Everyone (even if only marginally interested in public affairs) must have noted the current astronomic, worldwide public debts -- including the USA’s astounding $12 trillion. Additionally, everyone probably noted that, in many cases, this had something to do with the healthcare sectors.
Although focused mainly on European challenges, the Health Executive Summit (19-21 May 2010, Paris, France) aims to share ‘visionary strategies and latest best practices’, as well as to provide solutions for current health challenges facing European health systems. As such, the event draws in leaders and decision-makers from around the world.
Hospital acquired infections are the focus for the 3rd International Day for Fighting Infection, being marked on St. George’s Day (23 April), as experts meet in Florence to look at the evolution of infection control in hospitals.
The European Association of Urology reiterated that it does not recommend a mass screening policy in Europe for men who are concerned over prostate cancer, a stance which reflects the position it issued last year regarding prostate cancer screening.
No more healthcare myopia! Although Szabolcs Dorotovics, MD MBA and Managing Director for Global Ventures at Johns Hopkins Medicine International, Baltimore, USA, is not an ophthalmologist, he urged the HMS audience to put on their specs and look beyond institutional, national and cultural borders and boundaries.
At this year’s HMS, André Hoppen, MD MSc, Sales Manager for VR MEDICO, Germany, looked at the most important decision-making criteria from the perspective of a financial services provider. “Finding out whether a new MRI or CT scanner will pay off is only possible by asking specific questions”, he said.
"The problem between information technology and medical engineering may stem from sequential processing and intermeshing", Peter Gocke, MD, said. Sounds difficult? But the real difficulty in the “Cooperation between IT and Medical Engineering (ME)” is something seemingly mundane: “At the end of the day collaboration is the target achievable”, Gocke, who is IT director at the University…
The introduction of digital imaging in all fields of radiology and digital workflow using RIS and PACS has led to fundamental changes in the daily work of radiologist. Professor Davide Caramella, MD, Associate Professor of Radiology, University of Pisa, Italy, described how IT supports radiologists in their daily work and why radiologists need to keep up-to-date in IT.
The global nursing shortage is due in part to a lack of faculty in nursing schools and to a phenomenon known as nurse migration, where nurses leave their country of origin to work elsewhere. In response, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI), supported by The Elsevier Foundation, will conduct the Global Summit on Nurse…
Some of the most controversial issues in urology will be discussed by leading experts during the five-day 25th Annual Congress of the European Association of Urology (EAU) in Barcelona (ES). From April 16 to 20, close to 12,000 participants and 3,000 company representatives are expected to gather in one of the world’s biggest annual professional meetings in urology.
Employers of the UK's 660,000 registered nurses and midwives are being given a new tool to support them in carrying out their responsibility of ensuring the health and wellbeing of the public
iSOFT Group Limited, Australia's largest listed health information technology company, today announced that St Jansdal Hospital in the Netherlands extended its contract for iSOFT’s Lorenzo solution for a further three years, in a deal worth €4.5 million.
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.
Claudia Wild PhD (Phil.), Director of the Ludwig-Boltzmann-Institute for Health Technology Assessment in Vienna, Austria, studied communications & psychology at the University of Vienna and political sciences at the Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, USA.
The eHospital Census is a comprehensive historical record of healthcare IT installations at the functional level. Regarding hospitals in 12 European countries and 44 software applications (like Radiology Informations System or PACS) the eHospital Census contains descriptions of the installed base including availability, scope, market share, age profile, and life span of installations. The…
There are huge differences in the quality of medical IT systems, particularly in some East European countries. However, recent political and economic changes in that region have been accompanied by improved quality standards. In Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bosnia, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Russia, Portugal, Ireland, Turkey and Switzerland, the privately funded group Euromedic…
The equation is simple: Hospital IT data is growing exponentially, hospital funds are not. Facing enormous data volumes and less chance of increasing equipment or staff, IT managers inevitably suffer headaches. ‘Cloud is really IT being delivered as a service over the Internet,’ Mark Clark explained.
In June 2009, IBM introduced the industry’s first set of commercial cloud services. Based on two years of research and hundreds of client engagements, the IBM Smart Business ‘cloud’ portfolio aims to help clients turn complex business processes into simple services. How does IBM explain what cloud services are? Cloud Computing is a form of IT use where the end user can utilise…
The European Patients Forum (EPF) redesigned its website as a vital communication tool for its members and for the health community as a whole. This decision resulted in an improved website which offers a fresh new look that technically provides its online visitors with significant improvements in navigation and easier accessibility for users with disabilities. EPF President Anders Olauson…
Agfa HealthCare announced that it has signed an agreement with Montpellier CHRU for the installation of its leading Hospital/Clinical Information System (HIS/CIS) ORBIS across its seven facilities. Montpellier CHRU is one of France's leading care facilities with seven institutions providing a full spectrum of healthcare. As an academic hospital, it provides critical care, teaching and…
Eucomed, the European Medical Technology Industry Association, is pleased to see that the European Parliament hasvoted in favour of President Barroso’s new Commission team. The association especially looks forward to working with John Dalli, the Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs, and his team to address his priorities such as “the development of effective and efficient healthcare…
The first decade of the 21st century has ended and the time has come to make up some minds about what hospitals should look like in the near future to fulfill the requirements of modern medicine and demographic changes.
Two Hitachi bundles, Discovery and start-up, which are currently only available in Germany, have been produced to enable more effective storage management. ‘Specialised consulting packages help medical facilities to achieve a reduction of costs caused by the deployment of more data-intensive diagnostic technologies or archiving regulations,’ the firm explains.
Hôpital, Patients, Santé et Territories (HPST), a new hospital reform bill, was passed by the French Government and became law in July 2009. While directly related to hospitals it also places new importance on health from the patients’ perspective outside the hospital. Importantly for laboratory medicine, the act makes accreditation for both public and private laboratories obligatory rather…
Organised by the Syndicat des Biologistes (SDB) the annual meeting in November, under the auspices of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), the European Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (EFCC) and the French Society of Clinical Biology (SFBC), the Journees Internationales de Biologie (JIB) aims to meet the needs of the 10,700…