Economy

Patients views on pay for their personal self control

To reduce health costs as well as improve health, many large employers and insurers are introducing pay for the performance of patients (P4P4P).

PACS: Netcentric clinic services based on JiveX product line

Hospitals must digitally keep medical documents audit proof, which involves a lot of material and personnel efforts.

Integration of POCT into the clinical laboratory

Unlike regular laboratory analyses, which is performed by clinical pathologists and technicians in the clinical laboratory, Point of Care Testing (POCT) are devices to perform laboratory analyses in the vicinity of the patient by the attending physician or nurses.

Economic recession: a cause of later CVD?

Bad economic conditions, e.g. a recession, at the time of birth may lead to a higher risk of cardiovascular mortality much later in life, according to a recent study published by researchers at the Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA) in Bonn.

UK poll: Public healthcare won't stay free

The British public doesn't believe in the tax funded healthcare system. Within the next ten years they will have to pay for some NHS services, they assume in a BMA poll. Also the will to go abroad for medical services rises within the public.

Gleam of hope for people living with HIV

The “Project Connect”, a program designed to build Public Private Partnerships to combat HIV and tuberculosis in India recently recorded a huge success:

A vicious cycle

Researcher have found that overcrowding and understaffing in hospitals lead to a failure of MRSA control programmes, which in turn results in increased inpatient hospital stay, bed blocking and further infection control failure.

LIFE Nutrition founded

B. Braun Melsungen AG laid the foundation stone for a new manufacturing plant for production and development in nutrition solutions. The new production site includes a research lab and costs around 190 million Euro. In the future 270 employees will work on innovative denouements for the world market.

Seniors got more - prescriptions

Compared to 1997 people aged 60 and over receive a lot more from their physicians: Not more attention but more drugs or other medical aids. The average number of prescriptions for elder people doubled from 1997 to 2007, a report from The NHS Information Centre reveals.

Rising of unrecognised dementia in the developing world

The 10/66 Dementia Research Group warns that dementia is often not diagnosed in low-income and middle-income countries. Latest research shows that these figures has been underestimated and the economic costs of dementia and other age-related illnesses are rising.

German healthcare system: lack of transparency

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.

Many more strokes

Even in 2004, the medical costs for the care of stroke patients in Germany came to 7.1 billion euro. The neurologist Tobias Neumann-Haefelin of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and his colleagues have calculated the projected number of strokes in the German federal state of Hesse for the year 2050.

RFID technology may mess up medical equipment

Considered optimal transportation and identification tools, they have become a symbol for modern hospitals: RFID tags. But according to a new study radio frequency identification devices (RFID) may disrupt medical devices. Moreover, the FDA is concerned that the increase in digital technology might be dangerous for patients.

In vitro diagonstics market boosted by new technologies

The future of the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) market looks promising. According to a new analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Western European IVD Market is estimated to reach $12.65 billion in 2014. The reason: Diseases depending on an aging population, such as infections, hike the demand for automated diagnostic tools.

Recast of the Medical Devices Directives is “not needed”

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…

Private medicine

Olga Ostrovskaya reports on the first St Petersburg medical forum Private medicine in Russia: Problems and ways of evolution, which took place in June. Organised by various medical associations, the main goal was to exchange experiences in private medicine and shape proposals to create a productive state policy in this sphere

Lean principles applied in path labs

Lean Laboratory and Lean Automation are vital ingredients for the efficient and productive running of today's modern pathology laboratories. Automation serves as an essential endorsement to Lean, says Paul M Button, Senior Consultant at ValuMetrix, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics*

What makes bedsores tick?

According to a study by the German Aerospace Centre, bedsores are mainly induced by a combination of gravity and immobility. Gravity exerts skin pressure and tissue shearing stress, which in turn provoke pathological changes if patient mobility is not encouraged.

Re-inventing the hospital

Medical services About 90% of hospital income is generated in the 35 weekly working hours of regular day shifts. However, due to new work time regulations fewer and fewer physicians are available for these productive shifts and much of the work time is spent in the 133 working hours of the 'unproductive' night shifts.

The Worldwide Mesh Technology Centre

This was it, 15th May, the big day: Johnson & Johnson's Worldwide Mesh Technology Centre was officially opening in Norderstedt near Hamburg, Germany.

Cancer care advances — but at what cost?

Although incremental improvements in cancer care were unveiled at the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology held in Chicago, USA, — the world's largest gathering of cancer specialists, our correspondent Ian Mason writes that, even as new study results were being reported, their cost implications for stretched healthcare budgets were questioned.