In diagnostics, there used to be a hard divide between radiology and pathology, where methods were largely considered incompatible with one another. However, to pave the way for next-generation diagnosis, Professor Regina Beets-Tan urged both sides to come out from their trenches and appreciate the synergies the fields have to offer. In her presentation at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR)…
HighlightsThe Ziehm Vision RFD Hybrid Edition* is a powerful 30 kW** mobile C-arm that is also available withCMOS imaging technology to successfully perform during highly demanding interventional cardiovascular procedures – flexible and everywhere – at any time. With its zero room preparation, the comprehensive mobile hybrid solution easily takes your OR to the next level. Plug in…
GE HealthCare and the European Society of Radiology (ESR) renew their collaboration for the upcoming European Congress of Radiology (ECR) from February 28 to March 3 in Vienna.
Highlights The system is designed to drastically improve the screening and diagnostic throughput thanks to an high rotation speed and an improved vertical run speed. The gantry is ergonomically designed to give patients a natural and more relaxed positioning. The system is ppen to new AI application like the new algorithm for…
Highlights: Giotto Class is an advanced and innovative three dimensional breast imaging technology able to performDigital mammography and Breast TomosynthesisSynthesized 2D image generated from 3D datasetStereotactic biopsy in prone or upright positionIntegrated Real time biopsy tissue cores imagingContrast-Enhanced MammographyThe…
An interplanetary title for a quite down-to-earth topic: The symposium "Men are from Mars, women are from Venus" at the EACVI congress (European Association of Cardiovascular imaging) launched into the differences between the hearts of men and women. While the speakers could firmly establish that both sexes share the same home world, variations in their cardiac anatomy warrant a more…
The climate crisis and AI – arguably two of the most hotly-debated and relevant topics of our time – share an intricate relationship: While computation of complex AI routines commands an immense carbon footprint, it is these algorithms that might be the very key to mitigate the effects of global warming. In a dedicated session at ECR 2023, radiologists explored the societal and environmental…
It's an important milestone for gene editing technology: a novel treatment for sickle cell disease utilizing CRISPR-Cas9, has now received FDA approval – a first for this type of therapy.
The Medica in Düsseldorf once again solidified its status as one of the largest medical trade fairs worldwide this year - and Rein Medical seized the opportunity to present a selection of its product portfolio.
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…
Sure, AI still has a long way go. But maybe one day in the not-so-distant future, AI will provide us with information about our current state of health, such as the number of red blood cells, cholesterol levels, fat percentage, and how many seconds last night's beer will shorten our life expectancy.
Hardly a day passes without new headlines about ChatGPT, the AI-powered large language model, and its potential applications in healthcare. First results have been somewhat sobering after the initial hype, with the AI’s “hallucinations” often replacing scientific truth. Still, Professor Philip Moons is convinced that the chatbot might bring actual benefits to nursing and health science…
Cancer has become strikingly more common in people under 50 in the past three decades, an international research team finds. The reseachers explore what this means for future death tolls.
In a new editorial paper, researchers from the Army Hospital Hamburg discuss treatment strategies for common, but highly malignant types of head and neck tumors.
ETH Zurich molecular biologist Mandy Boontanrart is researching gene therapies that could be used to cure two of the most common types of inherited anaemia: beta thalassaemia and sickle cell anaemia.
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.
Unanswered questions are hampering clinicians in their efforts to get the best out of a precision medicine approach for their patients. Speaking at the Genomics and Precision Medicine Expo in London at the end of May, cancer educator Dr Elaine Vickers said the benefits of being matched to an investigational drug remain questionable for most people with advanced cancer.
Are emergency departments safe places? An international survey among both professionals and patients yields sobering results. Staff shortages and overcrowding were seen as main reasons.
US researchers have developed a way to use MRI scanning to map body cell metabolism, opening up new possibilities for detecting cancers and revealing if a tumor is responding to treatment.
New research has debunked the idea of an “obesity paradox”, whereby overweight or obese patients with heart failure are less likely to end up in hospital or die than people of normal weight.
Caregivers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, have developed a programme designed to facilitate recovery by geriatric patients following hip fracture surgery. The Returning Seniors to Orthopedic Excellence (RESTORE) programme is designed to provide stellar comprehensive collaborative co-managed care for older adults with orthopaedic injuries.
New advanced therapies can alleviate or cure chronic diseases. But medical progress, such as the gene editing tool CRISPR, raises the question of how rights should be protected and balanced.
Researchers analyzed millions of tweets in the Ukrainian language surrounding the Russian invasion. Their findings paint a worrying picture of the medical conditions in the war-torn country.
Multiparametric ultrasound will play an increasing role in imaging investigation and diagnosis as more subspecialities reap the benefits from the modality, Professor Paul Sidhu believes. The leading expert predicts that it will be more cost-effective and comfortable for patients and take point-of-care-testing onto a new level by embracing other parameters in the imaging process.
At this year's Medica tradefair, laboratory medicine, medical technology and life sciences give new impulses to the entire healthcare market - especially in times of the corona pandemic. An overview.
The Red Cross is intended to protect aid workers from attack during their missions. Can this symbol also be used for the digital world – and what opportunities and risks are associated with it?
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.
An important prospective study showcases improvement in outcomes for women with ischemic heart disease by attending a multidisciplinary women’s health center.
Vaccination projects across the world are at a pivotal post-Covid moment, according to one of the leading experts in the field. Speaking to Healthcare in Europe ahead of the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) congress in Qatar – where vaccination will be a central topic – Dr Jerome Kim said there is an urgent need to regain a ‘positive consensus’ around the value of vaccines. He…
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.
The new test measures the level of neutralizing antibodies in a blood sample and could help people decide what protections they should take against infection.
Researchers identify critical spots on the genome where gene editing could cause an unwanted response, and they provide recommendations for safer approaches.
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.
A new approach makes use of natural DNA repair machinery and provides a foundation for novel gene therapy strategies with the potential to cure a large spectrum of genetic diseases.
Informing a patient about a cancer diagnosis is never an easy task. An Austrian patient has developed a solution that will help radiologists break the bad news as smoothly as possible and guide women through their patient journey.
Patients with neurological conditions such as dementia or autism can prove especially challenging for radiographers. A session at the ECR Overture in March gave insights to a patient-focused approach.
Scientists from Hokkaido University have identified new targets for treating Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL), an aggressive form of blood cancer with existing drugs.
An ECRC research team has introduced CRISPR-Cas9 into human muscle stem cells for the first time using mRNA, thus discovering a method suitable for therapeutic applications.
When it comes to imaging stable cardiac chest pain, which modality should be used as the first-line test to investigate coronary artery disease: CT or MRI? Radiologists discussed the strengths and limitations of the two approaches in a lively Pros and Cons session at ECR Overture.
“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.
Under the roof of integrated diagnostics, radiology, laboratory medicine and pathology are forming a powerful alliance. Hedvig Hricak, MD, PhD, explains the potential for cancer patients and details the role of radiologists within the construct.
Scientists at have designed a quantum sensor to detect SARS-CoV-2 faster, cheaper, and more accurate than the current gold-standard technique, PCR.
The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 may be significantly better at evading vaccine-induced antibodies – but preliminary evidence suggests it is less likely to cause severe illness in the lungs.
The percentage of medical imaging equipment in Europe that is more than ten years old is alarmingly high, and the broad disparities in equipment density between European countries remain. These are the principal findings in the 2021 edition of the COCIR Medical Imaging Equipment Age Profile and Density. This has potentially negative consequences for patients and for the budgets of healthcare…
New research indicates that MRIs are cost effective for detecting breast cancer for women with very dense breasts detected by mammography. About 10% of women have extremely dense breasts, and current mammography screening guidelines do not recommend additional imaging tests unless there is a strong family history or genetic risk for breast cancer. Such women face two problems. They have increased…
'Unite behind the science' is an essential appeal from climate activist figurehead Greta Thunberg – and so they did: Over 200 health journals across the world have come together to simultaneously publish an editorial calling on world leaders to take emergency action to limit global temperature increases, halt the destruction of nature, and protect health. While recent targets to reduce…
A new paper co-written by a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign scholar who studies the legal and ethical implications of advanced biotechnologies outlines an unexplored tool to regulate the medically and ethically dubious practice of heritable human-genome editing: patent law.
