Swiss surgical patients can check on and correct their treatment data and thereby facilitate reliable hospital benchmarking. In 1995, surgeons in the Biel, Burgdorf and Zurich Limmattal hospitals founded the Working Group for Quality Assurance in Surgery (AQC) to collect and compare reatment data.
A €35,000 DRG reimbursement for TAVI has put Germany in the lead for this procedure – and prompted sharp competition and disputes between cardiologists and cardio-surgeons, Holger Zorn reports.
Fresenius subsidiary Helios on its way to become market leader. According to a study* of company mergers, with the privatisation of hospitals, Germany is in an exceptional position in Europe. No other EU country sold so many and such large hospitals so quickly as this country has done. The concept of selling entire university hospitals is unknown elsewhere in Europe.
Italian healthcare is still hitting the headlines. Although Prime Minister Mario Monti announced plans for healthcare reform at the end of 2011 – effectively cutting healthcare spend by €2.5 billion, as well as increasing the retirement age – the on-going exposure of hospitals and emergency care failures is drawing huge attention and has even prompted investigations by state prosecutors.…
Cuts in pharmaceuticals spending, doctors’ jobs threats, A&E closures, non-payments to medical suppliers – can a new government save their country and its NHS by massive stringency and tax hikes? Our correspondent Dr Eduardo de la Sota Guimón reports.
A new transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) system for transapical treatment of severe aortic stenosis – Acurate TA and delivery system –is a second- generation TAVI device to treat elderly patients. Launched by the Swiss firm Symetis SA, the system gained CE approval last September is on sale in Europe.
Seriously injured trauma patients transported to hospitals by helicopter are 16 percent more likely to survive than similarly injured patients brought in by ground ambulance, new Johns Hopkins research shows.
Abbott Laboratories has obtained European Union approval to market its rapid, Plex-ID instrument, along with three assays for use on the system.
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has launched an exciting, informative and practical toolkit for everyone involved in TB care and control. Entitled “Risk Reduction and Inter-Professional Collaboration for TB Infection Control”, it comes at a time when increasing numbers of health care workers are falling victim to this preventable and curable disease.
Interested parties that can successfully navigate the evolving regulation of stem cell research stand to gain significant scientific and commercial advantage.
Johns Hopkins surgeons have established a facial transplantation team and are in the process of obtaining approval from the University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) of their protocol to perform the complicated procedure.
New CR 10-X is a cost-effective entry into computed radiography, without compromising on image quality. Robust yet easy-to-install and maintain solution, offering streamlined and integrated workflow.
20,000 participants attended ECR 2011 – a record its organising body, the European Society of Radiology (ESR), which represents more than 56,000 radiologists worldwide, is keen to surpass. Thus, for 2012, it set out to create an even more attractive, versatile programme, which is led by Congress President Lorenzo Bonomo, Professor of Radiology and Chairman of the Department of Radiological…
When the ISICEM 2012 opens this March, Brussels will again experience a healthy influx of medical specialists intent on hearing the most recent, clinically relevant developments in research, therapy and management of the critically ill.
‘Before each ward round my students and I wash our hands’ – so said Ignaz Philip Semmelweis in the mid-19th century, in his drive to reduce the hospital mortality rate. Today, the World Health Organisation states that ‘Clean care is safer care’ – and yet, particularly in recent times, the lack of hygiene in numerous hospitals has resulted in mortalities. Who is to blame? What can be…
Currently there is a truly enormous hole in the ground in the city of Wiener Neustadt, Austria, but by summer 2012 MedAustron, one of the most modern centres for ion therapy and research in Europe, is to be built here.
Radiologists in the United Kingdom have taken steps to help ensure unexpected findings iscovered during the course of imaging research are being recorded and effectively disseminated, Mark Nicholls reports.
The German Association of the Diagnostics Industry (VDGH) announces encouraging results from a new member survey, Susanne Werner reports.
Stretchers, beds, furniture, defibrillators, scanners, pumps, sterilizing units, indeed equipment for all medical disciplines and departments, you name it, a browse around the website and a bit of bidding could provide your hospital with just what it needs – and save money.
In Berlin, from 24-26 April visitors to this international congress and trade fair will hear of medical imaging, process optimisation and facility management, and the latest construction, operation and equipment trends The event will run alongside Euro ID, a trade fair for automatic identification, and conhIT, an IT healthcare industry tradeshow.
Worldwide, antibiotic resistance is one of the three major challenges for public health according to the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID). What needs to be done? Anja Behringer reports.
Quality management has been an integral part of the German healthcare sector for years. Doing without it is unimaginable, particularly in terms of increasing economical and competitive pressures on hospitals. Nonetheless, she asks: Does investments in quality management pay off?
‘Nowadays, there are not that many opportunities for EU countries to expand technological progress,’ said Ambassador Dr Jan Koukal when he called for the trans-border utilisation of ‘neighbourly’ potential during his opening speech at the joint Czech-Austrian seminar.
Eucomed, the European industry association for medical technology, appreciates the European Commission’s swift reaction and clear proposal for a joint plan of immediate measures to strengthen the European medical devices legislation.
The innovation leader in CT and a pioneer in low dose: Siemens introduced a new class of CT which is built for business and designed for efficiency.