Optimising productivity is now a top priority for today’s clinical laboratories
A fresh approach that opens a step-by-step path to clinical lab automation.
Economy
Unnerved by denervation
Cardiologists are increasingly concerned about patients with persistent hypertension demanding a new technique, in the absence of clinical proof of its long-term benefit. As more related devices are launched, John Brosky reports on the procedure, drawbacks, and a potential €2 billion market.
Advances in mitral valve replacement
Initially limited to the aortic valve, interventions are becoming routine for the mitral valve. Thus the only available product has enjoyed huge commercial success – until now. Report: Holger Zorn
China to Account for One Fifth of Global Ultrasound Revenue by 2016
Following a period of vast investment in healthcare, the outlook for China’s ultrasound imaging equipment market remains very positive. A new report from InMedica, part of IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS).
Cloud computing
The storage and retrieval of an ever increasing volume of imaging data is raising hospital IT managers’ interest in sharing computing resources via the Internet, thus saving on storage space, hardware and software costs and concerns over data security. Mark Nicholls spoke with Saskia Groeneveld, Carestream’s Regional Marketing Manager (Healthcare Information Solutions), about the company’s…
Carestream Health Sponsors Industry Discussion On Cloud Computing in Italy
As part of the recent annual Heathcare Summit organised by Sole 24 ORE in Milan, Italy, Carestream Health sponsored a round table discussion on cloud computing. The Summit is an established event in Italy and is attended by Government and regional officials and companies contracted by the Italian Ministry of Health. Carestream is one of the world’s leading providers of cloud infrastructure,…
The new Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
Britain’s many new hospitals are more than brave architectural statements – they consistently win awards, inspire others and, above all, improve life for all who use them. Now another stunning creation is about to rise. Despite beginning life as a workhouse for the poor, and having to grow in bleak, outdated buildings, in its near 100- year history Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool…
EU healthy life expectancy
The European Joint Action on Healthy Life Years (EHLEIS) project, led by France and coordinated by the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), has produced some interesting statistics. EH Paris correspondent Annick Chappoy reports
Surgeons ‘fire a warning shot’ over Germany’s hospitals
Are surgeons still opting for surgical procedures solely for medical need – or are economics forcing their decisions? That vexatious question, posed at the 129th Congress of the German, was spurned at the outset by Markus W Büchler MD, President of the Society and Medical Director of the Department of General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery at University Hospital Heidelberg. ‘We surgeons…
Perspectives on healthcare inequality
For some, ‘life’s a bitch’ with unfairness and suffering an integral part of it. Many more people actually do not expect any better than the barrenness and misery in which they live, EH Malta Correspondent Moira Mizzi reflects.
Upgrading ‘Big Iron’ for the digital century
Switzerland - It is a classic problem in any business. Everyone is working so hard to keep up with the rapid pace of orders that no one has time to get ahead. For the clinical laboratory the problem has grown greater each year, to the point that today’s new high-throughput instruments are still shackled to slow-throughput wires.
The Queen opens new Northern Ireland hospital
Her Majesty the Queen officially opened the new state-of-the-art South West Acute Hospital, in the Northern Ireland town of Enniskillen on June 26th. The £276 million hospital is the first hospital to be built in Northern Ireland in more than a decade.
Integrate – from Day One
Integrated care in Europe is primarily offered in regional networks. An international symposium in Berlin showed that new forms of care require innovative ideas and a tenacious team, Susanne Werner reports
Growing global medical leasing market starts to reduce proportion of “frozen capital” in world healthcare systems
A new report from Siemens Financial Services (SFS) shows that annual growth rates for global medical equipment leasing and renting have now outstripped growth in the medical device market as a whole. The global medical leasing market is currently expanding at a rate of 6.50%, outpacing the 4.98% growth rate of the global medical device market.
Teleradiology use in Europe
A new survey brings fresh insight into radiologists’ thoughts on teleradiology in Europe. Conducted by radiologist Dr Erik Ranschaert from the Jeroen Bosch Hospital, Den Bosch, The Netherlands, the findings were presented in March to a Special Focus Session at the European Congress of Radiology in Vienna. Mark Nicholls reports.
Advanced Technology Offerings to Power Operating Room Solutions Market
The European operating room solutions market, comprising surgical lights, surgical tables and pendants, is primarily a replacement market. Although tightening budgets are hindering market prospects, the need for state-of-the-art operating rooms are creating lucrative growth opportunities.
Malta’s Saint James Hospital Group
Embarking on any business enterprise is never a small feat, but when that business is healthcare the task becomes gargantuan – and even greater if opening a healthcare facility in a country where the economies of scale create immediate difficulties. There’s also the problem of the main competitor being the free-of-charge public sector.
Energy contracting for a greener hospital
Modernisation and a financing model facilitate savings of up to 50% in primary energy consumption. Every year, European hospitals face energy costs in the €billions. In Germany, for instance, the sum is €1.7 billion.
Weight and height
In many hospitals medical specialists from different fields work closely together. To give them access to centrally held information and patient data collected from admittance to discharge, hospitals increasingly use IT solutions such as the electronic patient’s record (EPR). Such installations demand an extensive data security policy and implementation plan.
Breathing space
If the hopes of inventors are to be believed, in around 20 years’ time there will be ‘real artificial lungs -- for now the endpoint of a history that began 84 years ago with the invention of the iron lung. Until then, non-invasive and invasive mechanical respiration will continue to dominate the hospital, complemented by extracorporeal procedures for blood oxygenation and decarbonisation,…
Philips and MAQUET alliance sets trend for cost-effective versatile Hybrid OR solutions
Philips and MAQUET mark milestone with 50th shipment of Philips’ hybrid operating room (OR) with MAQUET’s surgical table to Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona.
Feuding cardiologists
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.
The fmCh Public Database
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.
Spain’s deep crisis continues
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.