Alongside the worldwide increase in longevity, inevitably with chronic health conditions rising, cardiovascular procedures and OR utilisation have surged. Thus the efficient and safe performance of surgeries is even more important. The intraoperative use of mobile C-arms increases accuracy, improving clinical outcomes, which can significantly reduce revision rates and thus overall healthcare…
Digital pathology (DP) is a game-changer in the workflow, functionality and accessibility of a hospital’s pathology department. As pathologists understand the benefits, and the availability of commercial products and systems increase, alongside data transmission and storage costs decreasing, DP deployment in hospitals is accelerating. Pathology informatics expert Anil V Parwani MD PhD discussed…
The risk of colorectal cancer can be predicted more accurately by determining seven blood-based micro-RNAs (miRNAs) than by using traditional methods - and can be done so many years before a diagnosis is made. In a current study, researchers from the German Cancer Research Center and the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Heidelberg show that miRNA profiles provide greater predictive…
A research team led by scientists in the labs of Jennifer Doudna, David Savage and Patrick Hsu at the University of California, Berkeley, is aiming to develop a rapid Covid-19 diagnostic test that is much faster and easier to deploy than qRT-PCR. It has now combined two different types of CRISPR enzymes to create an assay that can detect small amounts of viral RNA in less than an hour. Doudna…
Operating rooms are extremely complex, and the level of complexity is steadily increasing. This is reflected in the growing number of medical devices, on the one hand, and in the continuously increasing volume of data, on the other. Nowadays, surgical staff are confronted with a flood of highly specialised technology. The challenge is to create workplaces that are as uniform as possible and…
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.
Canon Medical announced the commercial launch of the Aplio i-series / Prism Edition, a complete redesign of its premium ultrasound series. In addition, Aplio a-series, Canon Medical’s routine-to-advanced imaging range has also received a significant refresh.
In the emerging era of personalized medicine, risk-based breast cancer screening protocols may be better than the one-size-fits all approach. It’s time to consider adopting them, Jack Cuzick, Ph.D., said in the President’s Address of the 2021 Society of Breast Imaging/American College of Radiology Breast Imaging Symposium.
A branch of artificial intelligence (AI), called machine learning, can accurately predict the risk of an out of hospital cardiac arrest--when the heart suddenly stops beating--using a combination of timing and weather data, finds research published online in the journal Heart. Machine learning is the study of computer algorithms, and based on the idea that systems can learn from data and identify…
The American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) and the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) have joined the International Contrast Ultrasound Society (ICUS) in recognizing the relatively low risk and important clinical benefits of ultrasound contrast agents (UCAs), which are used routinely around the world to help detect heart disease, stratify the risk of heart attack or stroke,…
A large study from Denmark and Norway published by The BMJ sheds more light on the risk of rare blood clots in adults receiving their first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. The findings show slightly increased rates of vein blood clots including clots in the veins of the brain, compared with expected rates in the general population. However, the researchers stress that the risk of…
Clinical diagnostics company Beckman Coulter announced the European launch of the DxA 5000 Fit, a workflow-automation solution designed to fit into medium-sized labs that run fewer than 5,000 tests a day. The clinical laboratory has gone through trial by fire in 2020, where total testing was 245% of baseline volumes, with ~55% being SARS-CoV-2 molecular tests. Despite vaccines, many industry…
The pandemic could challenge what little achievement has been made so far in the field, a prominent Spanish medical oncologist explained during the virtual European Lung Cancer Conference
Over the past decade, the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system has revolutionized genetic engineering, allowing scientists to make targeted changes to organisms’ DNA. While the system could potentially be useful in treating a variety of diseases, CRISPR-Cas9 editing involves cutting DNA strands, leading to permanent changes to the cell’s genetic material. Now, in a paper published online in Cell,…
Hyperpolarized MRI is a recent development and its research and application potential has yet to be fully explored. Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) have now unveiled a new technique for observing metabolic processes in the body. Their singlet-contrast MRI method employs easily-produced parahydrogen to track biochemical processes in…
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.
At this year's virtual ECR congress, Ziehm Imaging showcases its portfolio of mobile C-arms and advanced imaging solutions. Highlights on display include two clinical packages for cardio and vascular interventions based on the fully motorized Ziehm Vision RFD Hybrid Edition, that provide clinical users with state-of-the-art imaging support and further workflow integration. The virtual booth,…
The management of biopsied breast lesions that are diagnosed as abnormal but are not definitively malignant is challenging and controversial. Treatment ranges from diligent follow-up, with imaging and subsequent biopsy, to surgical excision. Researchers at the Medical University of Vienna (Medizinische Universität Wien), Austria, have developed and validated a software algorithm designed to…
Running a neurosurgery department when you’re a woman is rare enough, but if on top of that you’re a mother of three, you’re an exception. You’re also living proof that it is possible to combine a demanding profession with the challenging task of bearing and raising children. A leading Spanish neurosurgeon shared her experience to raise awareness during the recent EANS meeting.
Preventing air contamination in healthcare facilities is crucial to minimise the airborne spread of Covid-19 and its new strains. Universal masking, rigorous use of and safe disposal of PPE, plus building ventilation are vital. Twenty-four studies reporting hospital SARS-CoV-2 air contamination are summarised in a meta-analysis by a multi-institutional team of French researchers. These show that,…
Scientific and public health experts have been raising the alarm for decades, imploring public officials to prepare for the inevitability of a viral pandemic. Infectious epidemics seemingly as benign as "the flu" and as deadly as the Ebola virus provided ample warning, yet government officials seemed caught off guard and ill prepared for dealing with Covid-19.
A new EU-wide repository for health-related imaging data could boost development and marketing of AI tools for better cancer management. The open-source database will collect and harmonise images acquired from 40,000 patients, spanning different countries, modalities and equipment. This approach could eliminate one of the major bottlenecks in the clinical adoption of AI today: Data bias.
When cancer is confined to one spot in the body, doctors can often treat it with surgery or other therapies. Much of the mortality associated with cancer, however, is due to its tendency to metastasize, sending out seeds of itself that may take root throughout the body. The exact moment of metastasis is fleeting, lost in the millions of divisions that take place in a tumor. “These events are…
A team of scientists at the National University of Singapore (NUS) led by Dr Polly Leilei Chen from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore and Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine has discovered a previously unknown mechanism of cancer formation, the understanding of which may lead to more effective treatment. Their findings concern a process called RNA editing. The DNA code of a gene gets…
A study of nearly 108,000 people has found that people who regularly drink a modest amount of alcohol are at increased risk of atrial fibrillation, a condition where the heart beats in an abnormal rhythm. The study, published in the European Heart Journal, found that, compared to drinking no alcohol at all, just one alcoholic drink a day was linked to a 16% increased risk of atrial fibrillation…
The type and abundance of bacteria found in the mouth may be linked to lung cancer risk in non-smokers, finds the first study of its kind, published online in the journal Thorax.
A study of over a thousand cancer patients treated with immunotherapy drugs has found these patients are at greater risk of heart problems, including death from heart attack or stroke. The patients had either lung cancer or malignant melanoma (a type of skin cancer), for which immune checkpoint inhibitors such as a programmed cell death-1 (PD1) inhibitors or cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated…
At this year's virtual RSNA congress, Ziehm Imaging showcases its leading portfolio of mobile C-arms and advanced imaging solutions. Highlights on display include the Ziehm Vision RFD Hybrid Edition in combination with Therenva’s EndoNaut solution for advanced endovascular 3D intraoperative navigation as well as the Ziehm Vision RFD 3D, one of the most successful 3D mobile imaging solutions in…
Researchers at Tel Aviv University (TAU) have demonstrated that the CRISPR/Cas9 system is very effective in treating metastatic cancers, a significant step on the way to finding a cure for cancer.
