A 25 year-old Finnish man, who is HIV-positive, has been sentenced to ten years in prison for five counts of criminal HIV transmission, 14 counts of attempted criminal HIV exposure, and one count of rape.
Experts on a US panel expressed their doubts on the beneficial quality of prostate cancer screenings for elderly men. Prostate cancer often grows very slowly and may not kill an older man before he suffers from another death reason, they pointed out.
The Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC) announced the new President of its governing Council: Jill Crawford has been a lay member of Council since 2002 and brings considerable knowledge and experience to the role.
Provision of standard infectious disease precautions and safe workplaces for nurses all around the world are the main claims of a statement shaped during the International AIDS Conference by Physicians for Human Rights and the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care.
An international panel of physicians has updated the guidelines and recommendations for antiretroviral treatment of adult human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection after evaluating recent data, according to an article in JAMA, a theme issue on HIV/AIDS.
Acting as a medical expert witness can have serious consequences for third persons. Although expert witnesses are doing their best, many problems arise from their medico-legal work. Now the GMC published guidelines for expert witnesses that are welcomed by physicians and organizations.
Hiding behind a doctor's licence obtained years ago will no longer be tolerated in England. Senior doctors are asked to function as "responsible officers" who collect information about colleagues over a period of time. The new arrangement intends to examine the fitness of physicians every five years.
Michael Schumacher once won nearly every qualifying in Formula One. But Germany won't win the world championship in qualification of their healthcare workers, neither, however, would most European countries. The lack of well-trained employees in healthcare may turn out to be a major setback for the booming branch.
The German healthcare system is designed for corruption, since the its organisation is delegated to statutory health insurers, physicians' associations, etc. which are all self-controlled, says Anke Martiny from Transparency Germany in an interview with EH online. In spite of a whistle blowing system that was established in 2004, it still needs more transparency.
The European Commission initiated legal action against Germany. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg will investigate whether certain regional and local authorities awarded contracts for rescue transport services without applying transparent contract award procedures.
The European Medical Device Industry associations resist the European Commission's proposal to build up a centralized European agency for Medical Devices. The new authority is planned to regulate MD affairs, e.g. classification and pre-market approval of “highest risk” devices. According to the MD Industry, the concerns of the EU Commission can be addressed through improved implementation of…
Doctors across Europe now have free access to the British Medical Journal's library of Continuing Medical Education (CME) and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) content.
Process optimisation concerns all primary and secondary processes in a hospital. Case management is a tool that supports the implementation of comprehensive optimisation efforts.
The Swiss hospital system is facing a radical change. Billing by Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) is about to be introduced. European Hospital's correspondent in Switzerland, Dr André Weissen,* approached Dr Carlo Conti, President of SwissDRG AG to discuss some of the controversial issues involved in the switch to DRGs
It was a tough project but in the end the ministers of health of 53 countries - the WHO European Region - agreed on a groundbreaking paper on healthcare, committing themselves to concrete actions to fight the fact that many people have no easy and affordable access to quality healthcare. They will strengthen a system that will allow both their own people and the international community to hold…
With its request to all EU states concerning better colorectal cancer care, europacolon was prelude to the 10th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer (WCGC) in Barcelona. Europacolon is the first European organisation dedicated to colorectal cancer. Their current report about the disease is meant to be a call to action.
The German chapter of anti-corruption organisation Transparency International had another close look at the German healthcare system. And it didn't like what it found: In an updated policy paper, member of the board of directors Anke Martiny, deplores that "huge amounts of money belonging to the insured are lost" due to lack of transparency, to corruption and fraud.
The hospital sector has recently been facing increased competition law scrutiny, in particular in Germany. During the last few years the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has made it clear on a number of occasions that mergers between hospitals (private as well as public-law hospitals) are just as much subject to competition law provisions as any other merger cases.
France - Clinical biology is faced with many internal and external developments, notably advances in medical science, automation, quality assurance, electronic data transmission, and the impact of the European legislation.
The French Health Authorities announced in February that the smoking ban — which began in February 2007 for communal buildings and work places, and was implemented in January 2008 with effect on bars, restaurants and hotels — has produced striking results.
The USA's National Institutes of Health aims to review blood transfusion safety
From 2000 to 2007, Israeli hospitals have treated the victims of 148 terrorist attacks.
The TopClinica, an international trade fair and congress focused on medical equipment and solutions is a new event on the calendar.
The prosecution of two doctors and a faith healer has been ordered by the Dutch appeal court, due to their treatment of a patient who died seven years ago.
In those European countries where citizens are entitled to comprehensive healthcare financing the healthcare systems are becoming increasingly daunting tasks. Whilst in some isolated cases medical progress may indeed lead to certain cost reductions, overall this inflates costs.