 that is published every other year by the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, reveals that only 47 percent of the surveyed nursing staff in the fields of surgery and anesthesiology are satisfied with the level of organization in operating rooms. In this…
The development of a healthcare IT infrastructure in European hospitals faces two major hurdles, Ben Giese reports: ‘contradictory return on investment (ROI) reports and the unquantifiable risk of security breaches’.
England’s NHS has received an advanced medical imaging and genomic data integration platform from a global healthcare information systems specialist.
Which is the best way to implement imaging IT in a hospital? How can new technologies be integrated into existing IT infrastructures? What risks are associated with our systems?
John Herman, European Marketing Manager of Sony Healthcare Solutions, explains the potential of 3-D and 4K technologies in medicine.
In order to be able to properly locate digital pathology in the current discourse on the digitalisation of healthcare, pathology has to be understood as a fundamental diagnostic discipline, above all in oncology. Report: Stefan Kropf
A ‘technology’ project to modernise healthcare for patients with long- term medical conditions is being trialled in the United Kingdom in seven ‘test bed’ initiatives. Test Beds, a term used to describe a technology project resulting from collaborations between the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and international innovators, aims to harness technology to address issues facing…
Preliminary tests have demonstrated that a new device may enable existing breast cancer imagers to provide up to six times better contrast of tumors in the breast, while maintaining the same or better image quality and halving the radiation dose to patients. The advance is made possible by a new device developed for 3D imaging of the breast by researchers at the Department of Energy's Thomas…
Sony Medical offers an end-to-end video processing chain for medical-grade 4K surgical visualisation. The conversion will not happen overnight, but 4K is a natural next step for improving visualisation during surgery, according to John Herman, the European Marketing Manager for Surgical Solutions at Sony Medical.
Breast tomosynthesis imaging, Hologic calls it 3-D mammography, is proving to be the best modality to image breast cancer. ‘The Hologic tomosynthesis system has demonstrated superior clinical performance to conventional 2-D mammography in a number of metrics, in particular showing improved detection of invasive cancers and reductions in recall rate,’ the manufacturer reports, adding: ‘Now…
Bioserveur/Mesanalyses.fr connects 1,400 laboratories, 130 healthcare facilities and 15,000 doctors for sharing information.
‘Humber River Hospital, Toronto, Canada, could come straight out of a science fiction series that provides Star Trek-like healthcare services with hall-cruising robots delivering food, medications and supplies to staff, electrochromic windows, video conference capabilities at patients’ bedsides and real-time location systems, to name but a few futuristic features. Yet, this is now and for…
North West EHealth announced that its unique Linked Database System technology was used to deliver the world’s first digitally enhanced Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) in the ground-breaking Salford Lung Study* (SLS). The study relied on bespoke software, developed by NorthWest EHealth and securely hosted within the NHS network, that integrated the electronic medical records of consented…
Carestream Health has been selected to implement the Shared Regional Medical Imaging Services (S-PRIM) project in the Île-de-France, the largest region in France, with 12 million residents, making up 19% of the French population. The S-PRIM project will enable rapid implementation of a shared medical imaging infrastructure to ensure the continuity of basic services, such as migration of…
Whilst digital pathology has the potential to deliver more precise diagnostics, there remain a number of barriers to its widespread implementation.
Though it is the underlying science that drives diagnosis and treatment decisions, pathology is an often overlooked field. As part of the health continuum, as the turning point for treatment, as a new source for research and discovery – in all these ways, the power of pathology has gone unnoticed. However, the industry is slowly coming to realize its potential in transforming care, knows Hans…
Mobile technology could prove an important catalyst in helping take digital pathology onto a new level in delivering clinical diagnostics.
As laboratories in Europe shift to systems for digital pathology, they must ensure the technology not only works, but works for them, says Dr Liron Pantanowitz, director of pathology informatics at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).
Healthcare is going digital. No doubt about it, Prof. Hufnagl predicts. Information and communication technologies have gone beyond moving data from one place to the other; they are triggering stellar improvements in healthcare: diagnoses are becoming ever more precise, therapies ever more personalised. The extent to which the individual clinical disciplines have progressed in their technological…
Strictly speaking, digital pathology has not yet resulted in any groundbreaking changes for clinical diagnostics. The conventional light microscope introduced to pathology around 100 years ago continues to be the most important tool for pathologists.
Carol - I. Geppert MD, from the Institute for Pathology at Erlangen University Hospital, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, debates the impact of digitisation on pathology.
Compressing and storing digital images in pathology remains technically challenging but there are many options that can both help reduce costs and improve efficiency, a Spanish expert will explain in a dedicated talk during ECDP in Berlin.
As a leading global provider of both diagnostic imaging and analytical instrumentation technologies, Shimadzu offers broad expertise in medical imaging and mass spectrometry detection platforms helping to deliver a measurable impact on healthcare and diagnosis. The company is the perfect partner for transformational technologies to accelerate diagnosis.
Ultrasound technology is aiding specialist treatment of shoulder and elbow problems at Germany’s Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, enabling primary diagnosis, screening and monitoring of patients’ progress, as well as needle guidance for injections. Professor Markus Scheibel, Head of the Shoulder and Elbow Department at the hospital, explained: “We see a wide range of patients, from…
COCIR welcomes the adoption of the European Data Protection Regulation (DPR). However, in order for the Regulation to deliver on its objectives, it is crucial that EU Member States move rapidly towards a harmonised interpretation and enforcement of its provisions. This will pave the way for growth, innovation and a data-driven healthcare sector.
Willem Jonker, CEO EIT Digital, today announced the results of the organisation’s €1 billion investment in digital innovation and entrepreneurship at the Driving Europe’s Digital Transformation conference in Brussels. He also announced plans for an additional investment of €1 billion over the coming years. EIT Digital will accelerate market uptake of research-based digital technologies by…
What are the future opportunities for a better healthcare in Germany? The Young Lions (YL) Health Parliament is a platform for 80 young professionals to brainstorm about the possibilities for a sustainable health care system. The platform has started the first time in the year 2012 for two years – in the year 2016 the second period ends.
Researchers at Umeå University in Sweden have developed a method that simplifies the diagnosis of ear infections (otitis media), something which annually affects half a billion children worldwide. The software-based method automatically analyses images from a digital otoscope and enables highly accurate diagnoses. The method is described in the journal EBioMedicine.
The spectrum of the Digital Health ranges from online information, to the digitisation of processes (e.g. clinical pathways in hospitals), the evaluation of big data (e.g. routine data/secondary healthcare data), medical technology, diagnostics and therapy to billing procedures of payers.
Frost & Sullivan has awarded Carestream Health its 2016 North America Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation Leadership for innovation focused on value-based imaging that solves real-life problems and addresses unmet customer needs.
Electronic radiology clinical decision support (CDS) systems, designed to help doctors order the most appropriate imaging examinations for patients, offer a way to practice better medicine, to reduce the costs of radiology and help increase patient safety by preventing radiation exposure from inappropriate or unnecessary exams.
Cases of cybercrime are growing every year, demonstrating a threat scenario not just in the private area, for banks or companies, but also for insurance companies, because criminals steal data and whole databanks with private information. At this years’ HIMSS, Stephen Cobb, Senior Security Researcher at ESET North America, speaks about the growing risk and the need to manage such health IT…
Cloud computing offers various benefits but also entails some risks. Nevertheless hospitals need to adopt new ways to simplify work processes and enhance care.
Digital transformation is in full swing. Yet digitization remains theoretical in healthcare and not just in Germany. Given the influx of new information technology contributions, the subject of health definitely needs to be reevaluated. As a driver and creator of digital transformation, HIMSS has made this task its mission. The HIMSS Communities play an essential role in this. Report: Melanie…
One thing is certain in big data discussions: Intelligent machines will change our world considerably. What is less certain is exactly how these changes will look. Although networked data processing offers many opportunities, its development is still in the early stages.
Two years ago European Hospital spoke with Hans Vandewyngaerde, President for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for Agfa HealthCare, about a sweeping vision the company called ‘Images without Boundaries’. The idea was to build a capability to share images from anywhere to anyone involved in a patient’s care.
MRI, CT, pathology: doctors have to consider medical image data – increasing in both amount and complexity – to perform diagnoses and monitor therapy. The Fraunhofer Institute for Medical Image Computing MEVIS in Bremen is creating a new approach to provide effective assistance.
Investment in health has been paralysed in the peninsula for the past few years, but Spain will soon have the largest picture archiving and communications system (PACS) in Europe. Accenture and Carestream are currently implementing a joint project in Andalucia, framed within the bilateral cooperation agreement between the Andalucian Health Service and the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism,…
The second annual COCIR* eHealth Summit took place last week in Brussels, Belgium, in cooperation with the European Commission and in partnership with European Hospital and Healthcare Foundation (HOPE) and the European Patients Forum (EPF). This year high level speakers and participants shared their insights on integrated care as a response to some of the most pressing challenges currently faced…
The European Society of Radiology (ESR) and the Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructures – European Research Infrastructure Consortium (BBMRI-ERIC) announce the beginning of an official collaboration.
In a comprehensive modeling study, researchers from UC Davis and other institutions have found that breast cancer screening with digital mammography poses only a small risk of radiation-induced breast cancer for most women. However, the research showed increased risk for women with large breasts or breast implants, who must often receive extra screening views, increasing their radiation exposure.
Collaborating with colleagues locally and globally using telepathology can be successful for facilities both financially and clinically, says Dr. Liron Pantanowitz, director of pathology informatics at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Pantanowitz, who also serves as a consultant to Onyx, a company that provides digital pathology technology and is joint venture between GE Healthcare…
The field is so new that the annual Digital Pathology Congress (3-4 December in London) was held for only the second time. Yet, Philips Healthcare could announce a world-first – in partnership with the Netherlands-based LabPON, the company has created the first clinical pathology laboratory to be completely converted to digital diagnosis.
Royal Philips and its ACT-program consortium partners today announced the debut of a ‘cookbook’ outlining key enablers necessary to scale connected care and telehealth programs. The cookbook is the result from a two-and-a-half year scientific evaluation of data from different connected health programs in five European regions. It provides new insights that apply across the EU on why certain…
At Medica 2015 Mindray officially unveiled to the world its first premium ultrasound system. And with the new Resona 7 platform, the company steps forward as a major player in this fast-expanding field of medical imaging.
The joint practice of Drs. Ulrike and Dieter von der Burg in Münster, Germany, decided on the GU60 digital X-ray system by Samsung Health Medical Equipment (HME) and is very pleased with the image quality and workflow. The strong Samsung support and comprehensive expanded training program which allows the exploitation of the full potential was also a factor in choosing Samsung HME.
Telemedicine is taking strides throughout Europe. While in Germany telemedicine projects appear to be off to a slow start (see the electronic health card), in other countries progress is going full throttle. In September, at the German-Dutch symposium ‘Using optimisation potential: Telemedicine and procurement management’ a number of Dutch approaches were presented. Report: Sylvia Schulz
For years discussions have been rife regarding the economic efficiency and efficiency of information and communication technology. In Germany the need is to catch up with the interoperability of technical standards and cross-industry approaches. Report: Anja Behringer
The Swedish healthcare Region Östergötland is making a full commitment to digital pathology by investing in a solution from Sectra for storage, review and sharing of digital pathology images. The aim of the region’s investment is more rapid care for cancer patients, in which pathology has a key role in diagnosis and treatment.
