How to finance the healthcare system? It’s an ongoing dilemma, particularly for in-patient care. According to a German Hospital Federation (DKG) estimate, the country’s hospitals currently suffer an investment backlog of €30-50 billion.
Clear transparency of the flow of products and information in hospitals not only results in increased patient safety but also, because the documentation of treatments and recording of products used ensures compliance with legal requirements. The ability to retrace all steps is also an economic asset in terms of comprehensive cost control over product consumption.
On 4 October, the waste reservoir of an aluminium factory in Hungary burst. Red sludge, which is the waste resulting from the production of aluminium, flooded nearby villages. In the second week of October, researchers were granted access to the area. Doctoral student Stefan Ruyters and postdoctoral researcher Jelle Mertens of the Division of Soil and Water Management (Faculty of Bioengineering)…
Today, healthcare professions make up ten percent Europe’s workforce. The EU Commission calculates dramatic shortages in healthcare provision in the next decade unless countermeasures are taken now. Thus, at this year’s European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG), held in October in Bad Hofgastein, Austria, international experts discussed ways to make health employment more attractive.
On behalf of Euroconvention, we are glad to announce that we have only a few last places left for speaker/sponsor, exhibitor and delegates places at this timely and high-level event, the MENA Healthcare Infrastructure Investment & Finance Summit, taking place October 27-28, 2010 in Cairo, at the Hotel Concorde El Salam.
Health as a job creator: Health professions make up one of the largest segments in the overall European labor market, accounting for ten percent of the total workforce. The EU Commission calculates dramatic shortages in health care provision in the next decade unless countermeasures are taken now. Experts at the European Health Forum Gastein discussed how health jobs can be made more attractive.
MS experts, European policy-makers, professional and patients’ organisations at the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG) today called for benchmark care provision across the EU and for governments and health services to provide improved access to specialized care for patients with multiple sclerosis. About 600 decision makers in the fields of health policy, research, science and from…
A new report launched today in the European Parliament shows inefficiencies in the treatment of chronic pain result in increasing healthcare costs and prolonged patient suffering.[1] Chronic pain costs Europe billions of Euros every year, with national costs ranging from €1.1 billion to nearly €50 billion.2,3 21% of Europeans with chronic pain are unable to work at all as a result of their…
Siemens Healthcare and the Cardio-Thoracic Center of Monaco (CCM) signed a partnership contract in Monaco. Within the framework of this contract, CCM was nominated the first “Siemens European Reference Center Cardiovascular Medicine". The strategic partnership is dedicated to the entire spectrum of cardiovascular medicine with the objective to develop innovative solutions for the treatment…
Facing billion-euro deficits, European healthcare systems are putting hospital operations under the microscope to find areas where costs can be slashed dramatically, reports John Brosky.
The Italian firm Internazionale Medico Scientifica (IMS) produces highly innovative mammography units under the brand name Giotto. More than 3,500 Giotto systems are now in use in 38 countries, mostly in Europe, America, China and the Far East. Reason enough for European Hospital to visit IMS in Pontecchio Marconi, Bologna.
The Global E-Health Forum, which will take place on October 25-26, 2010, in Hamburg, Germany, will address the main challenges healthcare systems all over the world are facing: demographic shifts, the impact of globalization and an increased burden of chronic diseases and expensive treatments.
The aim of the predictive modelling systems being trialled in the UK are to identify which people in a given population are the most likely to be admitted to hospital in the next 12 months and then focus preventive measures on them to try to avoid hospital admission. Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), which commission hospital services in the UK, are favouring the model as they try to cut costs during a…
A Government White Paper on healthcare reform has caused Unison, Britain’s biggest public sector trade union (over 1.3 million members), to launch legal action against the Government ‘as a matter of urgency’. The day after the paper was presented in July, NHS CEOs were instructed by NHS CEO Sir David Nicholson to implement the proposals ‘immediately’ - without being given time to…
More than 600 distinguished guests from 40 countries are expected at this year’s European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG). ‘Since its foundation in 1998, the EHFG has developed into an international meeting point for the highest-ranking healthcare politicians, managers and scientists from all over the world,’ said EHFG President Professor Günther Leiner.
Eucomed, the European Medical Technology Industry association, welcomes the European Commission's (EC) report on the reprocessing of medical devices. While remaining typically neutral in terms of action at this stage of the debate, the EC report confirmed that even with all the evidence and scientific opinion available "...it is not possible to quantify the risk associated with the use of…
The Ethianum in Heidelberg is one of the first clinics in Germany to align itself consistently according to sustainability criteria, thus making it a hospital in keeping with the spirit of Siemens' Green+ Hospital Program. Working in partnership with the Ethianum, Siemens has developed and implemented comprehensive solutions: These include energy management, patient care, and the communications…
GE and Intel Corporation have announced the entry into a definitive agreement to form a 50/50 joint venture to create a new healthcare company focused on telehealth and independent living. The new company will be formed by combining assets of GE Healthcare’s Home Health division and Intel’s Digital Health Group, and will be owned equally by GE and Intel.
Diabetes mellitus is a lingering disease – for a long time it causes subjectively few complaints or no complaints at all. Despite this, it is life-threatening – especially if undiagnosed, or diagnosed too late. However, although diabetes is the most widespread disease it is often only discovered by accident in a hospital, where many hospital doctors feel that diabetology is the responsibility…
Given the task of archiving today’s huge data files, not to mention additional services demanded of hospital IT staff, cloud computing could reduce many headaches. Via a healthcare IT supplier that offers cloud computing, a hospital would be able to use, over the Web, virtual hardware that provides higher levels of storage capacity and computing resources.
In its sixth issue, the Hospital Rating Report, first introduced to the public in Berlin during the 2010 Capital City Congress for Medicine and Health, again examined the financial situation of German hospitals. The study shows financial improvement during 2009 and 2010, despite the economic crisis, but forecasts that it will deteriorate again from 2011.
A multiple sclerosis risk sharing scheme, set up by the Department of Health (DoH) in 2002 to ensure that disease-modifying drugs were available on the National Health Service (NHS), has been deemed ‘a costly failure’, according to researchers reporting on www.bmj.com in June. The scheme, they advise, should not be continued.
‘Sustainability’ is more than a buzz word. The original meaning – to limit the use of natural resources so they will be available for future generations – has been expanded to encompass an economic as well as a social dimension. Companies – including hospitals – are increasingly integrating the concept of sustainability in their corporate strategies.
Since February 2008, the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) has been trying to exclude short acting insulin analogues completely from reimbursement by the statutory medical insurers. Why? Insulin analogues are 30% more expensive than human insulin.
Care for Parkinson's patients can cost between 5,240 and 19,620 Euro a year. This has been shown in a study done in six European countries by the European Cooperative Network for Research, Diagnosis and Therapy of Parkinson’s Disease (EuroPa). The results are presented at the European Neurology Congress in Berlin. The goal of the study was a comprehensive comparison of health care costs