Recent research in Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) has identified two enzymes that can detect Covid-19 RNA as simply as a pregnancy test Jesús Pla, an eminent microbiologist at the Complutense University in Madrid, explained in our exclusive interview. CRISPR technology could help alleviate workloads in packed hospitals and expand testing to primary care and…
As the leading supplier for tube identification and sorting devices, ASP Lab Automation AG designed the new generation of their tube sorter ASP SortPro for a throughput of 3.600 tubes per hour.
Convalescent plasma shows limited effectiveness as a potential treatment for patients with COVID-19 to help them fight off the infection, finds a clinical trial from India published by The BMJ. The findings show that convalescent plasma fails to reduce mortality or stop progression to severe COVID-19.
A new risk tool, developed by UK researchers to predict a person’s risk of being admitted to hospital and dying from COVID-19 has been published by The BMJ. With cases increasing in the UK and elsewhere, and winter approaching, there is an urgent need for reliable models that predict the likely course of COVID-19, to support decisions about shielding, hospital admission, treatment, and…
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 to Emmanuelle Charpentier from the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin, Germany, and Jennifer A. Doudna from the University of California, Berkeley, USA, “for the development of a method for genome editing”, more commonly known as the 'gene scissors' CRISPR/Cas9.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a flood of potentially substandard research amid the rush to publish, with a string of papers retracted or under a cloud and a surge in submissions to pre-print servers where fewer quality checks are made, a leading ethicist has warned in the Journal of Medical Ethics. This has implications for patients, clinicians, and potentially government policy, says…
The increased Covid-19 risk to cardiac patients was discussed during an online presentation at ECR 2020. Focusing on the prevalence of pulmonary embolism in Covid-19 patients, Dr Karl-Friedrich Kreitner, Professor of Radiology at the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at the Johannes-Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, discussed hypotheses which can explain cardiac…
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…
While about a quarter of physicians and researchers working in advanced heart failure (HF) and transplant cardiology are women, representation of women leading HF research remains limited, according to new research led by Penn Medicine. The authors say the findings point to a need to support great gender diversity among researchers to drive diversity among clinical trial participants and even…
Lack of understanding around Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has significantly slowed advances in the treatment of this incurable condition. Imaging has proved to be reliable in differentiating between AD and other forms of dementia, and its contribution will continue to help develop profiling, an increasingly interesting approach for the development of new and more efficient drugs, according to Sven…
Several thousand strains of bacteria live in the human gut. Some of these are associated with disease, while others have beneficial effects on human health. Figuring out the precise role of each of these bacteria can be difficult, because many of them can’t be grown in lab studies using human tissue. This difficulty is especially pronounced for species that cannot live in oxygen-rich…
Better outcomes, more favourable prognoses – oncologists and their lung cancer patients didn’t dare to dream about it. Finally, there might be hope. The so-called checkpoint inhibitors (immunotherapy drug) have been used successfully, albeit not for every patient. They are a double-edged sword, with risks as well as opportunities, as explained by Professor Cornelia Schäfer-Prokop.
Scientists in the life sciences can now benefit from upgrades to a suite of analytical software solutions with new features designed to enhance productivity, confidence and accuracy in numerous fields, including proteomics, food safety and biotherapeutic drug development. The latest suite of software strengthens laboratory workflows across a range of applications through expanded capabilities,…
As the coronavirus pandemic continues, face masks become a common sight in our everyday lives. However, there is still lots of room for individuality, as these photos prove. Enjoy!
A new way to deliver therapeutic proteins inside the body uses an acoustically sensitive carrier to encapsulate the proteins and ultrasound to image and guide the package to the exact location required, according to Penn State researchers.
The UK government should look to veterinary infectious disease know-how to end the current lockdown and abandon its financially ruinous strategy to manage the Covid-19 epidemic, argue two leading vets in a trenchant critique of official policy in this week’s Vet Record.
The number of cases tested positive for COVID-19 initially grew exponentially in China, but then slowed down. Dirk Brockmann, professor at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) and project group leader at the Robert Koch-Institut (RKI), and his postdoc Benjamin F. Maier have developed a diffusion model that takes into account the effect of social distancing and other measures to explain this…
Media reporting of suicide, especially celebrity suicides, is associated with increases in suicide in the general population, particularly by the same method as used by the celebrity, finds an analysis of the latest evidence published by The BMJ. The researchers say their findings support the continued use and promotion of guidelines on responsible media reporting of suicide, especially when…
The world’s first licensed, downloadable artificial pancreas app for people with type 1 diabetes now launched, based on over a decade of research by Professor Roman Hovorka at the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The CamAPS FX app works with an insulin pump and a glucose monitor to automatically deliver insulin to people living with the condition…
The 2020 edition of the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) in Vienna, which had been postponed due to safety concerns regarding COVID-19, will not take place on site this year. Instead, the congress organisers at the European Society of Radiology (ESR) opt for an online-only event: "It is with a heavy heart and much regret that the Board of Directors of the European Society of Radiology…
Biologists have discovered a way to stop cells from one of the most aggressive types of breast cancer spreading in the lab. The study points towards new avenues of research to combat the devastating disease. The results of the study of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer by the team from the Universities of Manchester, Glasgow and Sheffield and funded by Breast Cancer Now are published in Oncogene.…
Research into the novel Wuhan seafood market pneumonia virus, the deadly "coronavirus" that has forced the Chinese government to quarantine more than 50 million people in the country's dense industrial heartland, will be facilitated by the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute. The Genomics Institute's Genome Browser team has posted the complete biomolecular code of the virus for researchers…
Cystic lesions of the pancreas can occur in many forms, not all of which pose a serious threat to the patient. A thorough diagnosis using multi-modality imaging is therefore indispensable to differentiate between benign and malignant lesions.
This Christmas marks the 20th anniversary of the publication of “Magnetic resonance imaging of male and female genitals during coitus and female sexual arousal” in The BMJ. In its first year, it picked up the IgNobel prize for medicine, and has since become one of the most downloaded BMJ articles of all time. Dr Tony Delamothe, a former editor at The BMJ, ponders on its success.
Radiomics is one of the most exciting topics in radiology. It involves data and artificial intelligence (AI) but very few people know or understand the details. In her lecture ‘How does Radiomics work?’, presented at the German Radiology Congress in Leipzig, Professor Ulrike Attenberger outlined how radiomics will advance radiology but also the obstacles faced along the way.
Bringing the power of AI to routine imaging, Advanced intelligent Clear-IQ Engine (AiCE), Canon Medical’s Deep Learning Reconstruction (DLR) technology, is now being integrated across a broader portfolio of scanners with a wider range of clinical applications across modalities. Advanced intelligent Clear-IQ Engine (AiCE) was trained using vast amounts of high-quality image data, and features a…
More than one in ten cancer patients do not die from their cancer but from heart and blood vessel problems instead, according to new research published in the European Heart Journal. For some cancers, like breast, prostate, endometrial, and thyroid cancer, around half will die from cardiovascular disease (CVD). Dr Nicholas Zaorsky, a radiation oncologist, and Dr Kathleen Sturgeon, an assistant…
Artificial intelligence (AI) opens up a host of new diagnostic methods and treatments. Almost daily we read about physicians, researchers or companies that are developing an AI system to identify malignant lesions or dangerous cardiac patterns, or that can personalise healthcare. ‘Currently, we are too focused on the topic,’ observes Professor Christian Johner, of the Johner Institute for…
How will artificial intelligence (AI) affect continuing education and management in radiology? This issue was discussed by an expert panel at the ESR AI Premium meeting in Barcelona. Continuing education – It must be clear what radiologists need to learn about AI; one way to go could be to give it more space in the training curriculum, according to Elmar Kotter, deputy director of the radiology…
A team from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has developed a new CRISPR genome-editing approach by combining two of the most important proteins in molecular biology – CRISPR-Cas9 and a reverse transcriptase – into a single machine. The system, called “prime editing,” is capable of directly editing human cells in a precise, efficient, and highly versatile fashion. The approach…
More than 1,125,000 men around the world have the inherited bleeding disorder of hemophilia, and 418,000 of those have a severe version of the mostly undiagnosed disease, says a new study led by McMaster researchers. This is three times what was previously known. Only 400,000 people globally were estimated to have the disorder which is caused by a defect in the F8 or F9 gene which encodes…
Researchers at ETH Zurich have refined the famous CRISPR-Cas method. Now, for the very first time, it is possible to modify dozens, if not hundreds, of genes in a cell simultaneously. The biotechnological method CRISPR-Cas offers a relatively quick and easy way to manipulate single genes in cells, meaning they can be precisely deleted, replaced or modified. Furthermore, in recent years,…
Olympus and Cytosurge AG, developer of the disruptive and patented FluidFM technology, announced their collaboration to significantly expand the awareness and availability of the FluidFM BOT* – a cutting-edge system for single cell manipulation and live cell imaging – in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). By pooling together each other’s world-class competences and by listening to…
A genetic mutation that a Chinese scientist attempted to create in twin babies born last year, ostensibly to help them fend off HIV infection, is also associated with a 21% increase in mortality in later life, according to an analysis by scientists from UC Berkeley. The researchers scanned more than 400,000 genomes and associated health records contained in a British database, UK Biobank, and…
Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh have used gene-editing techniques to stop the bird flu virus from spreading, in chicken cells grown in the lab.