Large patient volumes and a shrinking pool of skilled resources in the European healthcare industry are creating the need for efficient workflow solutions. Hence, hospitals will increasingly invest in digital radiography (DR) as the revival of the regional economy picks up pace. While the saturated computed radiography (CR) segment is declining in terms of both unit shipment and revenue, the…
While Swatch and Rolex count the hours until their smart watches overwhelm the time market, medical informatics researchers have already been working on solutions to improve healthcare. Some demonstrated their work on a medication reminder application during the Medical Informatics Europe conference in Madrid. Report: Mélisande Rouger
A national digital pathology system across Denmark has helped to significantly improve efficiency and raise levels of patient safety. It has used advanced computer software systems and created a countrywide database to optimise the assessment of patients’ specimens. Report: Mark Nicholls
German charity Help in Motion has equipped its two new mobile hospital vehicles with robust and portable NanoMaxx® point-of-care ultrasound systems from SonoSite. The charity was founded by entrepreneur Ralph Mueller to provide healthcare to deprived populations in Germany and overseas.
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Carestream is expanding into new imaging modalities: cone beam CT and ultrasound. Key advances in these areas will be demonstrated at the upcoming Association for Medical Imaging Management (AHRA) conference on July 19-22. For cone beam CT which is currently undergoing patient studies, a conceptual scale model will be on display.
Lowering radiation exposure for pediatric exams while increasing image quality with direct radiology systems proved mission critical for leading clinicians.
‘Health insurers should keep a tighter rein on the quality of endoscopic interventions because, mostly, they represent a gentler alternative to surgery,’ asserts international expert Horst Neuhaus, during an EH interview. Report: Daniela Zimmermann/Juliane Dannert
Connected health infrastructure is emerging as a binding agent for diverse devices and workflows, aiding diagnosis, monitoring and prevention in the healthcare industry. For such an infrastructure to be efficient, stakeholders must first ensure that interoperability and connectivity standards are in place.
Picture Archiving and Communications systems (PACS) are well established for managing radiology images. Could this robust and mature technology now become the backbone for creating the digital operating theatre? Report: John Brosky
Carestream Health, the medical imaging and healthcare IT specialist, presented its latest innovation, the Touch Ultrasound System at this year’s ECR. This system offers a configurable all-touch control panel, a powerful processor, plus other innovative tools. European Hospital interviewed Andrew J Hartmann, the firm’s General Manager of the Global X-ray & Ultrasound Solutions division, to…
The UK pathology sector faces numerous challenges as it strives to create a future medical laboratory workforce. As in many divisions of the National Health Service (NHS), this area has an ageing population yet must evolve against a backdrop of fast-developing technologies, emerging science, financial constraints and the challenge of working in tandem with the private sector. Report: Mark…
Expecting 10,000 participants, prior to the 25th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark (25-28 April) its Programme Director, Professor Winfried V Kern MD, was keen to point out: ‘The findings and recommendations that emerge from this vibrant platform each year have, in the past, had a tremendous impact not only on guidelines and best…
Health apps have the potential to make a broad impact on the health of the general population, argues one expert in The BMJ this week. But another explains that there is not enough evidence to support such claims and suggests that health apps may even be harmful.
Agfa HealthCare announced that it has entered into a sales and marketing agreement with Hitachi Medical Systems America, Inc. (Hitachi) whereby Hitachi will promote Agfa HealthCare's complete portfolio of Direct Radiography (DR) and Computed Radiography (CR) solutions to its large and growing community of MRI and CT customers in the United States, including hospitals, imaging centers and…
The European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (ESCMID) announces that the globe’s most prominent infection specialists will be gathering in Copenhagen to explore solutions to the biggest infection problems during its annual congress – the 25th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) taking place on 25-28 April 2015.
To accelerate the adoption of Watson cognitive computing technologies in healthcare, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced an investment in Modernizing Medicine, a provider of cloud-based technologies that help physician specialists create, consume and apply medical information in new ways to transform point of care decision support.
The idea of a ‘dossier médical personnalisé’ (DMP, or electronic health record) for every French citizen was first inaugurated in 2004. Now, over 10 years and €500 million later, we can look at the pros and cons encountered during this still incomplete journey and consider if similar projects would be a useful addition to healthcare administration in other European countries, or…
MRI is increasingly relevant to cancer management, especially to detect breast carcinoma. Professor Christiane K Kuhl from the department of diagnostic and interventional radiology at the University of Aachen, Germany, strongly advocated in favour of MRI in breast cancer screening during a dedicated Satellite Symposium organised by Bracco at ECR 2015. Report: Mélisande Rouger
Women over the age of 50 are not only at higher risk of developing breast cancer but also osteoporosis. Would it not be practical to use the same method to detect both diseases early on? Definitely, decided Sectra, the Swedish company specialising in PACS and mammography systems.
Facing challenges common to any manager, Russian radiologists must also confront a funding crisis, system dysfunctions, self-referring patients, and head-hunters chasing staff.
Delegates were asked an increasingly vital question during ECR 2015: do they rather want to be imagers or doctors? “This will probably be one of the most interesting sessions of this meeting and, after this congress, maybe even your career,” said Jim Reekers, professor of interventional radiology at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as he kick started the eponymous Professional…
The son of a craftsman making Buddhist altars, he was driven to create instruments for physics and chemistry. Attending the Physics and Chemistry Research Institute he gained experience with a variety of technologies and fields of expertise. He was convinced that Japan, as a should work towards becoming a leader in science. At the dawn of the industrial revolution and scientific age in 1875 he…
Carestream will show enhancements to its digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) module including a slabbing tool, improved workflow capabilities and the display of DICOM-compliant 2D synthetic views (which are generated from the 3D dataset) at the 2015 European Conference of Radiology. The latest DBT module is currently available.
The growing use of clinical and non-clinical information systems, including patient administration systems, scheduling and billing, is fuelling the demand for electronic health record (EHR) technology in Europe. EHR and ePrescribing are now priority areas in digital health across Europe, accounting for 30 percent of total healthcare IT spending in the region.
Twitter has broken news stories, launched and ended careers, started social movements and toppled governments, all by being an easy, direct and immediate way for people to share what's on their minds. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have now shown that the social media platform has another use: Twitter can serve as a dashboard indicator of a community's psychological well being…
Carestream scientist Dr Samuel Richard will present a scientific paper documenting the impact of advanced imaging technologies on lung nodule conspicuity at the 2015 European Congress of Radiology (ECR).
As healthcare systems across the globe churn out imaging scans in larger numbers, the need for advanced visualization (AV) solutions that enable physicians to effectively visualize and analyze examination results is rising. In the face of growing diagnostic workloads in Western Europe, AV solutions help physicians arrive at accurate diagnoses of pathologies, thereby enhancing patient management.
‘Customers tell us vendor neutral archiving is a great way to store their images, but they ask what good it is unless they can then access those images where and when they want for planning clinical pathways, or in consultancy,’ explained Christine Kao, Marketing Manager for Global Healthcare IT at Carestream.
Wrist-watches, wrist and arm bands, tags, finger rings, clips, smart glasses, shoes, insoles, smart patches (as thermometers), sensors woven into fabrics for T-shirts and socks and, of course, implantable devices as well as ingested pills were displayed by 23 exhibitors in the Wearable Technologies Show at Medica this year. Report: Cornelia Wels-Maug
In a 'travelogue' of clinical practices, Carestream turns up some unique solutions to shared challenges. Responsible on a global scale for sales and marketing development with Carestream, Todd Minnigh does a good bit of travelling around the world. Report: John Brosky
The most unexpected news at RSNA 2014 came from Carestream, a leader in x-ray imaging, when it announced it is entering the highly competitive and crowded field of ultrasound diagnostic imaging with the Touch Ultrasound System. Report: John Brosky
Agfa HealthCare accelerates the shift to digital x-ray by enabling any radiology clinic to convert at its own speed and budget with innovative and market-leading solutions.
EHRs (Electronic Health records) will deliver cost savings to the global healthcare industry of $78 billion between 2014 and 2019, becoming an integral part of future digital healthcare initiatives, forecasts a new report from leading hi-tech analyst house Juniper Research.
With unveiling scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 30, at the annual Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) conference, Carestream will debut its Carestream Touch Ultrasound System that offers a revolutionary combination of exceptional user experience and image quality to meet the needs of even the most demanding radiologists and sonographers.
Andalusia Health Service has selected Accenture and Carestream Health to deploy a picture archiving and communications system (PACS) that will allow clinicians to manage, store and share diagnostic imaging data across more than 1,600 healthcare facilities in Spain. This initiative by the Andalusia Health Service is expected to go live in late 2015, creating one of the largest medical imaging…
Every hospital does it, but how accurately and consistently coding is done has a major effect on the quality of treatment and also on the bottom line. Traditionally so-called ‘coders’ determine which code to apply for a specific medical service.‘ Report: Cornelia Wels-Maug
If implementing an eHealth strategy, Switzerland faces more complexity than any of its neighbouring countries. Its federative structure, reflected in numerous health systems, health legislations and political organisations, calls for a high level of cooperation among involved stakeholders, explains Adrian Schmid, head of eHealth Suisse. Interview: Cornelia Wels-Maug
In many practices and hospitals the X-ray systems need to be modernised. Increasingly, physicians opt for digital radiography (DR) systems, as did Dr Joachim Münch and Dr Dennis Völker who run an orthopaedic and surgical practice in Winsen an der Luhe, Germany.
According to Gartner, the IT research and advisory company, the Internet of Things (IoT)*, excluding PCs, tablets and smartphones, will grow to 26 billion devices by 2020.
Reading radiology exams has become a real pain. According to Piet Candeel, General Manager for Healthcare at visualisation expert Barco, ‘Today there are more studies of more patients with more images and typically with fewer people.’ Report: John Brosky
Barmer GEK, Germany’s second largest statutory health insurer, is covering the expense of a web-based stimulation therapy developed by Caterna Vision GmbH, a spin-off from the University of Dresden. Report: Cornelia Wels-Maug
The DRX-Ascend delivers high-end DR system features for imaging centers, orthopedic facilities, urgent care clinics and hospital radiology departments.
Horsens Regional Hospital is a two-hour train ride from Copenhagen in the Central Region of Denmark. Disembarking at the small town’s train station nothing suggests the presence of a pioneering hospital and flagship facility of the Danish healthcare system. Then, meeting Chief Medical Officer Jørgen Schøler Kristensen and Chief Nursing Officer Inge Pia Christensen it is immediately clear:…
Donor transplant rejection and cancer relapse have two things in common: early recognition is vital and monitoring is hugely challenged.
We live in a connected world, a very different world than it was a decade ago, said Eric Topol MD. Mobile devices, wearable devices are driving a creative revolution, reducing costs of healthcare, increasing patient access to health information.
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is a visionary author of the book Big Data, which, as its subtitle suggests, defines the debate over the ‘Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think.’
For several decades pathologists worldwide have been under increasing pressure to handle a steady increase in laboratory tests with a steady decrease in finance and staff.
Some years ago telepathology – a complex but well developed procedure where histology specimens are photographed using a camera mounted on a microscope and transmitted – was thought to be the wave of the future.
For several decades, pathologists worldwide have been under increasing pressure to handle a steady increase in laboratory tests with a steady decrease in the amount of financial and staff resources. Add to this the escalating volume of increasingly complex, sophisticated testing and the importance of pathology informatics is evident.
Imec, the world-leading nano-electronics research center announced today that it is collaborating with Samsung Electronics to accelerate innovation and collaboration among technology companies and researchers working in the burgeoning mobile wearable field.
