Economy

The Baltic States and their health systems - From Soviet to EU

The Estonian health system differs from its Baltic neighbour states thanks to a transformation process and reforms.

Text messaging beats missed appointments

UK - Patients who miss medical appointments cost the country's National Health Service (NHS) around £575 million annually.

Europe needs radiologists

The 12th annual European Radiology Congress, held in Vienna, received 16,000 visitors from 90 countries.

Decade of IT under-funding in the USA

The destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina was felt so strongly at HIMSS '06, the annual meeting of North America's Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, which drew over 24,500 healthcare IT professionals and hospital executives to San Diego in February, that the Society decided to hold its 2007 meeting in New Orleans to bring dollars to the city's damaged economy.

Donation to Swedish Brain Foundation gains research funds

Sweden - The Swedish Brain Foundation has received a donation of SEK 250 thousand (approximately e27,593) to support advanced research and development, from GE Healthcare, based in Uppsala.

Major order

The largest European service contract in the hospital sector, worth around €60 million, was recently awarded, by the Charité Hospital in Berlin, to Vamed, the Austrian hospital specialist. The project includes the out-sourcing of non-medical service areas.

Security alert

Security in hospitals is not easy. Thousands of patients, visitors, members of staff, as well as delivery and removal people, come and go, and with so many strangers inevitably on the scene, a perfect cover for opportunistic thieves is created, so the theft of small items is not uncommon.

Top award for single use laryngoscopes

England - The Thames Gateway Business Awards

How to manage your radiologist

Radiology in public hospitals is under economic pressure due to limited public funding, partially decreasing radiology fees, capitation payment systems, central planning of capital investment, as well as the increasing complexity and cost of equipment.

Work analysis

The problem is ubiquitous: Due to their workload, medical teams cannot accomplish their tasks to everyone’s satisfaction during regular working hours. Is the solution to raise staffing levels? More politics? At a political level a framework could be created but its actual implementation must occur within a facility, because that is where work schedules are drawn up, writes Denise Hennig,…

Cardiovascular disease

Countries in the European Union spent €169 billion in 2003 on cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to research from a team at the Health Economics Research Centre, Department of Public Health, University of Oxford, England, just published on-line by the European Heart Journal.

Regulations and laws

In 2005, De Lage Landen financed (worldwide) medical equipment worth US$1 billion, by various methods such as loan, lease, rent and ppp, either directly with end-users or indirectly by refinancing manufacturers.

The vendor, system administrator and manager in a new fully digital environment

A report about the installation of a new HIS in combinations with the setting up of a new Economic Software platform at Semmelweis University.

Financing methods

Over the last 50 years healthcare delivery has changed dramatically. New epidemics, aging populations, patients' expectations, mobilisation of populations, the globalisation and dissemination of information, all demand new patterns of healthcare delivery.

The 3rd Hospital Administrator Forum

I am delighted that the Hospital Administrator Symposium organised by European Hospital is being held in conjunction with the ECR again this year.

The Imaging Science Institute

The Imaging Science Institute (ISI) — officially opened in December by Professor Werner Bautz, Director of the Institute of Radiology at the University Hospital Erlangen and Professor Erich R Reinhardt, member of the board at Siemens AG and chairman of the divisional board at Siemens Medical Solutions (Erlangen) — is the third institute (after Berlin and Tubingen) in which Siemens is…

Procuring large equipment

Around €18 billion annually is spent on medical technology in Germany. After the US and Japan, the German medical technology market is the third largest in the world.

Crossing borders

Radiologists working abroad - the reality

Save time! Don't change media containers

In 1982, ulrich medical - a 3rd generation family concern based in Ulm - presented the first contrast agent injector for CT examinations.

Six Sigma

Healthcare has no room for inefficiencies. Public healthcare managers, especially for hospitals, have to provide an increasing volume of high-level healthcare services with limited resources.

Go green!

Austria - A call for the EU and national governments to establish and extend a legal framework for environmental standards in society and healthcare facilities was made by the organisers of `CleanMed Europe´, the first European conference to focus on sustainable healthcare products and practices.

Partnerships to personalise medicine

Peter Loescher has worked at the cutting edge of the pharmaceutical industry for 17 years. In the latter part of this period, for example, he headed Hoechst's division in Japan, where he was also spokesperson for the European pharmaceutical industry, negotiating with the Japanese government during its healthcare reform in 2002.