Help for patients with sickle cell disease may soon come from gene editing to fix the mutation that causes the disease and boost the patient's own protective fetal hemoglobin.
A proof-of-principle study shows that gold nanoparticles loaded with CRISPR and other gene-editing tools safely and effectively edited blood stem cells.
The latest issue of Greiner Bio-One's (GBO) customer magazine bioLOGICAL is out now. The third edition of the magazine contains exciting articles about arterial and venous catheter as well as the General Data Protection Regulation in health care section. On a trip to Helsingborg, GBO introduces Vigmed and its products. The Swedish company was taken over by Greiner Bio-One in 2017.
More than 16 years of experience in the complex matter of workflows within clinical labs leads to the latest generation of ASP SortPro tube sorter. To make the investment in sorting devices efficient, these must be integrated perfectly into the workflow. The ASP team sold hundreds of tube sorters to clinical labs and hospitals worldwide. In all these installations the German engineers have…
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,…
Half of patients prescribed statins in primary care fail to reach ‘healthy’ cholesterol levels after two years of treatment with these drugs, reveals research published online in the journal Heart. The findings back up those of previous studies, and highlight the need for personalised medicine to tackle high cholesterol and lower the significantly increased risks of future heart disease and…
Tinnitus, more commonly known as ringing in the ears, is a serious audiological and neurological condition affecting nearly 50 million Americans. Noise and music exposure are the predominant environmental risk factors for tinnitus. There is no known cure, and there are no FDA-approved medications developed specifically to treat it. The fact is, tinnitus is very common but not well understood. A…
In the last six years, a tool called CRISPR-Cas9 has transformed genetic research, allowing scientists to snip and edit DNA strands at precise locations like a pair of tiny scissors. But sometimes, it takes more than scissors to do the job. Now, a collaborative international team has unveiled a new CRISPR-based tool that acts more like a shredder, able to wipe out long stretches of DNA in human…
For some cancers, initial treatment with chemotherapy brings positive, but only temporary, results: tumors shrink, but then rebound as the cancer becomes drug-resistant. This pattern of remission-resistance-relapse is particularly true for pancreatic cancer, an aggressive disease in which early success is often countered by eventual disease progression. To wit: The one-year relative survival rate…
During our interview with Professor Felice Eugenio Agrò, Professor, Director and Chairman of the Postgraduate School in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, he spoke of the use of Mindray’s TE7 ultrasound system, which provides a touchscreen and focused exam pre-sets. ‘Anaesthesiologists are seeking safe and accurate methods during procedures. Many…
UC San Francisco researchers have for the first time transformed human stem cells into mature insulin-producing cells, a major breakthrough in the effort to develop a cure for type 1 (T1) diabetes. Replacing these cells, which are lost in patients with T1 diabetes, has long been a dream of regenerative medicine, but until now scientists had not been able to figure out how to produce cells in a…
How can we detect the first signs of disease as early as possible? Could closer investigation at the cellular level help to quickly prevent disease progression through appropriate treatment? The European Union is now investing a million euros over a one-year period to devise the plan for a fundamentally new approach to understanding the constant changes within cells and their relationships to one…
Brain imaging in patients with cognitive complaints need to be viewed differently when using MRI to diagnose and treat patients with dementia, says Dr. Christopher Hess, who will discuss the role of MRI in the adjunctive diagnosis of dementia in his talk at the Garmisch Symposium. In addition, general radiologists need to recognize the important findings related to dementia when making a…
The European Society of Pathology (ESP) holds its European Congress of Pathology (ECP) at different venues annually. This year, in Spain, 3,448 delegates from 87 countries attended. There, ESP president Dina Tiniakos spoke about the increasing role of pathology in precision medicine including challenges linked to digitisation. ‘Precision medicine is the centre-point for cancer management, but…
The claim of a chinese professor has caused quite a controversy: He Jiankui announced that he successfully modified human DNA to prevent two girls from contracting HIV. Upon the leak of this research, ethicists and scientists alike condemned Jiankui's gene editing in humans. West Virginia University Vice President and Executive Dean for Health Sciences Dr. Clay Marsh says that although “a lot…
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.
Scientists of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) have now dissected the precise molecular mechanisms of WAVE complex activation, occurring in a process involving separable, independent steps.
The CRISPR genome editing technique promises to be a "transformative leap" in genetic engineering and therapy, affecting almost every area of medicine. That includes plastic surgery, with potential advances ranging from prevention of craniofacial malformations, to therapeutic skin grafts, to new types of rejection-free transplants, according to a paper in the November issue of Plastic…
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) has become an important adjunct to clinical diagnosis and procedural guidance in the Pediatric Emergency Department (PED), supported by literature demonstrating that its use can improve patient safety and expedite life-saving care. POCUS further helps to reduce costs and children’s exposure to ionizing radiation. Not only is POCUS ideally suited for…
'Image Computing, including image analysis, artificial intelligence, artificial neural networks und deep learning, is starting a revolution,’ says Dr Paul Suetens, professor of Medical Imaging and Image Processing at University Hospital Leuven. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not new – research in this field was carried out as far back as the 1950s – but, whilst in the early days AI learnt…
Cancer cells often have mutations in their DNA that can give scientists clues about how the cancer started or which treatment may be most effective. Finding these mutations can be difficult, but a new method may offer more complete, comprehensive results. A team of researchers has developed a new framework that can combine three existing methods of finding these large mutations - or structural…
Neurologist who coined the phrase "Time is Brain" says message is not so simple anymore. Rather there should be no hard-and-fast rule governing when therapy can be given because strokes progress differently in different patients.
Beckman Coulter announced commercialization of its DxM MicroScan WalkAway system, a diagnostic solution for bacterial identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing for microbiology laboratories. The DxM MicroScan WalkAway system uses direct minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) for detection of antimicrobial resistance, offering greater confidence in results through gold-standard…
Austrian researchers have accomplished an astounding feat: They created organoids that mimic the onset of brain cancer. This method not only sheds light on the complex biology of human brain tumors but could also pave the way for new medical applications.
A scientist has discovered a gene-editing technology that could efficiently and accurately correct the genetic defects that underlie certain diseases, positioning the new tool as the basis for the next generation of genetic therapies.
CRISPR has recently become synonymous with precise genetic editing. However, the mighty tool has been known to fail from time to time. Now, researchers have found out why.
Using a new computational strategy, researchers have identified 29 genetic changes that can contribute to an aggressive childhood cancer. Their work helps to explain “the engine” driving formation of rhabdomyosarcoma and suggests potential treatments.
