Clear transparency of the flow of products and information in hospitals not only results in increased patient safety but also, because the documentation of treatments and recording of products used ensures compliance with legal requirements. The ability to retrace all steps is also an economic asset in terms of comprehensive cost control over product consumption.
How to finance the healthcare system? It’s an ongoing dilemma, particularly for in-patient care. According to a German Hospital Federation (DKG) estimate, the country’s hospitals currently suffer an investment backlog of €30-50 billion.
Today, healthcare professions make up ten percent Europe’s workforce. The EU Commission calculates dramatic shortages in healthcare provision in the next decade unless countermeasures are taken now. Thus, at this year’s European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG), held in October in Bad Hofgastein, Austria, international experts discussed ways to make health employment more attractive.
The strategies used to assess the environmental risks posed by pharmaceuticals are not enough to protect natural microbial communities, reveals a researcher from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who is calling for better environmental risk assessments.
On behalf of Euroconvention, we are glad to announce that we have only a few last places left for speaker/sponsor, exhibitor and delegates places at this timely and high-level event, the MENA Healthcare Infrastructure Investment & Finance Summit, taking place October 27-28, 2010 in Cairo, at the Hotel Concorde El Salam.
EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, John Dalli, presented some of his key health priorities today at the 13th European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG). Among the important topics on his agenda: prevention, in particular in the field of tobacco control; an appropriate framework for cross-border healthcare; and innovation in the field of active and healthy ageing.
Health as a job creator: Health professions make up one of the largest segments in the overall European labor market, accounting for ten percent of the total workforce. The EU Commission calculates dramatic shortages in health care provision in the next decade unless countermeasures are taken now. Experts at the European Health Forum Gastein discussed how health jobs can be made more attractive.
HEID or Health in Europe: Information and Data Interface is designed as a wikipedia for health and – at the moment in the test and pilot phase – enables everybody to find comparable European Health information and data free for use. Set up by the European Commission, DG Health and Consumers, the content is updated on voluntary basis by experts and health authorities, agencies and…
The reprocessing of single use medical devices is well-established in Europe. However, questions about the risk for patients and users arise constantly. The European Commission presented recently a kind of risk survey. The report strikes German experts as basically accurate but unbalanced.
A new report launched today in the European Parliament shows inefficiencies in the treatment of chronic pain result in increasing healthcare costs and prolonged patient suffering.[1] Chronic pain costs Europe billions of Euros every year, with national costs ranging from €1.1 billion to nearly €50 billion.2,3 21% of Europeans with chronic pain are unable to work at all as a result of their…
Expert knowledge in health policy from the EU is in demand outside the Union. The European Health Forum Gastein is a vital hub for the future development of European health policy. This year’s Forum will be the thirteenth so far and will be held from October 6 to 9 in Bad Hofgastein, Austria. For the first time, high-ranking health policy-makers from the Balkan countries and CIS countries will…
Facing billion-euro deficits, European healthcare systems are putting hospital operations under the microscope to find areas where costs can be slashed dramatically, reports John Brosky.
The Global E-Health Forum, which will take place on October 25-26, 2010, in Hamburg, Germany, will address the main challenges healthcare systems all over the world are facing: demographic shifts, the impact of globalization and an increased burden of chronic diseases and expensive treatments.
A Government White Paper on healthcare reform has caused Unison, Britain’s biggest public sector trade union (over 1.3 million members), to launch legal action against the Government ‘as a matter of urgency’. The day after the paper was presented in July, NHS CEOs were instructed by NHS CEO Sir David Nicholson to implement the proposals ‘immediately’ - without being given time to…
The aim of the predictive modelling systems being trialled in the UK are to identify which people in a given population are the most likely to be admitted to hospital in the next 12 months and then focus preventive measures on them to try to avoid hospital admission. Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), which commission hospital services in the UK, are favouring the model as they try to cut costs during a…
More than 600 distinguished guests from 40 countries are expected at this year’s European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG). ‘Since its foundation in 1998, the EHFG has developed into an international meeting point for the highest-ranking healthcare politicians, managers and scientists from all over the world,’ said EHFG President Professor Günther Leiner.
Eucomed, the European Medical Technology Industry association, welcomes the European Commission's (EC) report on the reprocessing of medical devices. While remaining typically neutral in terms of action at this stage of the debate, the EC report confirmed that even with all the evidence and scientific opinion available "...it is not possible to quantify the risk associated with the use of…
The Ethianum in Heidelberg is one of the first clinics in Germany to align itself consistently according to sustainability criteria, thus making it a hospital in keeping with the spirit of Siemens' Green+ Hospital Program. Working in partnership with the Ethianum, Siemens has developed and implemented comprehensive solutions: These include energy management, patient care, and the communications…
The European Association of Urology (EAU), the European knowledge centre of urology, and the national urological societies in Europe organise Urology Week annually – this year from 13 to 17 September - to inform people, especially men over 50, about urological diseases, their treatments and the work of the urologist.
Looking ahead to MEDICA 2010 (17 to 20 November) the signs are good. The high number of registrations is a sign of optimism in the medical technology industry and the number of exhibitors has already seen a significant increase in comparison to last year. With six months left to go until the fair begins, some 115,000 square metres of exhibition space had already been booked.
Avoiding and reducing waste in the clinical environment not only has highly scalable effects in economic terms, but also marks a key milestone on the path towards a ‘green hospital’. The latest innovation from the company MEIKO makes a major contribution towards reducing waste while simultaneously making nursing staff’s work both safer and easier.
The well established, universal health care structures of EU countries with most specialty practices located within hospitals has led to a more advanced electronic patient record environment. Globally, 2/3 of Health Care Professionals have already implemented Electronic Patient Record systems but the US lags with less than half.
Here’s a scenario: A bug has entered the system. Nobody knows how and what it is. What is clear is that, due to the problem with the imaging plate readout, the X-ray examination just carried out must be repeated. Who, in the hospital, is ultimately responsible for this situation?
The hosting service has been selected, software standards have been published, and on 11 December 2010 any French citizen will be able to open a file and begin creating a secure, personal electronic health record (EHR). If the agency charged with this ambitious programme meets the deadline, France will suddenly jump to the leading edge of e-health worldwide, rivalling advanced national programmes…
The introduction of electronic patient records (EPRs) can ‘dramatically’ speed up the Chlamydia treatment cycle, more than doubling the number of people treated within two weeks of a test result, according to research led by Dr Gary Brook at the Patrick Clements Clinic, Central Middlesex Hospital, London, and published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.