Amongst the historic churches and palazzos of the Northern Italian city of Parma lies the University of Parma, which, founded in the 12th Century is one of the oldest academic establishments in the world. The city is served by Parma University Hospital (Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Di Parma) a large and renowned hospital offering 1,218 public beds.
Claron Technology, the leader in universal medical imaging viewers, announces that it has been awarded the CE mark for its NilRead zero-footprint viewer for the diagnostic interpretation of medical images.
Mammography scans with lower dose and higher contrast – that’s the declared goal of Dr Nik Hauser, Medical Director of the Women‘s Clinic and Director of the Interdisciplinary Breast Centre at Kantonsspital Baden, Switzerland, and Professor Marco Stampanoni of Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland.
Created by the Dutch industrialist family Hilekes, in 1993 Medicor expanded beyond the Benelux countries to enter the German-speaking world as Medicor Germany GmbH, selling contrast media injectors for CT, MRI and angiography.
The words ‘Image Gently’ are synonymous with protecting children from unnecessary or excessive exposure to X-rays.
Approximately 1.7 billion people worldwide carry Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), i.e. about one-third of the population. The rate of new infections is highest in Africa, followed by certain Asian regions, including areas in Russia.
However, investments in equipment and advanced training are attracting medical students, John Brosky reports
There is a wealth of information in every radiology exam, but even a phalanx of super-computers at the National Security Agency (NSA) could not extract it.
Digital breast tomosynthesis offers a number of benefits over other modalities but challenges remain in its optimum clinical application.
MUSICA software introduced automated, exam-independent digital image processing using contrast enhancement founded on multi-scale mathematics.
InterComponentWare AG (ICW) and iSOFT Health GmbH, a CSC Company, have struck up a technology partnership.
Johns Hopkins scientists have developed three new Web-based software tools designed to help hospital emergency departments, first responder organizations and others model and prepare for major disasters, including flu outbreaks.
Why is early detection of breast cancer so important? Professor Dr Walter Heindel, Director of the Institute of Clinical Radiology at University Hospital Münster, Germany, offers an unequivocal answer.
The new President and COO of Konica Minolta Medical Imaging, David Widmann, stepped forward boldly at RSNA announcing major deals with strategic partners and expanding the product portfolio into new markets.
RSNA opens a window for one week where companies can showcase the latest technologies ahead of regulatory approval. Fujifilm seized this opportunity to introduce the leading edge in tomosynthesis, the Amulet Innovality that it has launched in Europe, and that once given the green light by the FDA will come to America under the name Aspire Cristalle.
Mobile healthcare is a major buzzword nowadays: take the devices and the data to the patient, not the other way round. Mobility in this concept is not restricted to the hospital where devices and data flow freely from department to department, but encompasses follow-up care at home. Report: Anja Behringer
Toshiba ultrasound equipment is helping provide a better oncological and cosmetic outcome for women recovering from breast cancer treatment and surgery. Daniela Zimmermann discussed intraoperative ultrasound-guided breast surgery with surgeon Dr Monique Petrousjka van den Tol, from the Department of Surgical Oncology, VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
A Technology Strategy and Roadmap to plot the course of IT within the National Health Service (NHS) over the next few years was unveiled recently by NHS England.
Using electrically conductive, ink-like materials, a Swedish consortium has created a fully functional prototype for a self-monitoring blood glucose (SMBG) test that could be disruptive for in vitro diagnostics.
The CMEF autumn show turned out to attract crowds from China, East and Central Asia, Africa, Europe, the U.S., and further regions.
Already popular in private healthcare, increasing global acceptance of refurbished equipment encourages uptake in the public sector.
When it comes to hospital choice, patients no longer rely on their doctor’s advice alone. Improved health literacy and a growing awareness of potential risks (e.g. hospital acquired infections, medical errors) are encouraging patients to choose carefully by considering the quality of care delivered, patient satisfaction scores, patient safety and comfort in general.
Hans Vandewyngaerde has a sweeping vision for visualising healthcare: images from anywhere made available anytime to anyone involved in a patient’s care.
Nat Whitney, President of Whitney Research, sums up the ups and downs of the international IVD market and reports on a fitting finale for 17 years of dedicated service
The Catharina Hospital (Eindhoven, the Netherlands) and Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) today announced the results of a clinical study involving the treatment of 136 patients with complex heart rhythm disorders such as atrial fibrillation (AF).
Labs need to optimise their costs as well as accommodate increasing volumes – and new tests are continuously demanded.
Timothy Roberts, PhD, works in the middle of an epidemic. In the 20 years the researcher has studied autism, the diagnosis rate among children in the United States has risen from one in 1,000 to one in 88. No one is sure of the cause, how to prevent it, or how to treat it.
Through recent decades, the Republic of Korea in East Asia has developed into a society with an advanced economy. To Europeans, the culture and cuisine are certainly very different – and highly attractive to tourists.
The Norwegian Health Directorate has selected FairWarning Patient Privacy Monitoring solution as an integral part of the national roll out of the Norwegian Summary Care Record (SCR).
Apart from tumour immunologists themselves, for a long time oncologists have underestimated the role of the immune system in cancer treatment. Nonetheless, in recent years increasing attention has been given to this aspect of cancer.
Health information technology providers must develop dynamic and easy-to-install information systems to dispel client concerns about interoperability and compatibility.
New small format, wireless flat panel detector from Agfa HealthCare fulfils important imaging market need in lower dose examination.
Research using an analytical health economics model has suggested the current system of screening within the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is only moderately likely to be cost effective.
According to Molly Polen, at the AACC, great opportunities lie ahead for laboratory medicine and, to seize them, ‘meeting with colleagues and learning about new technologies is a critical first step. The 2013 AACC will provide these and other opportunities, such as informative sessions and live demonstrations of new technology.’
Over the decades of breast imaging numerous studies have shown that radiation free and inexpensive ultrasound can detect some subtle cancers not visible on a mammography exam.
Evolving technologies and market forces reveal that digital pathology is poised to radically affect the daily workflow and activities of pathologists and diagnostic laboratories
Healthcare imaging expert Barco has signed a worldwide agreement with Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., a member of the Roche Group, to provide its leading diagnostic and clinical review display systems for use with the Ventana Virtuoso image and workflow management system, offering a best-in-class, turnkey image viewing solution.
Hospital Marina Salud de Dénia presented its Sepsis Code at the National Health IT Conference and Exhibition, which recently took place in Birmingham, UK.
Lab instruments are marvels of modern technology able to dice, splice and analyse microscopic specimens. Yet pushing the results into modern medical reporting systems is as slow, and often as painful, as pulling teeth.
In recent years the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB), which organises and funds the healthcare of over 500,000 citizens in a remote region of New Zealand, has raised the quality of care and access to care – and the country’s major earthquake contributed largely to CDHB’s IT-supported approach.
Switzerland treads softly when it comes to governing its 26 independent-minded cantons. Yet, when it comes to electronic medical records, the Ministry of Health holds a particular power, not to dare to direct policy inside any canton, but for the exchange of data between the cantons
Government grants €1.1 billion to help finance rising personnel costs and increase nurses specialists in infection prevention and control
Leaders from electronic health programs in 22 countries attended the first-ever IHE World Summit to take on the challenges of advancing patient care in the digital era.
Hospital refurbishment or new buildings can quickly run into several million euros.
At ECR 2013 Hitachi Medical Systems Europe will for the first time in Europe be showcasing Noblus, an advanced versatile and compact ultrasound platform.
New business ventures, new systems – and those include 3-D mammography
Although evolving as a tool in medical pathology for years, several factors have hampered its widespread use in this field. Now, a Scientific American article asserts that the time has come for a digital imaging revolution.
In laboratory studies, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have developed a way to personalize chemotherapy drug selection for cancer patients by using cell lines created from their own tumors.
Royal Philips Electronics today announced the signing of an agreement with City Hospitals & Clinics, a Bulgarian healthcare group, to equip their new hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria.
At RSNA 2012, Siemens is launching its new MRI addressing academic research centres and university hospitals. According to Bernd Ohnesorge, the Magnetom Prisma 3.0 T enforces the company’s major commitment to advancing research, bearing testimony to Siemens’ innovation leadership in the field. In Chicago, the CEO of the Siemens MRI business unit presented the 3 T system for which the company…
No more CD or DVDs! MyVue Patient Portal empowers patients to securely access, manage and share their medical images and radiology reports with specialists and healthcare providers.
Philips is showcasing the company’s mission of “Transforming Care Together” by featuring several of its latest solutions developed with customer insights in mind, demonstrating the company’s commitment to keeping pace with the changing needs of radiologists at RSNA.
The demand-side markets for medical technology and medicinal products are undergoing changes worldwide and the supply side is providing the right answers with its solutions for high-quality but also economic medical care.
Leveraging more than 100 years of anaesthesia expertise, GE Healthcare introduces ecoFLOW technology option to help guide clinicians in agent delivery, while providing economic and environmental benefits.
The full power of Samsung is on display at Medica with an impressive portfolio from the newest player in medical equipment.
How healthy are Medica attendees? In Hall 9, Welch Allyn is capturing and documenting vital signs using its Connex vital signs system to find out.
To modernise the surgical display equipment at Belgium’s foremost university hospitals, NDS Surgical Imaging (NDSsi) has installed Radiance HD surgical displays in the operating theatres and the gastroenterology department. Easy to implement and offering reliable and consistent colour quality, the multi-modality imaging systems addresses the needs of UZ Leuven’s surgeons, clinicians, imaging…
Unstructured workflow’ sounds like a contradiction in terms. Yet, this fresh approach for gathering individual patient records in the Veneto region of Italy is being rapidly adopted across Europe to improve care.
The Pathology Informatics Summit last October in Chicago showed that fast-moving trends are reshaping how clinical laboratories and pathology groups use information technology, in particular laboratory information systems (LIS), to deliver more value to physicians and patients.
Carestream will demonstrate top of the edge technologie and launches digital breast tomosynthesis module for its Vue Mammo Workstation on booth 2636 in Chicago.
For many years, MEDICA, the world’s largest medical trade fair, has devoted a special section to healthcare-information technology. In an EH interview, Horst Giesen, Project Director of MEDICA, COMPAMED and REHACARE, spoke of the valuable insight into current medical IT that is offered to exhibition visitors.
Global brands increase market-focus for photonics event and help investors to better spot potential investments in hardware.
John Brosky reports on a ground-breaking trial and how CT-FFR may change the practice of invasive cardiology and cardiac surgery.
Scientists state concern for both human and environmental health from a very commonly used antibacterial/antifungal agent. Brenda Marsh reports
As part of the recent annual Heathcare Summit organised by Sole 24 ORE in Milan, Italy, Carestream Health sponsored a round table discussion on cloud computing. The Summit is an established event in Italy and is attended by Government and regional officials and companies contracted by the Italian Ministry of Health. Carestream is one of the world’s leading providers of cloud infrastructure,…
For radiologists and radiology technologists, this development will mean advantages in workflow and documentation of injection parameters.
Ingenia 3.0-T, the digital broadband MR system launched by Philips at RSNA 2010, is today used in almost 200 hospitals worldwide. Eight months after the installation of an Ingenia at Germany’s Bonn University Hospital, the radiology department’s managing physician Dr Winfried A Willinek sums up her experience with this new technology that is increasingly competing with whole body CT and pet-CT…
For technology suppliers the potential return on investment in medical images storage via cloud computing will not be lightning fast, market analyst for healthcare IT Theo Ahadome told EH correspondent Michael Reiter
Switzerland - It is a classic problem in any business. Everyone is working so hard to keep up with the rapid pace of orders that no one has time to get ahead. For the clinical laboratory the problem has grown greater each year, to the point that today’s new high-throughput instruments are still shackled to slow-throughput wires.