Burn-out, depression, heavy drinking: Surgeon's seem to be in deep trouble, according to an editorial published in the Journal of ISAKOS (JISAKOS). It is high time for the profession to fix this problem itself before the government steps in, urges leading surgeon Professor Niek van Dijk of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, citing various published studies - and offers solutions on how to…
Researchers have shown for the first time that a form of artificial intelligence or machine learning known as a deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) is better than experienced dermatologists at detecting skin cancer. In a study published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology, researchers in Germany, the USA and France trained a CNN to identify skin cancer by showing it more…
Laboratory networks are consolidating across the globe as they seek to deliver a more efficient and cost effective service. The latest developments on several continents were outlined at the FiLM 2018 – Frontiers in Laboratory Medicine congress held in Birmingham, UK in January. With consolidation viewed as a way to deliver economies of scale, it was a recurring theme at the congress with…
“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.
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.
The mass pursuit of a conspicuous suspect in Alzheimer’s disease may have encumbered research success for decades. Now, a new data analysis that has untangled evidence amassed in years of Alzheimer’s studies encourages researchers to refocus their investigations. Heaps of plaque formed from amyloid-beta that accumulate in afflicted brains are what stick out under the microscope in tissue…
A powerful genome editing tool can be deployed as an ace DNA detective, able to sniff out DNA snippets that signal viral infections, cancer, or even defective genes. This genetic detective, developed in the laboratory of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator Jennifer Doudna at the University of California, Berkeley, uses the genome-slicing system known as CRISPR. By combining the…
The International Forum Bulmedica /Buldental will be held from 16 to 18 May at Inter Expo Center - Sofia, Bulgaria
UCLA researchers have developed the first map of gene regulation in human neurogenesis, the process by which neural stem cells turn into brain cells and the cerebral cortex expands in size. The scientists identified factors that govern the growth of our brains and, in some cases, set the stage for several brain disorders that appear later in life. The human brain differs from that of mice and…
Testing the level of caffeine in the blood may provide a simple way to aid the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, according to a study published in the online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found that people with Parkinson’s disease had significantly lower levels of caffeine in their blood than people without the disease, even if they…
Using molecular scissors wrapped in a greasy delivery package, researchers have disrupted a gene variant that leads to deafness in mice. A single treatment involving injection of a genome editing cocktail prevented progressive hearing loss in young animals that would have otherwise gone deaf, Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator David Liu and colleagues report in the journal…
Scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have developed a new strategy to efficiently isolate, mature and transplant skeletal muscle cells created from human pluripotent stem cells, which can produce all cell types of the body. The findings are a major step towards developing a stem cell replacement therapy for muscle diseases including Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which…
You may know that your surgeon is using the latest minimally invasive technology for your surgery, but how do you know if they’ve mastered it? To help answer that question, researchers at Keck Medicine of USC looked to a custom recording tool similar in concept to a flight recorder on an airplane. When attached to a robotic surgery system during radical prostatectomy procedures, the most common…
- 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.
A research team in the United States has developed a revolutionary technique that has encoded an image and short film in living cells. Scientists at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and Harvard Medical School (HMS) used CRISPR gene editing to encode the image and film in DNA, using this as a medium to store information and produce a code that relates to the individual…
After this year's successful 1st congress about Emerging Technologies in Medicine (ETIM) in Essen, the organizing committee sets the stage for the second edition in February 16/17, 2018. This year, the event is dedicated to the role of artificial intelligence and robotics in medicine.
Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have identified cells in the upper digestive tract that can give rise to Barrett’s esophagus, a precursor to esophageal cancer. The discovery of this “cell of origin” promises to accelerate the development of more precise screening tools and therapies for Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma, the fastest growing form of…
A long-term study of nearly 3,000 adults, aged 57 to 85, found that those who could not identify at least four out of five common odors were more than twice as likely as those with a normal sense of smell to develop dementia within five years. Although 78 percent of those tested were normal – correctly identifying at least four out of five scents – about 14 percent could name just three out…
Modifying a DNA sequence to alter a cell to cure a disorder, prevent a genetic disease being passed on to next generations, or to use genetic modification as a way to diagnose a virus: yes, these tasks are possible. The recently discovered CRISPR technique can do it all.
Electrospun materials bring a spark of hope to a cardiovascular landscape darkened by setbacks for reabsorbable stents. It was famously said that implanting a device in a person to cure a disease is to implant a new disease. Simply put, the human body will continually fight against foreign materials, leading to chronic inflammations or repeated interventions.
Shielding cardiologists from harmful radiation is the goal for two systems capable of navigating the vascular highway.
One in ten CT scanners and one in five MRI scanners are technically obsolete. Radiologists are sounding the alarm. In 2008, around 60% of all CT scanners and 55% of all MRI scanners were up to five years old; 31% of all CT scanners and 32% of all MRI scanners were between five and ten years old; 9% of all CT scanners and 16% of all MRI scanners were over ten years old.
Genomic Health announced that the 15th St. Gallen International Breast Cancer Conference Expert Panel endorsed the use of genomic tests in early-stage breast cancer and recognised the Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score test for its prognostic ability as well as its value in guiding treatment decisions on adjuvant chemotherapy for patients with early-stage, endocrine sensitive, invasive breast…
By 2040, there will be over 1.2 million people living with dementia in England and Wales, an increase of 57 per cent from 2016. The rise is largely due to increased life expectancy say researchers in The BMJ today.
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…
Scientists on the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have improved a state-of-the-art gene-editing technology to advance the system’s ability to target, cut and paste genes within human and animal cells—and broadening the ways the CRISPR-Cpf1 editing system may be used to study and fight human diseases.
A vaccine to immunise people against high levels of cholesterol and the narrowing of the arteries caused by build-up of fatty material (atherosclerosis) may be possible following successful results in mice. Now, a phase I trial in patients has started to see if the findings translate to humans.
According to Darwin, humans will one day become extinct. Some don’t think we need to accept this fate because gene editing may allow us to use our brains to take over the evolutionary story.
Toshiba Medical proudly announces its 2nd MRI User Meeting in collaboration with Clinica Creu Blanca in Barcelona on 22 & 23 September 2017 (at Camp Nou FC Barcelona, Spain). At this MRI User Meeting, international experts will share their experiences and clinical solutions for successful diagnostic imaging in Women's and Men's Healthcare.
All cancer tumors have one thing in common – they must feed themselves to grow and spread, a difficult feat since they are usually in a tumor microenvironment with limited nutrients and oxygen. A study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has revealed new details about how an enzyme called acetyl-CoA synthetase 2 (ACSS2) allows brain tumors to grow despite their harsh…
About six years ago, liquid biopsy appeared on the diagnostic lab stage. Last December, a seminar offered by Agena Bioscience in Frankfurt, Germany, was set to explore the enormous potential of this new technique for oncology.
Leading clinicians, scientists, academics and crossbench peers have urged a radical rethink of the approach to health in the United Kingdom.
The age of the installed base of medical imaging equipment is continuing to decline dramatically, placing patients at avoidable risk. To draw attention to this deterioration in equipment and the potentially serious consequences, COCIR is launching a new infographic at the 3rd edition of the EuroSafe Imaging presence at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR).
Older patients who see the same general practitioner over time experience fewer avoidable admissions to hospital for certain conditions, finds a study published by The BMJ today.
Germany’s hospital emergency departments run up a loss of more than one billion euros every year. According to Dr Thomas Fleischmann, specialist in the reorganisation of emergency departments, care for emergency patients rakes up a loss of about one billion euros every year.
Financial ties between researchers and companies that make the drugs they are studying are independently associated with positive trial results, suggesting bias in the evidence base, concludes a study published by The BMJ today.
Mechanical ventilation and subspecialisation are key aspects of modern anaesthesia and critical care practice according to Dr Javier Garcia Fernandez, Head of Critical Care and Anaesthesiology at University Hospital Puerta de Hierro in Madrid.
This week, The BMJ launches a new series called ‘Rapid Recommendations,’ a collaboration with an international group of researchers and doctors, working together with patients, to quickly and reliably transform research evidence into clinical practice recommendations.
As part of a national, joint research project in cooperation with Chronix Biomedical (San Jose, CA/USA/Göttingen/Germany), Professor Michael Oellerich MD is on new biomarkers in organ transplantation, aiming to develop personalised immunosuppression for patients. This also entails the development of molecular test procedures, among others for the early detection of rejection. The keyword here is…
At Europe’s most prestigious medical conferences, as many as half of the doctors attending are only there because of the generous sponsorship by pharmaceutical and medical technology companies. The practice has been going on for decades, to the point that continuing medical education (CME) in Europe is heavily dependent on the largess of these companies. In 2018 it all comes to an end when a…
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.
