Economy

Stimulating cell metabolism

G-ogo sport, a new innovation from Dr. Goettfert Systems, uses a pulsing magnetic field to stimulate cell metabolism.

Monitoring and rapidly introducing new developments into everyday practice is an increasingly difficult task for many doctors. Additionally, patients are more informed due to media medical reports, which raise their expectations that doctors can offer a quick, reliable interpretation of the latest medical data.

Mobile iris recognition

Iris recognition is thought to be the highest-accuracy, single-factor biometric identification in the world, and could have many uses.

The high cost of bipolar disorder

The most expensive behavioural healthcare diagnosis, for sufferers and their insurers, is bipolar disorder, according to a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry (160:1286-1290, July 2003).

PUI saves costs

Russia & Netherlands - Immediate echocardiographic assessment during consultation rounds can lead to significant cost savings and can shorten the time to diagnosis, according to a new study carried out by teams at the Dept. of Cardiology, Thoraxcentre, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam and the Dept. of Internal Diseases, Medical Academy of Nizhny, Novgorod.

Insurers balk at medical risk cover

As in the United States, European hospitals now face an inevitable result from escalating compensation payments made to medical injury patients - in the near future, premiums are expected to rise 25-100% in some EU countries.

SARS

Article • Stick to conventional tests!

New cervical smear tests are not better

France - Researchers have found new cervical smear tests to be unreliable and conclude that these should not replace conventional tests (PAP smears). Their study also emphasises the need to improve the 'hard evidence' in studies of new technologies. It also has implications for the regulation of medical devices and clinical practice, as well as hospital laboratory economics.

European Investment Bank: financing opportunities for the hospital sector

The European Investment Bank (EIB), backed by the EU Member States, recently presented its financing options for public projects in the `human capital´ sector. Apart from investments in the education sector, this also expressly includes healthcare and hospital financing, to cover modernisation of old and construction of new facilities, plus equipment requirements (such as laboratory equipment,…

Telemedicine and medical insurance

The European Health Telematics Association's (EHTEL) white paper and action plan for 2002-2003 states that without the creation of reimbursement processes and a regulatory framework for healthcare telematics the market for such devices will never grow.

Kodak: committed to a digital future

Dan Kerpelman: Kodak's Health Imaging Group is one of Kodak's three business groups, which include photography, commercial imaging and a components business.

Selling French savoir faire

Understandably, any development or re-design of a healthcare institution is multi-faceted, and, given the changes in healthcare delivery and politics,

BioAnalytica 2003

Live 'drug transporters' - bacteria that deliver medication to targeted body areas; a coating for tooth implants that promotes bone growth; biochips to test the potential effects of a medication on particular patients, and miniature genetic point-of-care testing laboratories (POCT) for use during medical emergencies, were among exciting developments demonstrated by 270 exhibitors from 14…