Summing up results of the world’s biggest medical trade fair after four days (16 – 19 November 2011) Joachim Schäfer, Managing Director at Messe Düsseldorf, said: “The manufacturers of medical device technology, medical products and medical IT have once again used the framework of MEDICA in Düsseldorf to impressively evidence their operational excellence.
We may be able to live longer due to medical advances, but what of the ability to live independently in old age? According to DeStatis, the German Federal Statistical Office, by 2050 there will be a deficit of 260,000 caregivers – and Germany is not alone in this.
Swiss-based Total Walther introduces intelligent communication system with advanced functions for both the out-patient and inpatient settings.
For 100% safety, medical product should be better labelled. While legislators, regulatory authorities and certification bodies stipulate that manufacturers should provide clear information, in reality this is not always the case, as explained by orthopaedic surgeon Jan A de Lint MD, of the Amphia Hospital in Breda and Kliniek Zestienhoven in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since the German…
They are rarely noticed but nevertheless they carry a lot of weight in a hospital: intelligent mounting solutions for medical equipment and monitors. While the eyes of physicians, nurses and patients alike tend to be fixed on the device, hardly anybody ever looks at the way, the device is fixed to the wall or the ceiling. The engineers of CIM med, based in Munich, Germany, however did have a…
Healthcare IT providers think about data management as much as medical technology manufacturers, which are increasingly developing solutions for data workflow. Medical devices in different hospital departments generate important patient data every day that is relevant beyond a ward or department. Dräger Medical Systems specialises in patient monitoring in acute medicine.
Export success is driven by transactions, and the ‘buzz’ at Medica is generated by thousands of small companies making deals that build business, according to the head of the U.S. Foreign Commercial Service.
From 16 - 19 November 2011, the attention of health and medical care professionals from around the world will once again focus on Düsseldorf, as the world's largest medical trade fair, MEDICA 2011, World Forum for Medicine, and COMPAMED 2011, High tech solutions for medical technology, the leading international trade fair for the suppliers market in medical manufacturing, get underway.
Directed by the Gesellschaft Deutscher Krankenhaustag (GDK) the EHC will open with an examination of and debate on the current European health policy and the impact of the EU patients’ rights directive. Passed by the European Council of Ministers in February, these guidelines envisage patients having cross-border access to healthcare services, inclusive of a free choice of doctors and…
A Birmingham hospital trust is expanding its kidney dialysis service by commissioning a tenth satellite unit – its first outside England. University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust is to provide a chronic haemodialysis facility at a hospital in Powys, mid-Wales.
The theme of this year's World Stroke Day on 29 October is "One in Six", referring to the facts that one in six people will have a stroke at some point in their lifetime, and that a stroke will be the cause of someone's death every six seconds. These, says the World Stroke Organization (WSO), are everyday people leading everyday lives, but around 85% of them will have risk factors…
For 100% safety, medical products should be better labelled. While legislators, regulatory authorities and certification bodies stipulate that manufacturers should provide clear information, in reality this is not always the case, as explained by orthopaedic surgeon Jan A de Lint MD, of the Amphia Hospital in Breda and Kliniek Zestienhoven in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
MEDICA 2011 in Düsseldorf (16 - 19 November) promises an "explosion" of novelties from the medical technology industry. The more than 10,500 new products registered by exhibitors at the MEDICA.de Internet portal are not the only indicators. The MEDICA PREVIEW press event already provided a preview of the most significant trends and product highlights.
High-level representatives from more than 100 countries are meeting this week in Rio de Janeiro for the World Conference on Social Determinants of Health, a World Health Organization (WHO) initiative aimed at building support for policies and strategies that seek to improve health by reducing social inequities.
Last week, DITTA, the organization of medical trade associations COCIR (Europe), JIRA (Japan) and MITA (United States) held a two-day international regulatory meeting. The associations discussed ways to improve the global regulatory environment for the medical imaging, radiation therapy and health IT industries to ensure that member companies remain at the forefront of technological innovation…
Despite huge increases in spending over the last three decades, progress in dealing with the most frequent and burdensome diseases is appalling. The EU Flagship Pilot IT Future of Medicine (ITFoM) could remedy that. The flagship‘s investments of 1 billion euros in the course of the next decade are expected to save up to 100 billion euros per year in health expenditures in the future.
Patients and health care providers are increasingly crossing borders within the European Union to deliver or receive treatment. New EU regulations are trying to come to grips with what has long been recognised as a right of citizens to do so. Motivations vary among member states and social groups, but specialty treatment and speed of access are important factors. While cross border care is…
For reasons important to both EU citizens and migrants, greater efforts needed to be made to address the gap in quality health care that exists between the two groups, experts told the European Health Forum Gastein. Improvements would not only benefit Europe's newer arrivals but the well-being of Europeans in general.
Carestream upgrade and migrate PACS will now be installed across the country's 34 hospitals, replacing all hardware with new WinTel platforms configured with Carestream Vue PACS V11 software and new compression, storage and retention plans implemented on the National Archives.
The European Society of Cardiology, through the European Chronic Disease Alliance (ECDA), has urged European heads of state "to show leadership" and long-term commitment to the prevention of chronic non-communicable diseases at today's "high level meeting" of the UN General Assembly in New York.
‘Public hospitals are not yet acknowledging the necessity of engaging management consultants in the same way as private institutions. Management and organisational consultancy is particularly important in hospitals as it is not just undertaken for the benefit of staff but also the benefit of the patients’’ explains Verena Krassnitzer, Vienna-based management consultant and supervisor,…
‘New market dynamics’ in healthcare, with characteristics such as crowding out, internationalisation of medical services, increasing transparency of services due to the media, and price-oriented reimbursement systems, enforce quality promoting and cost-reducing labour divisions as well as cooperation of all players in healthcare provision. Professor Wilfried von Eiff, from the Centre for…
The acquisition of large diagnostic imaging equipment is clearly expensive – but further costs also result from their energy consumption and maintenance, as well as hidden costs due to complicated, labour-intensive handling, removal and disposal of old equipment, etc. often not considered during purchasing. Report: Anja Behringer
The initial bill on The basic principles of healthcare for the citizens in the Russian Federation passed its first reading in the State Duma (the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia. Upper house: Federation Council of Russia). The current healthcare legislation came into effect in 1993. Since then, much has changed in Russian society, writes EH correspondent Alla Astachova.
Led by the then Prime Minister Tony Blair, the United Kingdom’s Labour government proudly launched its National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in 2002, a forward-looking plan with huge budget to match. The following year the nation was awed by something akin to a gold rush, as information technology companies scrambled to compete for and gain healthcare IT contracts from the £12 billion project.…