A new survey brings fresh insight into radiologists’ thoughts on teleradiology in Europe. Conducted by radiologist Dr Erik Ranschaert from the Jeroen Bosch Hospital, Den Bosch, The Netherlands, the findings were presented in March to a Special Focus Session at the European Congress of Radiology in Vienna. Mark Nicholls reports.
At ECR 2012 Carestream Health will showcase a raft of new products and services designed to help radiology professionals improve patient care. These include new healthcare IT offerings, advanced features for its medical and dental/ENT imaging systems and a mobile X-ray imaging system.
To gain a deeper understanding of Asian and especially South Korean innovations in the healthcare market EUROPEAN HOSPITAL visited the 28th Korea International Medical and Hospital Equipment Show (KIMES) on 16 to 19 February. Executive Director Daniela Zimmermann had the opportunity to speak with Jae-Moon Jo, team leader in medical equipment development and Senior Vice President of Samsung…
New CR 10-X is a cost-effective entry into computed radiography, without compromising on image quality. Robust yet easy-to-install and maintain solution, offering streamlined and integrated workflow.
At ECR 2012, Sectra will highlight the latest development within its product suites with the main focus on how radiology can increase their service to referring physicians thereby becoming number one for their customers in increasingly competitive and challenging environment.
Quality management has been an integral part of the German healthcare sector for years. Doing without it is unimaginable, particularly in terms of increasing economical and competitive pressures on hospitals. Nonetheless, she asks: Does investments in quality management pay off?
In Europe, 350,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually. About 90% of them can be cured if the cancer is detected at a very early stage. To improve early detection almost all European countries have gradually initiated regional screening programmes, even though the benefits are discussed controversially from time to time.
Millions of people suffer from mental health problems. Yet very few people can afford treatment. The cost of mental health care is prohibitive to men and women in today's economy, so while many people acknowledge that they can use mental health care treatments, few actually take advantage of it and even fewer have the means to do so.
Fylde Coast Medical Service (FCMS) is one of the first out-of-hours primary care providers in England to pilot the Department of Health’s new initiative, NHS 111, using Advanced Health & Care’s (Advanced’s) Adastra system.
RTKL, the architecture and design subsidiary of Arcadis, handles large hospital projects worldwide, with its medical equipment planning group providing specialist consulting on complex medical equipment and IT solutions implementation. During a recent hospital construction congress (Klinikimmobilien in Frankfurt) we spoke with RTKL Vice President and Global Service Leader for Medical Equipment…
Improving access to care in particular for the rural population - this was one of the major goals of the Five-Year Plan which recently ended; and it has made its way again to the top of the agenda in the People's Republic. Two factors are on policymakers' minds: social stability, and the increase in domestic demand which the Chinese economy needs to reduce its dependency on exports.
Carestream Health provides innovative digital radiography systems that satisfy these goals while simultaneously helping to reduce expenses for healthcare providers worldwide. It also markets powerful systems that efficiently manage radiology workflow—from the scheduling of patient x-ray exams to reading of those imaging studies by radiologists, and ultimately the delivery of radiology reports…
Agfa HealthCare announces that it will launch its automated DX-D 600 direct radiography (DR) system, which has received 510k clearance by the U.S. FDA, into the U.S. market at RSNA 2011. Combining user-friendly design with excellent image quality in a high-productivity direct digital X-ray room, the fully automatic system also offers the latest in state-of-the-art auto-positioning technology.
If you look at the current – not to mention the future – challenges in the hospital environment the term information technology seems misleading. Surely there is no dearth of information. The foremost task of technology however is to turn information into knowledge. EH@Medica talked to Bernhard Calmer, Head of IT Sales, Siemens Healthcare, Germany, about the new knowledge technology and its…
Medical notepads will soon be a thing of the past in doctors' offices and hospitals. More and more medical applications for smartphones and tablet PCs are coming onto the market, and many of them are introduced at Düsseldorf's MEDICA
The goals are ambitious: Although in the market merely four years, the start-up firm Alpinion Medical Systems states its intention to become one of the prime providers in the ultrasound segment with superior imaging and unique transducer technologies. In an interview with Daniela Zimmermann of European Hospital, Thomas Roth, Alpinion’s Managing Director, explains his corporate strategy and…
Ziehm Imaging’s C-arm is a general X-ray unit. It’s what hospitals really need, says Timo Ihamäki, the firm’s business manager, because ‘It’s a mobile unit that can be moved to the OR, out of the OR, to the trauma room, A & E, or wherever needed -- it’s always in the hallway. Whoever needs it, takes it.’
Expert warns that breast screening across the country needs to undergo a dramatic transformation over the next 15 years, Mark Nicholls reports.
‘As we become more successful in the early detection and treatment of breast cancer, we tend to trivialise it. Yet one in 9 women still get breast cancer. Half of them become depressed, their partners don’t know how to react and their families are in disarray. We need to stop trivialising breast cancer. It kills women.’ So says Dr Fabienne Liebens, Head of the Saint-Pierre Hospital’s…
Films with vivid 3-D images draw millions to cinemas – regardless of the plot. This technology, which is based on a stereoscopic effect, is not only entertaining but also medically relevant, as demonstrated by the Amulet three-dimensional digital mammography system produced by Fujifilm.
Healthcare facilities in Europe are currently working to create a unified digital patient record. In tandem, medical imaging vendors are developing and offering cardiology information systems (CIS) with advanced functionalities and easy integration capabilities with enterprise-wide information systems. As a result of such trends, image management-based information systems are set to witness…
Breathtaking though the rate of improvement in medical imaging systems may be, many hospitals remain locked into their various evolutionary stages – depending on their needs and capabilities. With its versatile portfolio, Carestream Health, provides choices to meet their diverse circumstances.
Royal Philips Electronics provided clinicians from across the globe with a glimpse of future innovations designed to advance cardiac care, including the current management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and associated cardiac conditions, during the 2011 Congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
Sectra and Royal Philips Electronics have signed an agreement under which Philips will acquire Sectra’s mammography modality operations. The cash purchase consideration amounts to EUR 57.5 million on cash and debt-free basis. The agreement also includes an additional possible earn-out EUR 12.5 million in accordance with specially agreed terms and conditions.
Yes, it’s in beautiful Dresden again and -- as in 2006 when the city last hosted the Congress of the German Society for Senology -- this year’s Congress President is Professor Rüdiger Schulz-Wendtland (Department of Radiology, University of Erlangen). However, the repetition ends there; the congress topics will be anything but repeated. Report: Meike Lerner
Roche Diagnostics showcased its full spectrum of cobas laboratory solutions at EuroMedLab this year. Visitors were given live demonstrations and shown videos of leading products for both small and large laboratories – including workflow automation, analytics and customised IT.
In late May, a particularly aggressive and new strain of enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) posed an enormous challenge for northern German hospitals. In Hamburg, the focus of the epidemic, more than 1,000 people fell ill, about 180 of them seriously, after getting into contact with the bacterium. Report: Meike Lerner
No imaging modality is infallible -- not even mammography, the golden standard for early detection of breast cancer. Particularly in women with dense breast tissue, the diagnostic quality of conventional mammography frequently suffers in terms of sensitivity and specificity. However, the evolution of digital systems has produced technologies that optimise sensitivity as well as specificity and…
Medison and Samsung Electronics have come together and announced a new corporate identity for the healthcare business of Samsung – Samsung Medison. The combined company, built from Korea’s leading diagnostic ultrasound equipment and one of the world’s largest and most technologically-advanced electronics and consumer goods companies, has set out its vision of transforming itself into a…
Carestream Health is one of the first healthcare IT providers to conduct pre-launch testing of the new Intel® Xeon® processor E7 product family in its industry-leading medical image management, archiving and distribution systems. These tests indicate the new high-performance processors can equip Carestream Health’s PACS and SuperPACS™ Architecture to deliver responsive access to a larger…
Scientists of the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have developed a highly efficient approach for imaging the beating human heart. The images produced in one of the world's most powerful MRI systems whose power is equivalent to 150.000 times the earth’s magnetic field are of a much higher detail than cardiac images…
A Pisa-based team has established the Adonhers (Aged Donor Heart Rescue by Stress Echo) protocol and is using second-opinion stress tele-echocardiography to assess the condition of the heart from older donors. A key aspect of this was to raise the donor cut-off age limit from 55 to 65 years, where the stress echo screening on the candidate donor showed as normal.
Korea has a large, diverse and vibrant medical device manufacturing industry, which has boomed in recent decades due to the rapid growth of the country’s economy. The scale of its medical industry was very evident at the 27th Korea International Medical and Hospital Equipment Show (KIMES) held at the Convention and Exhibition Centre (COEX) in March.
Yesterday a newly redesigned website for IHE-Europe opened a window on the accelerating movement to electronic records across Europe, giving a new visibility to successful programs. The website at www.ihe-europe.net features links to five pan-European initiatives, nine national programs, and highlights success stories from regional implementations.
Prostate cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death in men. It is also the most common diagnosed malignancy in men with near 190.000 new cases in the USA in 2008. Despite the larger use of biological tests (such as prostate specific antigen (PSA)) and imaging modalities (trans-rectal ultrasonography (TRUS) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)), there is a slight increase in the annual death…
At ECR 2011, Agfa HealthCare is showing its richest direct radiography (DR) portfolio ever. These DR solutions address a broad diversity of imaging needs, but always deliver productivity and workflow improvement benefits, combined with very high image quality.
2011 Siemens launches Mobilett Mira, its first mobile digital X-ray system with a wireless detector. The detector sends image data via W-LAN to an integrated imaging unit and particularly facilitates examinations of patients that are critically ill and have only limited mobility. Moreover, a new, rotating swivel arm increases ease of use for the clinical staff. Mobilett Mira will be introduced…
It’s digital mammography taken to the next level – or, so to speak, the next dimension as digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) that provides high resolution 3-D imaging. For about two years this exciting technology has promised to become the magic bullet in the early detection of breast cancer, particularly in the dense breast.
SECure TRAnsmission, the main aim of a spin-off from the Linköping Institute of Technology, was established in 1978. From this beginning, the Swedish firm Sectra has evolved into one of the world’s leading players in PACS and mammography solutions. Although secure communication systems remains a core business, the medical section has constantly grown since 1988, when Dr Torbjörn Kronander…
These are exciting times for Carestream. The former film supplier is morphing into a genuine IT provider. Since its incorporation in 2007, the company has been investing many resources in the development of its portfolio with products that include systems for medical and dental imaging, IT solutions, molecular imaging and digital X-ray as well as digital products for non-destructive testing.
As one of the most advanced forms of precision radiotherapy, proton therapy enables the irradiation of tumours located deep within the body, in the proximity of critical organs, such as the optic nerve or some brain areas. The Institut Curie has renovated its proton therapy centre in Orsay near Paris. Since 1991, when the original centre opened, it has treated over 5,000 patients (4,000 for eye…
For 170 years, the German firm seca has set worldwide standards for medical scales and measuring stations. Today, its products are used by medical teams in 110 countries, measuring a range of patients from tiny premature babies to adults weighing 300kg and basket ball players soaring to 7’ 4” high.
