Blown Away!
Even though a lot of us don’t do it, let’s say you know that washing your hands is the first, and the best thing, you can do to stop sharing nasty bugs that are especially dangerous for patients.
Hygiene managers are not enough
‘Better hygiene’ is the frequently and loudly recommended panacea in the intensifying struggle against hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). However there are currently no evidence-based studies that evaluate the efficacy of additional hygiene measures.
News • Sterilisation reversal
Stop free fertility treatment for "lifestyle" babies to curb climate change
Free fertility treatment should be banned for those making "lifestyle" reproductive choices, such as sterilisation reversal or single motherhood for fertile women. And fertility clinics should be subject to carbon capping schemes, in a bid to help curb climate change, argues a bioethicist in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
How to end gender discrimination
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), mental illness is associated with a significant burden of morbidity and disability.
Pay-for-performance bites deep
Although nosocomial infections and medical accidents have declined, over 750 hospitals with the highest number of such cases now face penalties – amounting to an estimated $330 million a year – issued by Medicare.
NICE sets new guidelines
Pointing out that it is unacceptable that some 300,000 people become adversely infected while being in the care of the UK’s National Health Service every year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which provides national guidance and advice to improve health and social care, has launched a new set of quality standards.
Nosocomial infections
More than four million people acquire a healthcare associated infection (HAI) in the European Union (EU) annually; of these 37,000 die as a direct consequence of the infection, according to a European Centre for Disease Control 2008 estimate.
UK’s first Specialist Emergency Care Hospital takes shape
The UK’s first Specialist Emergency Care Hospital is on target to open for the first patients in 2015.
Outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease requires a strong response
New cases and deaths attributable to Ebola virus disease (EVD) continue to be reported by the Ministries of Health in the three West African countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
Poor management and overcrowding exacerbate MERS outbreak
“The Saudi Arabian government’s response to the new virulent Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has recently been criticized, following high-level dismissals within the Saudi state healthcare service. Criticism has been leveled at the slowness of the government’s response to the outbreak, as well as in-fighting between physicians", says Andrew Thompson, Ph.D., GlobalData’s…
Agreement to streamline diagnostic imaging workflow management
Agfa HealthCare announces today that it has signed an agreement with Real Time Medical (RTM) to support the needs of collaborating or consolidated hospitals and imaging networks.
Evidence not heroism
Conflict and crisis situations pose specific challenges for medical care. The only way to cope with them is to apply scientific evidence from an exchange between academic surgeons and their colleagues active in the field. The EFORT Congress in London is a crucial hub at European level for this exchange.
Article • 15th EFORT Congress: 4 – 6 June 2014, London
Revalidation of surgeons: UK example could catch on in Europe
UK surgeons have to revalidate every five years to prove that they are still fit to practice. This example could be followed by other European countries, experts said at the 15th EFORT Congress in London. The European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology promotes a harmonisation of orthopaedic education in Europe.
Europe’s neurologists join forces in the European Academy of Neurology
Europe will now have just one international neurological association. The two European societies – the EFNS and the ENS – have merged during the Joint Congress of European Neurology in Istanbul to create the new European Academy of Neurology (EAN). Prof Günther Deuschl from Kiel, Germany, was elected the first President of the new organisation.
Bayer in cancer collaboration
Finnish pharma company Orion and German healthcare giant Bayer have entered into an agreement for the development and commercialisation of a novel drug targeting prostate cancer.
Spain’s huge public health deficit
The Spanish National Health System is organised following the principles of universal coverage and solidarity, to ensure equal access to healthcare services for all citizens.
Agreement between Edwards Lifesciences and Medtronic
Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, the global leader in the science of heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring, announced that the company has reached an agreement with Medtronic to settle all outstanding patent litigation between the companies, including cases related to transcatheter heart valves.
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society
The not-for-profit Chicago-based organisation HIMSS aims to boost electronic health records, analytics, mobile and other technologies by ‘meaningful use’ or other financial stimuli. Cornelia Wels-Maug reports on highlights at the HIMSS 14 conference and exhibition.
‘Helping to protect our most precious citizens, our children’
Amongst the historic churches and palazzos of the Northern Italian city of Parma lies the University of Parma, which, founded in the 12th Century is one of the oldest academic establishments in the world. The city is served by Parma University Hospital (Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Di Parma) a large and renowned hospital offering 1,218 public beds.
Korea is Asia’s fastest-growing medical technology market
Since opening as an exhibition in 1980, to stimulate the non-existing domestic medical device industry, the Korea International Medical & Hospital Equipment Show (KIMES) has developed to become one of the most important exhibitions for medical and healthcare industries in Northeast Asia.
Emerging and merging disciplines
Medicine as a profession has held a superior aloofness for many centuries, wary of losing its unique distinctiveness and esteem if ‘tainted’ with other professions.
HAI present large economic burden for Ireland
Ahead of the Irish Infection Prevention Control Conference to be held in Portlaoise on 16 May 2014, Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP), a Division of Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, is calling on Irish healthcare practitioners to consider the significant economic burden of Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) on hospitals, the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the wider…
Pictures help illiterate patients take medicines correctly
Using pictures and symbols, rather than handwritten words, on prescriptions helps illiterate patients take their medicines correctly when they leave hospital, say doctors today. The idea was first tested in a hospital in Pakistan using simple pictures of the sun, moon and stars to help patients understand when and how long to take their medication for.
Move to significantly strengthen position in consumer care
Bayer has agreed to acquire the consumer care business of U.S. pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA, for a purchase price of USD 14.2 billion (EUR 10.4 billion).
New online tool to calculate energy savings
Atlas Copco has launched a new online tool that enables users to calculate the energy costs they can save by using state-of-the-art purge control technology for Atlas Copco and BeaconMedæs medical air plant installations.