Medical professionals have long known that the buildup of plaque in arteries can cause them to narrow and harden, potentially leading to a whole host of health problems — including heart attack, heart disease and stroke. While high blood pressure and artery stiffness are often associated with plaque buildup, new research from engineers at Washington University in St. Louis shows they are not…
The equivalent of HD or Ultra-HD for home television and video is now entering the world of medicine. Although 4K technology with its high-resolution display quality is already used in radiology, there are areas that do not yet benefit from this advanced technology.
As scientists scramble to get a Zika virus vaccine into human trials by the end of the summer, a team of researchers is working on the first-ever vaccine to prevent another insect-borne disease – Leishmaniasis – from gaining a similar foothold in the Americas.
Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced it has received two prestigious R&D Magazine 100 awards – one for its lab water purification systems, and the other for a technology that allows researchers to investigate scientific questions they previously couldn’t address.
As new scientific discoveries deepen our understanding of how cancer develops in children, doctors and other healthcare providers face challenges in better using that knowledge to guide treatment and counsel families and patients. In addition, as more children continue to survive pediatric cancer, that counseling may extend into a patient’s adulthood and old age.
A banana a day may not keep the doctor away, but a substance originally found in bananas and carefully edited by scientists could someday fight off a wide range of viruses, new research suggests. And the process used to create the virus-fighting form may help scientists develop even more drugs, by harnessing the “sugar code” that our cells use to communicate. That code gets hijacked by…
When a Lake Malawi cichlid loses a tooth, a new one drops neatly into place as a replacement. Why can't humans similarly regrow teeth lost to injury or disease?
It is estimated that half of all cancer patients suffer from a muscle wasting syndrome called cachexia. Cancer cachexia impairs quality of life and response to therapy, which increases morbidity and mortality of cancer patients. Currently, there is no approved treatment for muscle wasting but a new study from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and University…
For patients with an often-deadly form of leukemia, new research suggests that lingering cancer-related mutations – detected after initial treatment with chemotherapy – are associated with an increased risk of relapse and poor survival.
The DGKL publishes a Translation of the Quality Standards for Medical Laboratories of the German Chamber of Physicians (RiLiBÄK). Report: Prof. Dr. Michael Neumaier
Within 15 years effective antibiotics will run out and, far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, a world in which common infections and minor injuries can kill is a very real possibility for the 21st Century. Geoff Sussman, one of the world’s foremost wound experts has warned that antibiotic resistance is posing the biggest single threat to global health. Report: Mark Nicholls
Researchers at Columbia University have reported a new approach to visualize glucose uptake activity in single living cells by light microscopy with minimum disturbance.
Chemists at Caltech have developed a new sensitive technique capable of detecting colorectal cancer in tissue samples—a method that could one day be used in clinical settings for the early diagnosis of colorectal cancer.
New research in The FASEB Journal suggests that clinical trials of omega-3 and antioxidant supplementation should be undertaken for people with Alzheimer's disease with mild clinical impairment.
It may come as a bit of a surprise to learn that bacteria have an immune system – in their case to fight off invasive viruses called phages. And like any immune system – from single-celled to human – the first challenge of the bacterial immune system is to detect the difference between “foreign” and “self.” This is far from simple, as viruses, bacteria and all other living things…
“I am very concerned about the impact that Angelina Jolie has on the media,” Walter Rocca, professor of epidemiology and neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, stated. He wasn’t hinting to Jolie’s acting choices or waifish silhouette, but to the confusion surrounding her decision to remove her ovaries to prevent ovarian cancer. By Mélisande Rouger
Scientists from the Hubrecht Institute and the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMC Utrecht) have developed a cell culture model of human colon cancer progression. This model mimics the situation in patients more closely than any other colon cancer model so far. It enables researchers to study processes involved in colon cancer development and find new cancer drugs.
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
Each year, approximately 1.6 million women in the USA have breast biopsies to diagnose or rule out cancer. Pathological diagnosis is considered the gold standard – how accurate are these diagnoses? Report: Cynthia E. Keen
Prescribing antibiotics for a viral infection with fever, a cold and a cough? There is no point! This is the best-known example of over-use in medicine. There are also numerous examples of diagnostic procedures and therapies that are pointless, yet still being doled out in surgeries and hospitals – sometimes even harming a patient. This is set to change, according to the German Society of…
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.
At ECR 2015 Siemens Healthcare introduces its new hand-carried Acuson P500 ultrasound system, Frosk edition.
Researchers at the Hubrecht Institute and the University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht successfully developed a culturing system for human liver stem cells as well as stem cells from pancreatic cancer. They describe the development of these culturing systems in two articles in this week’s edition of Cell magazine.
Taking antibiotics for diarrhea may put travelers visiting developing parts of the world at higher risk for contracting superbugs and spreading these daunting drug-resistant bacteria to their home countries, according to a new study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases and now available online.
The very first successful organ donation from a newborn to be carried out in the UK is reported in the Fetal & Neonatal Edition of Archives of Disease in Childhood. The donor was a girl born at term after an emergency caesarean section in the neonatal unit of Hammersmith Hospital, London. The donation involved the kidneys, which were transplanted into a patient with renal failure, and liver…
On the occasion of the 100th edition of Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), the largest international event in the field of radiology, Thales is proud to announce the launch of new innovative products.
If you were lucky – or unlucky – enough to have visited a medical central lab 20, 30 or even 40 years ago and know how such a facility looks today, you will probably think you are in some kind of time warp.
‘Why should something that works for the automotive industry not also facilitate leaner processes in pathology?’ Walter Depner decided to look at The Institute of Pathology in Bern, Switzerland, where the concept was tested for three years.
‘There are aspects of the heart’s physiology that we know about, but now we can see them, and this is absolutely different,’ said Patrizio Lancellotti, President of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging.
The heart is a structure in three dimensions and today we see it in three dimensions,’ Jose Luis Zamorano Gomez MD declared with satisfaction.
Medical technology still is among the fastest growing industries worldwide. However, the growth of the demand volume even in emerging markets is less based on volume expansion but more driven by targeted investments in modern systems and procedures.
Two things that radiologists resist – structured reporting and (computer-assisted) quantification – are the very things that Gabriel Krestin believes are essential to advance diagnosis in the brave new world of omic-medicine that is emerging.
Hybrid operating theatres that combine conventional surgical tools with image-guided diagnostic tools, allow cardiologists and cardiac surgeons to perform minimally invasive surgery (MIS).
The CMEF autumn show turned out to attract crowds from China, East and Central Asia, Africa, Europe, the U.S., and further regions.
Although traditionally exporting timber and machinery, today Finland has established itself as a producer of high-tech products. This includes innovative medical technology.
‘Cardiology is one of the most innovative medical disciplines. Many modern technologies, such as catheterisations or imaging procedures, were triggered by cardiology,’ declared Professor Dr Gerald Maurer MD.
Cardiologists believe they can restore coronary arteries thanks to a new generation of stents that help the body to strengthen collapsed vessels. Elsewhere, patients’ own stem cells are being programmed to rebuild cardiac muscle in HF patients.
Bayer HealthCare supports local projects under the "Excellence across Borders" program in order to improve care of people with diabetes. Among the projects is a Diabetic School Awareness Program in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is planned to start in autumn this year.
A UK study has highlighted the issue of patients waking up from a general anaesthetic while undergoing surgery. The research, which questioned more than 7,100 consultant anaesthetists, revealed that there was about one episode of accidental awareness in every 15,000 general anaesthetics cases in the three million UK operations in 2011.
Belgium – Last year, the annual ISICEM event attracted almost 6,000 participants from 101 countries. Its chairman, Professor Jean-Louis Vincent, from the Intensive Care Medicine Department in Erasme University Hospital, Brussels, offered EH a few reasons for its continuing success.