While other industries race towards an all-digital world, healthcare remains frozen in the Analogue Age. However, the success of established, world-leading e-health programmes in Denmark, Andalusia and Lombardy, have built confidence in secure patient data exchanges.
Siemens has incorporated three further healthcare products into its environmental portfolio: The Somatom Definition Flash computer tomograph, the Axiom Luminos dRF fluoroscopy system and the Ysio X-ray system have successfully completed both internal evaluation and an external audit. Backing up their clinical performance and energy efficiency, the devices present a convincing case thanks to their…
Breast cancer screening programmes are helping to reduce the mortality rates of women by finding cancer in its early stages when it is easier to treat. Sweden was one of the first countries in the world to introduce a screening program after succesful clinical trials in the 1980s. However x-ray radiation is also a risk factor for inducing breast cancer, meaning that a low radiation dose is…
Simply adding technology is not enough. Technology is transforming what’s possible in medicine, but its complexity makes understanding how it will improve patient’s lives a challenge. Technology should drive efficiencies, reduce costs and empower people to integrate Health IT into daily routines for the betterment of care. The Dell Virtual hospital is an interactive destination for…
With over 6,000 employees serving over 50 different departments, the 1,062-bed university hospital UZ Gent is Belgium’s largest single hospital campus. Managing all the imaging data from such a huge institution – as well as establishing a network with about 30 partner hospitals and other caregivers – suggests a quite tricky task. Tricky, but not impossible, as Professor Bart Sijnave, Chief…
Increasing access. Improving quality and efficiency. Lowering costs. When GE launched its healthymagination initiative last year, these were the long-term goals and at RSNA 2010, GE Healthcare highlighted a variety of technologies developed to support this strategy and help improve patient care worldwide.
At the 96th annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago, Philips showcased Philips Ingenia, the first-ever digital broadband magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) solution. Driven by Philips’ commitment to developing innovative patient care solutions, Ingenia MR delivers exceptional image clarity, scanning efficiency and scalability. The Philips Ingenia MR system is…
Philips is ushering in a new era in radiology science with Imaging 2.0, a concept fueled by integration of technology, clinician and patient. Showcasing its commitment to pioneering innovative, cost-effective solutions, Philips is highlighting technologies that focus specifically on the patient, in addition to advanced networking tools that facilitate greater collaboration between radiologists…
This year at the 96th annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) in Chicago, Philips was ushering in a new era in radiology science with Imaging 2.0, a concept fueled by integration of technology, clinician and patient.
IMPAX 6.5 was one of the key solutions the company focused on at RSNA 2010, held in Chicago from November 28th to December 2nd. IMPAX is a sixth-generation integrated RIS/PACS workflow solution for data management and reporting, offering improved productivity through its automated worklists, advanced volumetric study management systems and ability to be deployed across and beyond the hospital…
A senior IT executive has warned hospitals of the need to create an effective healthcare disaster recovery strategy to protect the huge increases in digital information they are now generating. With a growth in electronic patient records and digital imagery, it is now estimated that 30% of the world’s digital storage is found in healthcare.
Europe would cope much better with some of its most urgent social challenges if it was to fully utilize the entire potential of information and communication technology. These challenges include the ageing population, rising healthcare costs and the integration of the disabled. This is stated in the European Commission’s digital agenda for Europe. The digital agenda 2020 is one of the topics at…
Over the past 15 years, Mindray, of Shenzhen, China (http://www.mindray.com) has been increasingly in the limelight for its development and manufacturing of medical products that are marketed worldwide. The firm’s broad range of products cross three primary business segments: patient monitoring and life support, in-vitro diagnostics and medical imaging systems. Among these, Mindray’s broad…
A double-edged sword would be a good analogy for diagnostic imaging in 2010. New ways to utilise imaging technologies are being developed, imaging equipment is doing more, faster than ever, and image processing software is increasingly innovative. Today's radiology exams are ‘slicing’ through the body to reveal anatomy with increasing clarity for better diagnoses and therapeutic treatment…
Held every three years, a very important healthcare IT event is to be held in Europe after a gap of 14 years. From November 15-19, healthcare managers and suppliers from 37 countries will arrive in Milan to discuss the future of world’s electronic health services at the 16th Congress of IFHRO (International Federation of Health Records Organisations), held in collaboration with the WHO.
Approx. 250 delegates from more than 30 countries followed the invitation to the inaugural Global E-Health Forum on October 25 + 26, 2010 in Hamburg. In presentations, workshops and discussion forums, the attendees learned about e-health strategies, solutions and services from all over the world.
It’s been around for decades, re-emerged in the ’90s and, today, experts see a bright future for tomosynthesis technology. Thus its progress and future developments, plus specialist uses (e.g. breast) will be a particular feature at the Radiological Society of North America scientific assembly and annual meeting in Chicago this year.
Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) is a promising new technology that acquires 3-D breast images. The individual images are presented as thin, high-resolution slices, which can be displayed individually or in a dynamic cine mode. Preliminary studies in a clinical setting have demonstrated that this new technology has the potential to improve not only the breast cancer detection but also to reduce…
Agfa HealthCare is focused on providing excellent imaging solutions to support clinical confidence and improve delivery of health outcomes. At RSNA 2010, the company will demonstrate its engineered solutions that optimize the radiology workflow all along the imaging chain. By bringing the power of IT to radiology, we deliver tools that promote strong collaboration between healthcare providers and…
Today in most countries of the world almost 50 % of patients in hospital for a cardiac condition began their treatment as emergency cases: chest pain at home . . . a cardiac arrest in the street. Thus, according to Dr Peter Clemmensen, of the 22 million hospital admissions in Europe each year for acute cardiac events, more than 10 million of them would have begun as an emergency and without…
The Italian firm Internazionale Medico Scientifica (IMS) produces highly innovative mammography units under the brand name Giotto. More than 3,500 Giotto systems are now in use in 38 countries, mostly in Europe, America, China and the Far East. Reason enough for European Hospital to visit IMS in Pontecchio Marconi, Bologna.
Standard mammography is the most relevant diagnostic tool to address breast cancer: It shows excellent image quality, a smooth workflow, high connectivity and a very good clinical outcome in terms of sensitivity and specificity. However, there are certain shortcomings to it, especially in dense breast tissue.
More than 600 distinguished guests from 40 countries are expected at this year’s European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG). ‘Since its foundation in 1998, the EHFG has developed into an international meeting point for the highest-ranking healthcare politicians, managers and scientists from all over the world,’ said EHFG President Professor Günther Leiner.
Standard mammography is the most relevant diagnostic tool to address breast cancer: It shows excellent image quality, a smooth workflow, high connectivity and a very good clinical outcome in terms of sensitivity and specificity. However, there are certain shortcomings to it, especially in dense breast tissue. Over the last 12 years, technical and clinical research is done with contrast-enhanced…
The Ethianum in Heidelberg is one of the first clinics in Germany to align itself consistently according to sustainability criteria, thus making it a hospital in keeping with the spirit of Siemens' Green+ Hospital Program. Working in partnership with the Ethianum, Siemens has developed and implemented comprehensive solutions: These include energy management, patient care, and the communications…
Looking ahead to MEDICA 2010 (17 to 20 November) the signs are good. The high number of registrations is a sign of optimism in the medical technology industry and the number of exhibitors has already seen a significant increase in comparison to last year. With six months left to go until the fair begins, some 115,000 square metres of exhibition space had already been booked.
Worthing Hospital, on the south coast of England, has installed a CARESTREAM DRX-Evolution dual detector room in its busy Accident & Emergency (A&E) department. The new modular system, with its cassette-sized wireless detector, floor rail and full auto positioning, replaces the existing analogue room.
GE and Intel Corporation have announced the entry into a definitive agreement to form a 50/50 joint venture to create a new healthcare company focused on telehealth and independent living. The new company will be formed by combining assets of GE Healthcare’s Home Health division and Intel’s Digital Health Group, and will be owned equally by GE and Intel.
The daily management of diabetes mellitus is a complex interaction between blood glucose measuring, lifestyle aspects and drug therapy. Large epidemiological trials such as UKPDS (United Kingdom Diabetes Prospective Study) have shown that an optimal blood glucose adjustment has beneficial long-term effects on type-2 diabetics’ risk of micro- and macrovascular secondary complications.
During the Forum MedTech Pharma (30 June to 1 July, Nuremberg, Germany)Texas Instruments discusses the impact of semiconductor innovation on the development of medical equipment. ‘As an integrated circuit (IC) provider we sell both analogue and digital solutions to system houses, which then integrate the product,’ explained Dr Karthik Vasanth, Medical Business Unit Product Line Manager at…
Initiated by Professor Peter Mildenberger and organised by European Hospital, the second PACS and more seminar, held during the DICOM meeting in Mainz, Germany, more than matched its name. Report: Meike Lerner
L’Assitance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, France, is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. In 2005, the group voted to implement a PACS in association with Carestream Health to connect its 47 hospitals and centralise their data. This meant creating a network to cover 36 CT scanners, 31 MRIs, seven PET-CTs and 37 SPECT systems, which were linked to 37 RIS and 30,000 computers - of course…
Hologic announced that the Hologic Selenia® digital mammography system with a tungsten tube has received “Mammographic Type Test” certification by the European Reference Organization (EUREF) Council for Quality Assured Breast Screening and Diagnostic Services. The Hologic system is the first mammography system of any type to receive this certification.
Based on its recent analysis of the medical imaging market, Frost & Sullivan recognises Carestream Health, Inc., with the 2010 North American Frost & Sullivan Company of the Year Award. By implementing successful product and business strategies across the two pillars of its medical imaging business - digital/computed radiography (DR/CR) and imaging informatics - Carestream Health has…
Clinicians all over the world use GE Healthcare products and solutions to anesthetize patients. The breakthrough ideas of a small Ohio company in 1910, the predecessor to the anesthesia division of GE Healthcare, have evolved into innovations that continue to open new frontiers in anesthesia. Today, GE Healthcare provides anesthesia technologies in many countries worldwide, collaborating closely…
The fit of a prosthetic leg is a vital element in determining how well an amputee will function and adapt to the device. Historically, this has been a time-consuming art performed by skilled prosthetists. Today, computers have added science to the mix.
The effectiveness of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) screening on reducing prostate cancer mortality was given a boost in 2009 when the conclusive findings from the 10-year European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) -- the world’s largest prostate cancer screening study – were published.
Siemens Healthcare was presenting its latest solutions for the early detection and treatment of breast cancer at the German Radiology Congress in Berlin. These Breast Care Solutions include a variety of imaging procedures, such as ultrasound, mammography, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), supplemented by IT and laboratory diagnostic solutions. Siemens places special focus on the third…
The overall success of MRI in diagnosing breast cancer and the exploding demand for breast MRI, in particular, have caused a scanner shortage in much of Europe. Dr Jean-Pierre Pruvo, Chairman of the French Society of Radiology, recently raised the alarm: ‘We have hundreds of thousands of women in France at risk for breast cancer, yet we do not have the means to provide a breast examination by…
The volcanic ash creating widespread no-fly zones had no significant impact on the success of conhIT, Germany’s largest healthcare IT event; for three days in April some 3,500 experts were there to discuss current trends in their field and visit the IT trade fair to assess new solutions and products. One topic central to this year’s event was the convergence of IT and medical technology,…
The introduction of digital imaging in all fields of radiology and digital workflow using RIS and PACS has led to fundamental changes in the daily work of radiologist. Professor Davide Caramella, MD, Associate Professor of Radiology, University of Pisa, Italy, described how IT supports radiologists in their daily work and why radiologists need to keep up-to-date in IT.
