The majority of hospitals participating in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (ACS NSQIP®) improve surgical outcomes over time, and improvement continues with each year that hospitals participate in the program.
Anyone who becomes seriously ill or has an accident while on holiday would like to be treated as well as they are at home. It is vitally important for the patient that the doctor has been well trained, in particular in intensive care medicine
Researchers from the University's Institute of Population Health studied reports voluntarily submitted by dermatologists to a national database which is run by the University (THOR), between 1996 and 2012. Sixty percent of eligible UK dermatologists used this database which is designed to report skin problems caused or aggravated by work.
Physicians often blame patient demands for contributing to high medical costs, however, a new study involving more than 5,000 patient-clinician visits indicates that cancer patients rarely push for unnecessary tests and treatments from their health care providers.
Maximizing patient safety is the top priority for hospital c-suite executives and risk managers in the United States - but, "lack of teamwork, negative culture and poor communication" will present barriers to patient safety in the future - according to a new survey commissioned by American International Group (AIG) in consultation with patient safety expert, Dr. Marty Makary, MD, MPH.
A study from Northwestern Medicine and the American College of Surgeons suggests that penalizing hospitals for patient readmissions following surgery may be ineffective, and even counterproductive, for improving the quality of hospital care in America.
JAMA study shows death, complication, readmission and costs are no lower at hospitals in American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, a prominent quality-reporting program.
Developing national health research capacity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is a key element toward strengthening their health systems. Collaborations with universities in high -income countries may be an important tool in building research capacity, but often suffer from imbalanced power relations.
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.
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.
At the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance (IMED 2014), in Vienna, this year’s focus was on one particular emerging infectious disease: Ebola. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as of January 14th, more than 8.400 people have died of this dangerous disease and more than 21.000 cases were reported in nine countries. Report: Michael Krassnitzer
Sermo, the social network for doctors, announced the results of a poll of 2,238 doctors on the contentious issue of whether obese individuals should be considered disabled. An overwhelming majority of doctors, 88 percent, disagreed with a new ruling from the European Union under which employers will be required to protect obese workers and provide them with special parking spaces, larger seats…
The Americas' mammography systems market value will increase from approximately $390 million in 2013 to $1.1 billion by 2020, driven primarily by the uptake of 3D systems in the US and healthy demand for 2D systems in Canada, Mexico and Brazil.
The European Commission has an ambition to create more equitable, cost-effective and available healthcare throughout its member states. Here is a report on preliminary findings from the EU funded initiative striving for greater equality in healthcare systems across Europe.
They are not such strange bedfellows, say Walter Depner (Frankfurt) and Professor Norbert Gässler (Hildesheim), who find themselves ‘kissed by the European lab muse’ and were prompted to ask: What links literature and laboratory medicine at a European level? Commentary: Walter Depner, Prof. Norbert Gässler
Abbott announced its innovative diagnostic platform, known as Iridica, is now available in Europe and other CE–Mark recognized countries. The new platform can identify more than 1,000 infection–causing pathogens in less than six hours.
Heraeus Medical GmbH announced today an agreement with Locate Therapeutics to license the intellectual property surrounding the use of Taos in orthopaedic applications and the inception of the first development program in this field.
A third of NHS contracts have been awarded to private sector providers since the Health and Social Care Act came into force, finds an investigation by The BMJ today. The report examines the reality behind the claims of widespread NHS privatisation
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued strict new guidelines on safe nurse staffing levels to all hospitals. Report: Mark Nicholls
CDI Europe, the European Hospital and Healthcare Federation (HOPE) and MEP Karin Kadenbach hosted an event at the European Parliament to highlight the urgent action needed to address the current issues relating to the management of healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs) and Clostridium difficile infection (CDI).
The human gut literally teems with microorganisms from at least 1,000 different species that are increasingly considered to be a valuable resource for the prediction, aetiology and prognosis of disease. Due to continual contact with the environment, primarily via food, the gut is susceptible to infection when a virus, parasite or bacterium enters and disrupts normal gut microbiota (or flora).
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.
Patients are no longer content to be passive recipients of medical care, and are instead taking a more active role in their treatment, says Kathy Oliver, Chair co-director of the International Brain Tumour Alliance (IBTA). Report: Frank Swain
The Medica Education Conference has been realigned and also tackles current issues from the worlds of politics and management, amongst others in a symposium on occupational and educational politics. In this context, Professor Ulrich Montgomery, President of the German Medical Association, will speak about the next generation of medical staff under the heading ‘Calling, a profession or a job?’…