Now central to most medical and policy-making discussions, cross-border healthcare, telemedicine and e-health are a top priority on the EU’s healthcare agenda, and most Member States are working to develop viable systems in this field
CT scanners now nicely cover morphology. The challenge is moving to CT functional imaging without frying patients
Whether it was a constitution of sorts writ on cavernous rock at the dawn of mankind no one knows. What is clear is that since the inception of the first rudimentary societies the male always expected to rule and the female to follow and obey.
No one wants to be admitted to a hospital because the food is good. Yet, following discharge, one of the first things the patient is asked is, ‘How was the food?’ as if the medical treatment is of secondary interest.
The new Aquilion ONE ViSION is the widest, fastest, thinnest-slice CT ever built, capable to pushing both anatomical and functional studies to new levels.
An echocardiography system that conveniently slips into a coat pocket, this kind of miniature device is now commercially available. Portable ultrasound has been around for about a decade, but until recently the machines were about the size of a laptop rather than that of a smart-phone
With increasing awareness of X-ray dose and image quality, the market for mobile C-arm X-ray equipment has potential to transition to flat panel detector (FPD) technology.
Ultrasound is enthusiastically embraced by cardiologists in guidelines as essential for evaluating a patient's heart. Now visualisation of 3-D wall motion takes ultrasound to a higher level, opening a new understanding of heart mechanics
Artificial vascular trees, the growing of heart tissue, nerve regeneration: The World Congress of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) held in Vienna this October offered an impressive display of current developments in tissue reconstruction and regeneration, Michael Krassnitzer reports
The biggest cause of death for most adult women in industrialised nations is coronary heart disease (CHD). Why the disease affects the genders differently is still not fully understood. European Hospital Editor Brigitte Dinkloh asked Professor Rafaelle Bugiardini MD FESC, from the Department of Internal Medicine Department, University of Bologna, whether he could explain the reasons and what…
A new generation of cardiovascular implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) includes the Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD), Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy Defibrillator (CRT-Ds) and Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy Pacemakers (CRT-Ps). Professor W R Bauer at University Hospital Würzburg has been significantly involved in their development, EH Editor Ralf Mateblowski to ask him about…
A new genre of medical tests - which determine whether a medicine is right for a patient's genes - are paving the way for increased use of personalized medicine, according to the cover story in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News. C&EN is the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society.
This congress was a celebration, marking 20 years since the founding of ESTI, which began as a small group of founding members and has grown to become thriving society contributing to the education in Europe and encouraging worldwide.
“The powerful capabilities for thoracic imaging can often be sufficient to make a diagnosis to treat the patient,” notes Philippe Grenier, MD. If CT findings, for example, are typical for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, there should no longer a need for a biopsy, which is good for the patient.
Meeting with EH editor Brigitte Dinkloh, Congress Secretary Professor Alexis Ulrich MD (left), Assistant Medical Director at the Clinic for General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery at the University of Heidelberg, outlined the scientific programme, discussed some impressive advances in surgical procedures, and explained why the gathering bears the slogan Surgery in Partnership.
Among the area’s top cardiac and vascular disease specialist hospitals, Arizona Heart has invested in several technological advancements over the past year, including Ziehm Imaging’s digital flat panel C-arms for its three advanced technology suites.
Health-promoting laughter… As our year ends amid depressing global economic uncertainty, budget and staff cutbacks, threats to healthcare workers’ pensions and much else, some events shine brightly through, writes EH Editor Brenda Marsh. ‘These confirm that vision, courage and laughter can indeed cure many ills’
iSOFT Radiology reporting has been upgraded with complementary and double mammography reporting. This upgrade is available to iSOFT RIS users with immediate effect. The new workplace profile contains reports for correction and release, as well as the examinations to be appraised.
Collaborations between Johns Hopkins and National Taiwan University researchers have successfully manipulated the life span of common, single-celled yeast organisms by figuring out how to remove and restore protein functions related to yeast aging.
In an interview with Daniela Zimmermann, Professor Jerzy Walecki explained the implications of that role and the state of radiology in Poland today.
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.’
Agfa HealthCare announces today it has teamed up with Schiller America Inc., a leading international manufacturer and supplier of electrocardiographs, stress and cardiopulmonary exercise testing, long-term ambulatory Holter ECG and blood pressure recorders, spirometers, medical IT solutions, patient monitors and external defibrillators.
World of Ultrasound met Prof. Ioan Sporea, Prof. Gebhard Mathis and Prof. Byung Ihn Choi to ask them three questions.
Rapid and accurate acquisition of basic diagnostic information through the innovative concept of point of care ultrasound can have significant benefits for patient outcome, costs, reducing mortality and medical-legal risk scenarios. These benefits of point-of-care (POC) ultrasound will be highlighted during a WFUMB session by Italian critical care physician Professor Luca Neri, founder and past…
Lung ultrasound is a technique with widespread uses and advantages in a range of areas from critical care through to less urgent medical areas. Most of all, it is of particular help in the rapid diagnosis of acute respiratory failure. During a session at WFUMB, its benefits and the latest techniques will be outlined by medical intensivist Dr Daniel Lichtenstein -- Lung Ultrasound in Acute…
France – Re-opening clogged arteries with metal stents has proved a life-saver for a majority of patients with coronary disease. Yet the high rates of complications and mortality for patients with diabetes following a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) continue to baffle cardiologists. Report: John Brosky
Researchers the world over are advancing positron emission tomography (PET) as an effective method of early detection for Alzheimer’s disease, a currently incurable and deadly neurological disorder. Three studies presented at SNM’s 58th Annual Meeting are providing new insights into the development of Alzheimer’s disease while opening the door to future clinical screening and treatments.
Innovative mobile C-arm solutions by Nuremberg-based Ziehm Imaging are quickly conquering interventional radiology. At this year‘s European Congress of Radiology in Vienna, Martin Herzmann, Director of Global Marketing at Ziehm Imaging, met with EH correspondent Karoline Laarmann to discuss developments.
Focused exclusively on the rapidly growing field of laboratory automation, Lab Automation 2011will discuss and demonstrate the latest scientific and technological advances in this field. Presented by the Laboratory Automation Section (LAS) of the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), the event is expected to attract more than 4,000 scientists, academics and business leaders.
The project consortium Alarm has developed new software to enable a computer-assisted triage-system for mass accidents and catastrophes. Torsten Schröder, emergency physician at the Charité Clinic for Anaesthesiology, with the focus on operative Intensive Care Medicine in Berlin, gave a mid-term review of the project and explained the advantages of the IT-supported triage-system for…
7,000 people from 120 countries met in Stockholm this September to hear international experts discuss the progress, solutions and challenges of one of our greatest healthcare burdens. Prevention, self-monitoring, surgery, guidelines, economic problems, drug-safety, and co-morbidities – these are just a few of the problems associated with the care of about 55 million diabetics in Europe.
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…
In the historical city of Gouda, in the Netherlands, the 441-bed Groene Hart Ziekenhuis (Green Heart Medical Centre) employs about 150 doctors and serves a local population of 450,000 people. Last September it became the first hospital in Europe to install the new Carestream Cardiology PACS. Launched in 2009, the PACS provides a single integrated platform for diagnosis, reporting, storage and…
Early problems of ultra-high field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) have been overcome by successful development of adequate hardware. In consequence big efforts have been achieved in structural imaging, as well in functional imaging. Basic scientists and physicians who work in ultra-high-field MRI in Europe and the USA, met at the Berlin Ultra-high-field Facility (BUFF), in the Max Dehlbrück…
The landmark achievements in interventional cardiology that are rapidly advancing minimally invasive surgeries (MIS) on a beating heart were demonstrated during a Paris course on revascularisation (EuroPCR), the annual meeting of the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI).
Specialist medical training programmes should retain some flexibility to help trainee doctors make the right career choices, according to a study published on bmj.com. Some UK medical graduates choose a specialty as soon as they qualify and others after a few years of postgraduate work. But changes to postgraduate medical training mean that junior doctors will generally have to make choices…
Advanced endoscopes have already transformed certain surgical procedures. Thanks to minimally invasive surgery (MIS), such as NOTES (Natural Orifice Translumental Endoscopic Surgery), even bowel resection can be relatively scar-less. Such procedures are entering gastroenterology, as presented at the 40th Congress of the German Society of Endoscopy this March.