The key to implementing PACS installations networked to multiple hospitals is fully to establish in advance exactly what clinical scenario needs to be satisfied. In her lecture, Dr Nicola H Strickland BM BCh, at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK, spoke about the several possibilities, as well as the requirement and challenges which have to be considered in each scenario.
Carestream Health announced it is taking orders for its CARESTREAM DRX-Mobile Retrofit Kit that will allow healthcare providers to upgrade selected mobile x-ray systems to wireless DRX-1 technology. This wireless DR system can help increase on-site productivity and deliver immediate access to images for improved patient care, especially for critically ill patients in emergency rooms, operating…
Dr Nicola H Strickland BM BCh, MA Hons (Oxon) FRCP, FRCR, Consultant Radiologist and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Department of Imaging, Hammersmith Hospital, London, trained in natural science and medicine at the University of Oxford, and in radiology at Hammersmith Hospital, London. Now a staff member at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, she has been…
Within Germany’s mammography screening programme, more than 10 million women, aged between 50 and 69 years, are entitled to a breast examination. It’s taken just over a year for all 94 of the country’s screening units to open their doors to meet this demand comprehensively.
Nuance Communications, Inc, provides a comprehensive family of speech-driven clinical documentation and communication solutions that enable healthcare-provider organisations to reduce operating costs, increase reimbursement, and enhance patient care and safety. Two of Nuance's healthcare customers presented the results of their speech recognition implementations at the ECR in Vienna.
An estimated 70 million CT scans are performed annually in the USA, a threefold increase since 1993. US physicians rely on CT scans and other diagnostic imaging procedures to make accurate and speedy diagnoses and, until recently, they have not questioned the radiation dose exposure the patient receives. However, this attitude is changing, as physicians and other medical professionals realise…
Agfa HealthCare announces today that it will be showcasing some of the latest arrivals to its DX-D Direct Radiography family with two works in progress: the DX-D 100 and the DX-D 10C.
With a network of distributors covering 100 countries, a loyal base of customers driving double-digit growth and a full line of ultrasound scanners touching every clinical application, from advanced cardiology to routine examinations, Sonoscape reports that it is solidly ranked among the top companies for medical imaging in Europe.
The equation is simple: Hospital IT data is growing exponentially, hospital funds are not. Facing enormous data volumes and less chance of increasing equipment or staff, IT managers inevitably suffer headaches. ‘Cloud is really IT being delivered as a service over the Internet,’ Mark Clark explained.
During Medica 2009, Daniela Zimmermann met with Ting Yang, Vice President of International Marketing for the Chinese company, Mindray Medical International Co. Ltd. Their discussion ranged from the company’s products to its present and future position in Europe.
Eucomed, the European Medical Technology Industry Association, is pleased to see that the European Parliament hasvoted in favour of President Barroso’s new Commission team. The association especially looks forward to working with John Dalli, the Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs, and his team to address his priorities such as “the development of effective and efficient healthcare…
"Cancer can be prevented too" is the theme of a new campaign being launched today in the lead up to World Cancer Day on 4th February, by the International Union Against Cancer (UICC). The campaign is backed by a new scientific report: 'Protection against cancer causing infections' which focuses on the nine infections that can lead to cancer.
The World of Health IT Conference & Exhibition (WoHIT) 2010 will for the first time be held in conjunction with the European Union’s annual High Level eHealth Conference and is being organised by the European Commission, HIMSS Europe, the Spanish Ministry of Health and Social Policy, the Regional Government of Catalonia and Foundation TicSalut.
Entrepreneur Dr Gunter Pollanz was a central figure in the build-up of charter flights to Israel and in the foundation of MAOF Airlines in Tel Aviv. Later, he also developed important export structures from Israel to Europe. However, in 1997 his life took a dramatic turn when he was diagnosed with lymphoma. Prognosis: Although 54 years old he faced just three more months of life. Today, Dr…
Building on top of its imaging network, the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Bordeaux today features a shared medical record that follows a patient through the entire care path and beyond to scheduling follow up appointments. All medical wards and surgical groups in the 3,107-bed CHU-Bordeaux complex access and then contribute to this unique patient record that was constructed step-by-step…
Considering the huge tasks and issues involved, the connection of health services, digitised EPRs, and text messaging via mobile phones, all are progressing -- some slowly, others at a more rapid pace – as many speakers at the e-Health Insider Conference underlined.
At the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) annual meeting in Vienna, Carestream Health will demonstrate its latest digital imaging and IT solutions. These include its new RIS/PACS & SuperPACS Architecture. The new PACS has an embedded reporting module and a convenient graphic display for “at a glance” viewing of available patient records and data, Carestream reports.
According to estimates up to 450 million patients will suffer from diabetes in the year 2025 (currently 250 million). In view of this, glucose monitoring is of utmost importance. Scientific studies and practical experiences with glucose monitoring at the point of care (POC) were evaluated recently during a meeting of experts in Vienna.
Agfa HealthCare unveiled the latest version of its IMPAX product portfolio at the 2009 meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). The improvements to its IMPAX solutions will further increase a radiologist's ability to read more exams, with fewer mouse clicks. Enhancements include new tools supporting multi-planar labeling for volumetric spine studies, new communications tools,…
At RSNA 2009, GE Healthcare is presenting a big basket filled with trends and innovations for the radiology department:
Quality counts. That's the theme of RSNA 2009, the global annual assembly of radiologists, medical physicists, diagnostic imaging clinical and IT professionals, and more than 700 companies that provide products and services. For six days, over 200 scientific sessions with more than 1,500 presentations, 1,500 educational exhibits, and more than 500 posters, many interactive, can be attended and…
The new CARESTREAM DRX-Evolution marries the flexibility of the industry’s first wireless, cassette-size detector with the productivity of a fully automated DR suite. Because the CARESTREAM DRX-1 detector offers virtually unlimited positioning and eliminates the need to move a patient around a fixed detector, healthcare facilities are able to improve efficiency and enhance patient care. The…
Close monitoring of vital signs such as ECG, BP and body weight are vital for many patients suffering cardiovascular disease. MyHeart, an integrated project involving 10 EU Member States, aims to produce better devices and better parameters than currently available, i.e. traditional sensor systems with digital upgrades. The ongoing clinical study has involved six European academic centres and 200…
At this year’s two-day HealthCare Summit, held in Berlin, 58 representatives of hospitals and healthcare facilities, IT specialists and consultants discussed financing, market orientation, IT solutions and telematics.
The healthcare sector has been surprisingly slow in adopting information technology when compared to other industry sectors. In the United States, health information technology (HIT) is now being considered by many involved in the re-organisation and improvement of the quality of healthcare as a powerful tool with the dual potential to save lives and reduce healthcare costs.
When we organised the first Diagnostic Week in Karlsruhe, in 1969, no one could have known that this event would one day turn into the annual highlight in the world of medicine, reflected Dr Wolfgang Albath, laboratory medicine pioneer and one of the founding fathers of MEDICA the world`s largest medical trade show. Initially planned as a moving exhibition, the show has been based in…
In addition to being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, this October is the tenth anniversary of digital mammography, a technology introduced by GE Healthcare in 1999. Similar to digital photography, digital mammography replaces the film used in traditional mammography with digital files viewed and stored on computers.
Now Carestream Health can provide an enterprise-wide image and information management solution for cardiology data. Bring the advantages of digital workflow to cardiology with an innovative web-based solution that enables:
From this October, a newly launched, web-based cardiology PACS will change the workload of cardiologists at Groene Hart Ziekenhuis, in The Netherlands, making the 500-bed hospital one of Europe's first to benefit from this valuable system that consolidates isolated cardiac lab systems into one centralised solution.
During a gathering of clinicians, scientists and economists at this year's Medical Technology Congress (Treffpunkt für Medizintechnik) held in Berlin's Charité Hospital, all 17 lectures focused on cancer treatments. Bettina Döbereiner reports
Healthcare in Europe is increasingly becoming digitised and there is growing need to develop and deploy sophisticated information systems. However, the wireless technology that is transforming various areas of business today is yet to be fully explored by the healthcare industry to support quality maintenance and improved efficiency.
Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) and the only provider of Services Oriented Storage Solutions, today announced a German-wide partnership with d.velop AG. Together they will offer data storage and document management capabilities to provide cost-effective and reliable solutions for the health care sector.
State of the art IT in a vintage venue: From 2 to 4 July 2009, venerable Waldhausen castle near Mainz, Germany, will host an expert forum on future-oriented developments in medical IT and medical technology in the German-speaking countries. DICOM 2009 is the ideal place to obtain first-hand and hands-on information on the newest trends in RIS and PACS as well as DICOM and IHE standards. Professor…
For five days a renovated tram barn in Vienna became one of Europe's hottest internet centres as more than 230 healthcare IT engineers gathered for five days of intensive systems tests during the 10th annual IHE-Europe Connectathon. John Brosky reports
The technology firm NCR Corporation, which specialises in automated teller machines, self-checkouts and other self- and assisted-service solutions, announced in April that King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London has chosen to install the firm's new patient automated arrival system NCR MediKiosk. This autumn, 50 MediKiosks will be deployed in the dermatology, haematology,…
A potentially life-saving kiosk has been voted the best self-service application of 2009 by the Board of the European Association for Self-service (EAFS), during Kiosk Europe Expo 2009, held this May in parallel with Digital Signage Expo 2009 in Essen, Germany.
A system of national quality registers, established in recent decades in Sweden's health and medical services, now numbers 64 registers. Along with three competence centres, these cover, for example, diabetes mellitus (NRD), dementia (SeDEM), Swedish intensive care (SIR) and acute coronary care (RIKS-HIA), and the Register Ulcer Treatment (RUT), which was added at the dawn of 2007. The latter has…
Reducing dose and producing excellent image quality at the same time is the challenge of today´s mammography systems. The Institute for Clinical Radiology at the University Clinic Munich managed this challenge with the installation of two new digital full-field mammography solutions which in addition can be used for tomosynthesis. At June 25th, the clinic will demonstrate the benefits of these…
European healthcare facilities are turning to vendor-neutral, multi-modality breast imaging workstations to streamline reading of digital breast exams. The KODAK CARESTREAM Mammography Workstation enables diagnostic review of all breast imaging exams (FFDM, ultrasound, MR, CR and others) as well as all general radiology exams.
Carestream Health has won three contracts for Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) to view, manage and store digital mammography images for healthcare initiatives in the French-speaking region of Belgium. The PACS will meet the needs of a regional programme for mammography screening, an extended provincial programme for mammography screening within a mobile environment and a…
Basic diagnostic x-ray services are a key component of primary health care delivery. However, two-thirds of the world's population is without access to it, according to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. The WHO further estimates that there is a need for one diagnostic imaging machine for every 50,000 people. The World Health Imaging Alliance announced that it has cemented key…
Open MRI not only provides good clinical images for musculoskeletal diagnoses, but also makes it easier to accommodate big-bodied sportsmen.
Although breast cancer, the most common disease affecting women, accounts for over 30% of all the cancers they suffer (far ahead of colon, ovary or lung cancer), breast cancer is responsible for only 1% of cancer related deaths.
At ECR healthcare manufacturers not only introduced the latest products, but also the future technologies and trends that will have an impact on the market in the coming years.
