After years of promise, with no progress, e-health is gaining ground in Europe, where governments see the potential for cost reductions and productivity gains in telemedicine, regarding it as a magic formula to fix overstretched healthcare systems, and the European Commission (EC) is aggressively pushing tele-anything in healthcare to drive what it sees as a potential for job creation and…
Like many others, Austria is in the process of introducing electronic patients’ records (EPRs) for use in and by all healthcare facilities. After a drawn out preparation phase, a company was founded to implement the project and ELGA (Elektronische Gesundheitsakte) is underway. ‘E-health will come, step by step, but inexorably’, said Austrian Health Minister Alois Stöger.
European healthcare providers could benefit from savings of over €3.8 billion a year by 2014 as patents expire on leading pharmaceutical products and the market opens up to generics competition, according to latest research from independent market analyst Datamonitor (www.datamonitor.com).
Above average grades or lots of patience - whoever wants to study medicine in Germany needs at least one of the two. That’s because some 40,000 school graduates apply for just 9,000 places to study medicine every semester. The coveted places are assigned by the central office for university admissions (ZVS): 20% go to the top graduates, 20% are granted on the basis of a waiting list, and 60%…
The financing of hospital treatments in Switzerland is particularly complex. The current health insurance law (KVG) has no easy answers. Who covers the cost of treatment differs from district to district, depending on whether a treatment is carried out in a public or private hospital, whether carried out within a resident’s own district, whether out- or in-patient care or whether, or not, the…
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.
At yesterday’s Meet the Expert session at the 25th Annual EAU Congress, Professor Jens Rassweiler, Chairman of the EAU Section of Uro-Technology, talked to journalists about the importance of robotics in future laparoscopic surgery.
The threat of litigation is becoming an increasing area of concern in radiology circles. The changing role of the radiologist with a growing workload and more information now available in imaging examinations, have combined with an expectation of greater accuracy from patients to raise the threat of radiologists being sued. This threat has reached such a level that for the first time, radiology…
Under constant and continuing debate, and given the increasing use of CT and interventional imaging, the issue of radiation dose management was the focus of an ECR session with Dr Manthos Koutalonis, Medical Physicist at the Barts and The London NHS Trust – Radiation Safety Group, as moderator and presentations by three key speakers.
Clinicians gathering in Brussels for the first-ever conference on Molecular Imaging in Radiation Oncology (MIRO), from 18-20 March, will take the first steps toward setting practice guidelines for using PET scans to target radiotherapy, a task that will culminate with publication of these recommendations in September.
An estimated 70 million CT scans are performed annually in the USA, a threefold increase since 1993. US physicians rely on CT scans and other diagnostic imaging procedures to make accurate and speedy diagnoses and, until recently, they have not questioned the radiation dose exposure the patient receives. However, this attitude is changing, as physicians and other medical professionals realise…
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…
Anders Olauson, President of the European Patients’ Forum was awarded with H.M. The King's Medal at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. This prestigious award was presented to Anders for his distinguished commitment in the field of patients rights and his tremendous support for families with young patients in Sweden . The King’s Medal is the second highest award that can be received by a Swedish…
One of the main topics at Health Forum Gastein 2009 was the way in which various healthcare systems struggle to cope with communicable diseases and their prevention. During the event, Dr Hans Kluge, Head of the Country Policies and Systems Unit, at the WHO regional office for Europe, spoke with Meike Lerner about omnipresent factors that work against effective TB and HIV/AIDS prevention…
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…
The German Medical Association aims to evaluate the use of guidelines, the influence of drug companies on studies, the impact of economisation on staff and patients, and ultimately to assess the realities of medical care.
In October 2009 this question was posed to German, Swiss, Austrian and northern Italian experts at the European Health Congress. Speaking with Karoline Laarmann, Professor Günter Neubauer, Scientific Director of the European Health Congress, summarised the key features of good medical care and the different care models used in their four countries.
During a 2nd conference in Germany to focus specifically on medical tourism, about a 100 physicians and representatives from the country’s Department of Economics, University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, met in Sankt Augustin to discuss ways to augment their country’s healthcare attractions for international patients, particularly from the Arab and Russian regions.
The Alliance for MRI aims to ensure that the threat posed by the EU Physical Agents 2004/40/EC (EMF) to the future of MR is averted and that patients in Europe will not be precluded from state-of-the-art healthcare services. In early 2010 the European Parliament and Council will be sent a proposal from the European Commission to amend Directive 2004/40/EC on electromagnetic fields. This revision…
EU legislation could have a huge impact on medical imaging and healthcare, and the European Society of Radiology (ESR) is playing a key role in safeguarding radiologists and patients' interests. By closely monitoring EU affairs and establishing contacts with relevant institutions, as well as consulting and public affairs agencies, the ESR tries to draw the attention of relevant stakeholders and…
Strongly enforced legislation to restrict smoking produces rapid and substantial reductions in community rates of heart attack, according to a meta-analysis published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association.
Don’t forget – Friday will be an important day for discussions on cross-border healthcare, travel medicine and growing liaisons with India, all subjects highlighted in special sessions at Medica Media.
The healthcare sector has been surprisingly slow in adopting information technology when compared to other industry sectors. In the United States, health information technology (HIT) is now being considered by many involved in the re-organisation and improvement of the quality of healthcare as a powerful tool with the dual potential to save lives and reduce healthcare costs.
Bettina Döbereiner continues her reports on theories, policy strategies and current projects aired in the Berlin conference Reducing Health Inequalities. What do we really know about successful strategies?
When over 3,000 international experts gathered at the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering in Munich, Germany to evaluate future trends, they heard that Asia is showing major gains in medical engineering — a field in which computer sciences are a key innovation driver – but that Europe is on the way to innovation leadership in telemedicine and e-health.