Scientists have determined that chronic wounds might have trouble healing because of the actions of a tiny piece of a molecular structure in cells known as RNA. The Ohio State University researchers discovered in a new animal study that this RNA segment in wounds with limited blood flow lowers the production of a protein that is needed to encourage skin cells to grow and close over the sore.
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…
At the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) 2010 in Vienna, Siemens Healthcare presented its innovative ultrasound solutions. The highlight this year was the new release of its premium Acuson S2000 ultrasound system featuring significant advancements in ARFI technology (Acoustic Radiation Force Imaging) for the detection and quantification of tissue. Combined with a 3D breast volume scanner…
In type 2 diabetes, which is occurring at alarming rates, the hormone insulin does not work effectively to lower blood sugars and patients also do not make enough insulin. These two processes have been widely considered as separate. However, a surprising discovery was made by Joslin Diabetes Center researchers in animal models of diabetes: insulin is important in regulating its own production.…
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,…
Karen Dente reports on a feverish summer for reformers
During the race to produce vaccines against evolving influenza viruses the slowness of their manufacture has turned producers more sharply towards cell culture technology. Using the traditional process, fertilised chicken eggs must first be inoculated with live flu virus, then the resulting egg-adapted virus must be purified and inactivated to produce trivalent inactivated virus (TIV), during…
Concerns over whether the tests a treatment undergoes before general release are enough to ensure its long-term safety have been raised in an editorial by Dr Vijay Sharma, Clinical Editor of BMJ Clinical Evidence. He suggests that treatments should be introduced gradually so that evidence can be built up and the treatment can find its proper niche.
Toshiba America Medical Systems, Inc. introduces two advanced multi-detector CT systems, the Aquilion Premium edition and the Aquilion CX edition. The Aquilion Premium rounds out the company's CT portfolio to include a product with 160-detector rows and coverage up to 8 cm in a single rotation.
Agfa HealthCare has released the latest version of its IMPAX HeartStation, a comprehensive management system for electrocardiograms (ECGs). Built on standards-based architecture, the system supports most existing and new ECG devices, integrating easily with the legacy hospital and clinic IT infrastructure and ECG workflow, Agfa reports.
More for less: Driving up performance in acute care
The vast majority of the radiologist's work is now either made possible, or assisted, by computer technology. However, the full significance of that role is to be explored by leading radiologists and computer experts at the ECR Congress 2009.
A transatlantic survey of more than a thousand healthcare professionals has shown that over a third are unwittingly putting personal information at risk by storing patient records, medical images, contact details, corporate data and other sensitive information on mobile devices such as laptops, BlackBerrys and USB sticks - and not adequately securing them.
A new website - www.RadiologyCases.com - has been launched to present publications and education for radiologists.
The Old Dominion University in Virginia and Regensburg University Medical Center in Germany are jointly organizing an international conference to discuss recent advances and strategic needs in personalised healthcare (pHealth) care and to foster collaboration between industry and academia.
There can be many reasons why a person might have relationship problems, but now Swedish scientists at Medical University Karolinska Institutet found a specific gene variant that is associated with how men bond to their partners. The insights can lead to a better understanding of such problems as autism and social phobia.
St. Jude Medical, Inc. has received European CE Mark approval and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its Epicor LP cardiac ablation system, a second generation technology that uses HIFU (high intensity focused ultrasound) for surgical ablation of cardiac tissue to disrupt abnormal cardiac electrical impulses.
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.
With the help of an engineered common cold virus spreadings of prostate cancer in the pelvic lymph nodes can be visualised with a PET scanner. It is now possible to treat the cancer in an early stage. But the developers of the virus from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center see a chance to even use it as a treatment option.
The UK's MRSA rates have been declining since 2006 — and this year could be 50% lower than in 2004. This increasing control over dangerous pathogens has not been achieved without considerable hospital staff efforts, relentless public and government pressures on them, and in-house malcontent about the out-sourcing of cleaning work. Given the cost of nosocomial infections to patients, the NHS…
Every kindergarten undergoes it several times a year: the German measles. Nobody knew exactly how measles enter the body. But it has been thought they come through the surface of airways and lungs. But that is wrong, as researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota found recently.
Designed by a team of radiologists, the latest release of OsiriX 3.0.1 on the Mac Pro 8-core was demonstrated for the first time at the recent European Congress of Radiology (ECR). OsiriX - a powerful image processing software dedicated to DICOM images (.dcm / DCM extension) produced by imaging equipment (MRI, CT, PET, PET-CT etc.) and confocal microscopy (LSM and BioRAD-PIC format) - a…
Healthcare in Russia is currently undergoing a comprehensive reform process. In the early 1990s, a new source of funding for the public health system was established: mandatory medical insurance and general practitioners' offices as well as private medical practice.
99.9% of our DNA is shared with all other humans. Only about 0.1% of our DNA makes us individual
eSie Touch Elasticity Imaging, a new method in ultrasound, demonstrated by Siemens Medical Solutions in March at the European Congress of Radiology, is an adjunct to regular breast ultrasound examinations, and may provide a clinically relevant differentiation of benign and malignant tissue. Several studies have shown promising results, and suggest the method could reduce the number of unnecessary…
What a difference a few days can make. The last week in September kicked off with more dire warnings about the potentially disastrous impact that the Physical Agents (Electromagnetic Fields) Directive 2004/40/EC will have on the use of MRI in clinical practice and medical research across the European Union (EU).
Juggling the NHS accounts?
In recent years molecular imaging has developed into a hot topic field in medical research, which raised high expectations.
1.INTRODUCCIÓN El sistema sanitario público en España tiene cobertura universal. Por ello, debe atender a una población que se incrementa con rapidez. Entre los años 1980 y 1994, se incorporaron al sistema público 8 millones de personas (1)...
Already in 1993, the world market for contrast media was thought to be worth $ 3 billion. In 2001, an astonishing 12.2 million contrast medium-supported CT studies were carried out in Europe alone. Currently, the overall sales of contrast media are estimated to rise to $ 915 million in Europe in 2008.
The European Congress of Radiology (ECR) is a never-ending story of surprises, excitement, and success. Year after year, more scientists, radiologists eager to learn, and partners from industrial companies flock to this excellent meeting.
20% of all cancers diagnosed annually among Lithuanian women is cancer of the breast. Screening programms should reduce this number.
New ultrasound technologies detect foetal heart defects earlier.
A Leicester-based registered charity is facing possible criminal prosecution because of supplying unused medicines to healthcare centres in African countries.
Among the research articles published in this issue, are some ...
'Positive action is needed to more and more raise awareness of gender differences and cardiac disease - even among cardiologists.'
A report turnaround time decrease of 50% leads doctors to plan for 100% usage of the dictation system. Interview: Armin Scheuer of HealthTech Wire.
Med-e-Tel - the International Exhibition and Conference for eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT - will present a multitude of ICT healthcare applications for debate.
Late in November and into early December, as icy air streamed over the shores of Lake Michigan - affirming the nickname `windy city´ for Chicago - radiologists continued to immigrate here en masse for their biggest annual gathering. This year the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) held its 91st annual meeting, parallel with the scientific congress and trade fair. The exhibition alone…
The case for structured training, board certification and revalidation*
World renowned for audio, video, communications and information technology products used for entertainment as well as business communications, Sony has continued to utilise and develop that technological expertise to take an increasing role in operating theatres.
Radiologists working abroad - the reality
In August last year, Hurricane Katrina smashed into the USA's Gulf Coast. Within 36 hours a swathe of Louisiana had become a disaster zone.
At this year's ECR in Vienna, Helen Carty, the incoming ECR 2004 president, said she felt both honoured - and rather awed - at being entrusted to lead a congress built on friendship, in which 'disparate nations of many creeds and races, rich and poor, come together to give and to share knowledge, experience and science in this nonconfrontational atmosphere'. Awe is something many radiologists…