Tissue removal is currently the only way to verify suspicious lesions in the prostate. It is also a key requirement before treating prostate carcinomas. The standard biopsy is performed with transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) to guide the needle in the right direction.
Maquet is possibly Europe's oldest manufacturer of healthcare equipment. Founded in Heidelberg, Germany, in 1838 the firm initially manufactured patient chairs and other healthcare equipment. Today, Maquet operates three business divisions (see box) each focusing on medical technology for operating theatres (OT) and intensive care units (ICU).
Among the most important EU guidelines for efficient breast cancer screening is the assumption that it is a low-threshold offer, which, after an initial start-up period, will include at least 70% of all women aged between 50 and 69. To ensure that this quota is met in areas that lack infrastructure, whilst also keeping personnel expenditure at bay, for the last few years mammobiles have toured…
Although the majority of the 18,000 participants at ECR 2009 were radiologists, medical writer Rob Skelding reports that a specific session for radiographers was well attended. The event also underlined the value of their interpretive skills
Surgeons at the Department of Neurosurgery Ulm University/Günzburg District Hospital have begun to use the newly installed BrainSuite iMRI, a digitally integrated neurosurgical operating theatre (OT) that combines image-guided surgery (IGS), high-field intra-operative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (iMRI), visualisation and comprehensive OT data management.
As medical images are increasingly digitized, their management, compression and retrieval is increasingly challenged. According to new analysis* from Frost & Sullivan, which examined medical image storage solutions markets in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, Scandinavia, Benelux and Italy, the total European storage requirement in 2007 was 106,044 terabytes (TB).
Unlimited digital communication between European healthcare systems - that's the aim of the European Commission's e-health activities. In particular, an electronic version of the European Health Insurance Card is coming closer. However, the road towards a standardised electronic patient summary is somewhat rockier.
Not so long ago this country, of considerable linguistic division, was a split into three regions, referred to as Flemish (with five provinces), Walloon (with five provinces) and the Brussels Capital. Each has its own parliament, with governments responsible for their individual region's affairs; these include health. Dr Catherine Breucq, head of the Breast Imaging Department at Brussels…
En España se están realizando grandes esfuerzos para poner a disposición de todos los ciudadanos la historia clínica electrónica (HCE) a nivel regional. HealthTech Wire ha realizado una entrevista a Javier Quiles del Río, Jefe del Área Clínica del Servizo de Tecnoloxías da Información e Infraestructuras del Servicio Galego de Saúde, sobre la evolución de la implantación de la HCE en…
56 people were killed and over 700 injured when bombers staged four simultaneous attacks upon the London Transport system on 7 July 2005.
Ten years ago, New York real estate entrepreneur Israel Green began a worldwide search for a cure for his wife´s lung cancer. A year later, the couple returned to New York empty handed. Just days before a risky surgery, they were happily stunned to be given a very different diagnosis: acid reflux.
Arriving at the Austrian Congress Center in Vienna, a pink truck is striking the eyes of the visitors of ECR. The truck took the long way from Belgium to Austria to demonstrate a pretty successful project of the University Hospital Brussels: A mobile mammography unit that examines women living in rural areas and who otherwise would probably not join the screening programm. The trailer was…
Delegates at the 2009 European Congress of Radiology (ECR) saw a series of presentations Friday unveiling new findings and key updates on digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT). As the body of research builds in this relatively unexplored field, the advantages and limitations of DBT compared with conventional full-field digital mammography (FFDM) and other modalities are becoming better defined.
Dr Giorgio Rizzatto, who heads the Department of Diagnostic Imaging at ASS 2 Isontina (including the Gorizia and Monfalcone hospitals) in NE Italy, works with nine radiologists, who examine and report on 80,000 clinical and screening breast examinations annually.
The Dutch screening programme, which began in 1990, invites women aged 50-75 years for mammography screening every two years. Today, the national programme is undergoing considerable regional re-organisation. As one of a team of 12 radiologists at the Alkmaar Medical Centre, Dr Shirley Go is responsible for Mammography and Screening in a large Dutch region. Daniela Zimmermann, asked Dr Go about…
SecondLook Digital from iCAD is Philips' new computer aided detection solution for early breast cancer detection. It supports physicians in identifying and marking suspicious areas. The software performs optimally with both Philips DR and CR mammography solution and seamlessly integrates in Philips PACS and Philips viewing workstation MammoDiagnost VU.
Unveiled last September, a new digital X-ray system Carestream DRX-1, is considered a breakthrough.
Claus Peter Waegemann , CEO of the Medical Records Institute (MRI) in Boston, USA, has promoted the idea of electronic patient records (EPR) internationally for 25 years.
The recently published European Commission Communication on Telemedicine for the benefit of patients, healthcare systems and society has focused in particular on teleradiology, i.e. telemedicine services involving the electronic transmission of radiographic images from one geographical location to another for interpretation and consultation, writes Michael Palmer, Project Officer at the eHealth…
The number of prostate cancer cases is increasing rapidly.
Beckman Coulter, Inc., a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of products that simplify, automate, and innovate complex biomedical tests, and Olympus Corporation, a Tokyo-headquartered precision technology leader, creating innovative opto-digital solutions in healthcare, life science and consumer electronics products, announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement…
The Nordic countries have a reputation for being among Europe's avant-garde in the field of digital healthcare solutions. HealthTech Wire talked to Arto Ryymin, executive Vice President of Tieto's healthcare and welfare business, about what the rest of Europe can learn from the Nordic countries and about how health IT companies can support the standardization efforts under way in Europe.
Cancer may well surpass cardiovascular diseases as the primary case of death in Europe by 2012. To prevent this from happening, cancer therapeutics have to shift in focus from the treatment of symptoms to offering a total cure, despite the complex, multifactorial nature of cancer indications.
At the International TeleHealth Conference (5 and 6 March) leading experts from the healthcare sector will come together in Hannover, Germany, to evaluate the latest developments in digital medicine. Alongside established topics such as telemonitoring, telematics infrastructure and eHealth, this year's conference will also focus on telemedical applications in the area of military and disaster…
Carestream Health installed its two thousandth high-resolution CR system for mammography at the Rechts der Isar Clinic in Munich, Germany. The company's CR Mammography Feature which enables mammography images to be captured digitally while utilizing a healthcare provider's existing mammography x-ray unit and workflow processes is intended for use in the same clinical and screening applications…
According the Healthcare Group at Frost & Sullivan the global economic meltdown has ensured reduced uptake rates for most medical imaging modalities across Europe. The medical imaging industry also experienced lower expenditure on research and development in 2008, thereby hindering the launch of new technologies.
At the dawn of 2009, amid economic gloom worldwide, GE Healthcare has predicted that sales of its higher-priced (imaging equipment will be down in the USA in 2009, compared with 2008, and it is anticipating cost-cutting, which would include a reduction of employee levels.
Shenzhen Landwind Industry Co. Ltd. (Landwind) began operations as a distributor for Siemens and Philips ultrasound products in mainland China and later commenced production of its own black and white ultrasound equipment on an Original Design Manufacture (ODM) basis for HONDA in 2004.
Within a project named `Healthcare Documentation & Digital Pen´, Hamburg based IT firm Allpen is to supply digital pens to 300 employees of the healthcare association Diakonie Pflegeverbund Berlin. Based on Swedish firm Anoto's Digital Pen and Paper (DP&P) technology, each pen is fitted with a digital camera and comes with raster paper, which can be printed out either as a care form or…
The first Connectathon of `eFA´, a hospital-driven German electronic patient record (EPR) project was considered a success by health IT providers and hospital representatives. During the Berlin event, Siemens, iSoft, and Ispro received certificates for implementing basic eFA functionalities in their connected care solutions, writes Philipp Grätzel von Grätz
Carestream Health plans to demonstrate its newest, low cost, digital imaging and IT solutions at ECR 2009 (European Congress of Radiology).
Radiologists are paying increasing attention to ultrasound real time tissue elastography (HI-RTE). Earlier this year, at their annual meeting, the Austrian, Swiss and German Ultrasound Societies (ÖGUM, SGUM, DEGUM), highlighted the effectiveness of the method in differentiating soft from stiff tissue, i.e. healthy areas from tumours, a key differentiation in breast cancer diagnosis.
The new generation of RIS/PACS Carestream Health presented at RSNA 2008, will offer advanced tools and features to streamline the delivery of imaging services and boost productivity for IT staff, radiologists and other clinicians.
Demonstrating a commitment to efficiency in diagnostic imaging, Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. featured the Kalare™ R&F system at this year's Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
Clalit Health Services has selected Carestream Health's state-of-the-art healthcare IT solution. The PACS, RIS and central archiving solution will be deployed across all Clalit's hospitals and imaging centers in Israel by Algotec, a fully owned subsidiary of Carestream Health, and provide more than 1,400 sites with access to the system. Implementation is scheduled to begin in early 2009.
Agfa HealthCare is presenting its complete range of Computed Radiography (CR) solutions at RSNA 2008. From desktop and compact solutions to the DX-S CR system that fills the gap between CR and DR, Agfa HealthCare offers its customers the right solution for every facility of any size.
Carestream Health, Inc., and National Digital Medical Archive, Inc., (NDMA), are collaborating on product integration initiatives designed to support the expansion of NDMA's national imaging network and improve customer access to its analytics and data management services.
At this year's Medica Panasonic presented the world's first* mobile clinical assistant (MCA) device using the Intel® Atom™ processor, further strengthening the company's position in the healthcare market. Based on the Intel® mobile clinical assistant reference platform, the new CF-H1 MCA is designed specifically for clinicians.
ISIS of France, specialist in computer-based surgical equipment, is unveiling the latest version of its SurgiMedia - an integrated display system for operating theatres (OT).
USA - 3-D ultrasound technology developed at Duke University provides images of the brain vessels in real-time, which could be miniaturised in coming years for use in ambulances. In an initial pilot study, the system has passed the proof-of-principle.
Increasing populations and the additional storage requirements for a spiralling volume of their medical data cause acknowledged concerns among healthcare organisations.
Hitachi Data Systems and Mawell form strategic partnership to streamline the management of patient records and images: According to recent EU research, ever-lengthening life expectancy means that Europe's pensioner population is set to swell to more than 100 million by 2050.
The use of mammography to maintain breast health comes with a caveat: exposure of the breast to radiation, which can increase the susceptibility risk of breast cancer. Thus, using the lowest possible radiation dose for mammograms is of utmost importance.
'Diagnostics is not diagnostics, not even when it relates to a specific indication such as breast cancer,' says Professor Walter Heindel MD (right), who heads the Munster Mammography and Breast Centre Reference Centre at Munster University Hospital, focusing on the dissimilarities among patient groups and their peculiarities.
This September, Carestream Health revealed the first wireless cassette-size DR Detector. The Carestream DRX-1 system, which incorporates a console and wireless 14x17 inch cassette-size digital radiography (DR) detector, provides a rapid, affordable conversion for users of radiographic film or computed radiography systems, Carestream explains.
At this year's RSNA meeting, Definiens, the number one Enterprise Image Intelligence company, will introduce a new image analysis application that will allow radiologists to analyse lymph nodes volumetrically and compare them over time.
In a pre-conference discussion with this year's President, Professor Hans-Heinrich Kreipe, Director of the Institute for Pathology at Hanover Medical School, he outlined the significance of MRI in breast cancer detection, and highlighted other topics for the event.
Although there should always be concern about radiation in a facility that uses X-ray to image patients, that concern is perhaps not as vocal as for CT or interventional radiology, according to physicist Jacqueline Gallet, Global Manager of Clinical Studies at Carestream Health.
It´s MEDICA time again: A top theme is the rapidly progressing networking process of the agents in the health care system thanks to new applications, in particular in the field of medical IT.
The world's first permanent international healthcare marketplace and education center will open in less than five years, the key players driving the project said today, as plans for the Midtown Manhattan tower have been finalized and marketing has begun.
Carestream Health, Inc., recently announced the industry`s first wireless DR detector that is the size of a standard cassette and can be used with existing wall stand or table-based Buckys. The CARESTREAM DRX-1 System, currently a work in progress, is expected to be available in many parts of the world during the first quarter of 2009.
The World of Health IT 2008 Conference & Exhibition is an innovative and forward-thinking event designed to deepen the understanding of specific healthcare ICT markets in Europe.
Optimal treatment of diabetes is very difficult to achieve since many obstacles have to be overcome such as expensive treatments, poor patient compliance or insufficient datac. With these challenges in mind, a new research project titled "Computerassisted Diabetes Risk Management (CDRM)" was put in place to examine how eHealth solutions can improve diabetes care.
Approximately 31 million people in the European Union are suffering from diabetes, a devastating disease with severe consequences for patients and their families, but also for the society at large and the economic prosperity of Europe. This week EH Online will focus on innovative strategies in diabetes care and on new management systems to support physicians and patients alike. Moreover, we will…
Carestream Health's engineers created the first wireless DR detector which is not bigger than a standard cassette and can therefore withstand the challenging environment of a modern x-ray department. The rugged detector, case, and internal components are made to produce DR images of high quality under real-life x-ray department conditions.
SurgiMedia is a multimedia digital-display station designed for use in operating theatres. It can be used for managing, checking and recording patient data.
The Dutch E-health initiatives have made remarkable progress in recent years, writes Marcel Swennenhuis, President of Topicus HealthCare. Many solutions, such as online medication services, patient portals and web-based disease management initiatives, demonstrate the success of the country's EHR approach.
This summer, California-based Beckman Coulter Inc. began general distribution of its UniCel DxC 880i's integrated system in Europe.
Hospitals must digitally keep medical documents audit proof, which involves a lot of material and personnel efforts.
Detecto's new ProDoc Professional Doctor Scale series incorporates time-saving digital weight, height, and body mass index (BMI) measurements.
Two thirds of cancer patients receive little or no information about the survival benefits of having palliative chemotherapy before making a decision about treatment, according to a study published on the British Medical Journal website.
Experts on a US panel expressed their doubts on the beneficial quality of prostate cancer screenings for elderly men. Prostate cancer often grows very slowly and may not kill an older man before he suffers from another death reason, they pointed out.
To make sure that for athletes and officials the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will not come to a premature end, digital medical and dental imaging systems from Carestream Health, Inc. are available to diagnose and treat any health concerns.
GE Healthcare today announced John Dineen as the companies new CEO and president. Therewith Dineen changes from the Transportation to the Medical Technologies and Services Segment of General Electric.
Answer: Older men, living in high social deprivation who are treated for pain or infectious diseases are very endangered. That is the simplified result Scottish researchers investigated while trying to point out criterias that might predict the likelihood of emergency admission in adults older than 40 years
A new analysis from Frost & Sullivan estimates that the PACS market in 2014 is set to reach $1,035.3 million in 2014 and forecasts significant opportunities in the European PACS market for vendors who can provide customised solutions and products that support enhanced workflows.
Considered optimal transportation and identification tools, they have become a symbol for modern hospitals: RFID tags. But according to a new study radio frequency identification devices (RFID) may disrupt medical devices. Moreover, the FDA is concerned that the increase in digital technology might be dangerous for patients.
In the 30 years since the overthrow of its last Shah (1979) Iranian radiologists have been welcome speakers and research presenters at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR).
Medical services About 90% of hospital income is generated in the 35 weekly working hours of regular day shifts. However, due to new work time regulations fewer and fewer physicians are available for these productive shifts and much of the work time is spent in the 133 working hours of the 'unproductive' night shifts.
Today, Iceland counts 53 personal health clinics, widely scattered across the nation, which, despite its relatively small population, encompass a land area nearly the size of the UK.
This was it, 15th May, the big day: Johnson & Johnson's Worldwide Mesh Technology Centre was officially opening in Norderstedt near Hamburg, Germany.
Stroke treatment is a question of time. The faster the cerebral infarct can be diagnosed, the less the brain will be damaged. But unfortunately it is not always easy to get the patient to a brain scanner within the required three-hour window. Real-time 3D ultrasound might bring the solution, according to researchers from the Duke University in Durham, NC.
Self-service can cut patient services costs, says Anne Warner, who reports for the trade publication Kiosk Europe.
As the opening of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games nears, the US Olympic Committee (USOC) and the General Electric Company (a Worldwide Partner of the Olympic Games) are running two research programmes aimed at demonstrating that health monitoring and early intervention leads to injury prevention and enhanced health and sports performances for athletes.
At the DRK Congress (Deutscher Röntgenkongress, 30 April - 3 May, in Berlin, Carestream Healthcare will introduce its new digital radiography and computed radiography systems, including the DirectView DR 9500 System, the DR 3500 System, as well as its latest single-cassette CR products, DirectView CR Elite and the new Kodak Point-of-Care CR 360.
Over the past few years, hospitals in Germany have been faced with ever new challenges. However, the solutions offered so far are not sufficient. On the contrary - rather than solving problems, they tend to create new ones. A change of paradigm in the organisation of hospitals is imminent and hospitals have to change radically, argues Holger Richter
From 2004 to 2007 VHitG (Verband der Hersteller von IT-Systemen im Gesundheitswesen) and Messe Frankfurt jointly organised ITeG (IT-Messe und Dialog im Gesundheitswesen). When VhitG moved the event to Berlin, this cooperation ended and Messe Berlin came on board as new partner for what is now called conhIT. The organisation team headed by Jens Naumann, VhitG chairman, developed an entirely new…
Shanghai, China — Royal Philips Electronics and Ascent Profit, a leading Chinese medical equipment wholesaler, today announced that they have signed a €25 million contract to bring digital radiography systems to hospitals in China.
'How do you treat the HIV-positive, diabetic, schizophrenic patient presenting with chest pain? By making the necessary information available for personalised medicine'
Agfa HealthCare presents its entire Computed Radiography (CR) solutions range at ECR 2008 in Vienna. From desktop and compact solutions to groundbreaking Computed Radiography systems that fill the gap between CR and DR (Direct Radiography), the company is able to offer its customers the right solution for every facility of any size.
A new volumetric X-ray application, showcased at the European Congress of Radiology in Vienna, Austria, provides physicians with multiple high-resolution slice images of the human anatomy, including the chest, abdomen, extemities and spine.
At ECR 2008 Carestream Health will demonstrate powerful new digital imaging and IT solutions, which help healthcare providers improve quality and operational performance. Carestream Health is rapidly expanding its presence in European e-health by providing innovative solutions that combine ease of use with advanced functionality, enabling the full benefits of an all-digital workflow to be…
Agfa Healthcare's new IMPAX solution suites offer PACS and RIS to cover hospital data handling and cardiovascular, cardiology, orthopaedics, mammography and radiology data.
Storing, archiving and sharing patient information in an intelligent and controlled manner is one of the 'hot topics' for healthcare organisations.
The Uliazpi Foundation in Spain, which studies and cares for severely mentally retarded patients, carried out an interesting study to identify bone mineral density values in a group of its patients, compare these with the general population and investigate the possible influence on these values on certain clinical variables and therapeutic regimens.
Breast cancer morbidity has been the leading oncology disease (21.8%) in Russia since 1996 - and since 1981 in St. Petersburg. In Moscow, the morbidity has increased 52.4% in last 14 years.
Automating a clinical laboratory is complicated and expensive.
The presentation will provide an overview of patient medical data sharing and distribution between the hospital, general practitioners (GP) and patient, using recent developments in Hospital Information System (HIS) and Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).
In the course of the `Interreg III´ Italian-Albanian collaborative project, which is financed by the European Union and the Italian Apulia region, an Albanian screening programme for breast and cervical tumours will be established. The initiative aims at improving the public health system of Albania, regarding the training and the technical equipment needed for such screening projects.
A promising mammography screening technology By Andrew Smith PhD, principal scientist at Hologic, Inc. in Bedford, Mass, is involved in research and development of digital imaging systems.
GE Healthcare recently acquired Image Diagnost International GmbH, an IT provider specialised on developing integrated software solutions for mammography workflow and image processing. With this acquisition GE Healthcare expands its capabilities in offering clinicians and national screening services an even more expanded portfolio for the detection of breast cancer.
Stereoscopic digital mammography, a new diagnostic technique capable of producing three-dimensional (3-D) in-depth views of breast tissue, could significantly reduce the number of women who are recalled for additional tests following routine screening mammography.
Siemens Medical Solutions, which launched Ysio wi-D - its first digital X-ray unit equipped with a wireless detector - at Medica, said it combines all the advantages of digital X-ray imaging with the flexibility of an X-ray film cassette.
Radiologists frequently have limited time when examining mammography images, especially under screening conditions. In addition to their training and experience, the computer can offer beneficial support in the detection of breast cancer, due to special Computer Aided Detection (CAD) software solutions
“We have a broad set of products and services that enable healthcare providers to improve the quality and cost of patient care,” said Carestream Health's Chief Executive Officer Kevin J. Hobert with reference to Carestream´s RSNA highlights. “We have digital technology and consulting services that few companies can match, and our integrated imaging and IT solutions are helping healthcare…
GE Healthcare IT, unveiled Centricity OneView, a web-based clinical information and workflow management system designed to connect multiple discrete RIS and PACS solutions.
Agfa HealthCare, a leading provider of IT-enabled clinical workflow and diagnostic imaging solutions, announces today at MEDICA that it will be presenting its entire Computed Radiography solutions family range at RSNA 2007, to be held in Chicago from 25 until 30 November. From desktop and compact solutions to groundbreaking Computed Radiography systems that fill the gap between CR and DR, Agfa…
In May, Kodak became Carestream. Then, Carestream was bought by Onex. This shapes part of a significant Health portfolio.
One of the biggest RIS/PACS healthcare networks in Germany - a Centricity system installed by GE - was recently launched at the Munich Municipal Hospital GmbH to link its 67 clinics and institutes, which are spread across four sites (Bogenhausen, Harlaching, Neuperlach and Schwabing).
Healthworkers, public health system staff and nutritionists look after patients in their homes. It is important that these carers have a robust, durable scale to determine the exact weight of their patients. A scale which is also easy to transport. With the floor scale seca 876, seca gmbh & co. kg., Hamburg, has designed a model which is the ideal solution for mobile use. At only 3.5 kg, it is a…
Where are the most high-tech start-ups? That`s an easy one: Silicon Valley. But who comes in a close second? Surprisingly: Israel. Further: Israel ranks Number 1 in terms of availability of scientists and engineers and Number 2 in quality of higher education. The result of this impressive track record is a wide range of successful enterprises and products, particularly related to the life…
Agfa HealthCare will present leading healthcare IT and imaging solutions, focusing on clinical process management At MEDICA this year, Agfa HealthCare is demonstrating a "balanced mix of information about market-leading solutions and innovations for healthcare IT and medical imaging and plenty of opportunity to exchange opinions about market developments".