IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A.), the world’s leading provider of proton therapy solutions and radiation therapy integrated quality assurance (QA) for the treatment of cancer, announces the successful commissioning of the Varian Halcyon at the Radiation Oncology Center at MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center, based on IBA Dosimetry independent beam scanning solution. IBA has designed myQA…
Today the impressive development of drones by some people is happily regarded as the pinnacle of digitalisation in healthcare. Some groups are testing whether drones can quickly and safely deliver defibrillators to patients in need or whether they can transport laboratory samples or blood products. These developments catch lots of attention, but PD Dr Dominik Pförringer, trauma and orthopaedic…
A new Cedars-Sinai study shows that using Fitbit activity monitors to measure steps taken in the days after surgery can predict which patients leave the hospital sooner. The study of 100 patients, led by Timothy Daskivich, MD, director of Health Services Research for the Cedars-Sinai Department of Surgery, showed that each step taken towards 1,000 steps the day after surgery resulted in…
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Leeds have announced a critical milestone in going digital, by scanning every glass slide they produce. The milestone represents a major step towards achieving faster and accurate diagnosis for cancer patients in the future. The Pathology Department, located in St. James’ Hospital in Leeds, is one of the largest in the UK processing over…
Language difficulties become even greater when a patient is foreign and in need of medical care. To improve communication between international patients and medical staff, a new translation app – Medicospeaker – is undergoing its first in-hospital tests at Muenster University Hospital (UKM) in Germany. The system aims to translate dynamic conversation processes, explained Lukas Fortmeier, CEO…
United Kingdom manufacturer Paraid is demonstrating its latest version of the IBEX ambulance chair, used by ambulances throughout the UK. This easy-to-use patient transport chair is designed for use across all terrains including restricted, spiral and narrow staircases, the manufacturer reports. ‘The innovative product features a plastic seat and backrest with harness, which allows patients to…
Engineers have developed a new high-quality ultrasound transducer that could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound systems. The innovation – created by a team from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada – is portable, wearable and can potentially be powered by a smartphone. Study lead, Dr Carlos Gerardo, from the university’s Department of Electrical and Computer…
In future, healthcare intelligent IoT solutions for real-time and location-based management of assets, employees and patients will be integral. ‘Medicosolution is working on holistic digital concepts for the healthcare sector and offers a platform for integration for existing solutions,’ the IT firm reports. ‘All processes can be tracked in real time,’ Max Schröfelbauer, its CEO,…
A UK company that specialises in the development and manufacture of ‘zero pressure’ technology is showing its full range of mattress solutions at Medica this year. Over the last few years, Rober Ltd of Chesterfield, has invested heavily in R&D to develop a complete range of pressure ulcer mattresses that cater for a variety of needs, including patients who are immobile, bariatric or have…
Beckman Coulter was a gold sponsor of the 2nd World Sepsis Congress, a free-of-charge online conference, hosted by the Global Sepsis Alliance, that took place on Sept. 5 and 6, 2018. Over the course of 17 sessions, more than 100 speakers from approximately 30 countries discussed the wide-ranging implications of sepsis and how to raise public awareness of this often-fatal condition.
Alcohol-based hand sanitisers have been a mainstay in hospital hygiene for decades. But now, strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria show signs of overcoming these handwashing agents as well. Does this mean we should just stop sanitising our hands? Not so fast, say researchers from Melbourne – however, hospitals now need to re-think their strategies to protect their patients from deadly…
Affidea Group, the leading European provider of diagnostic imaging, outpatient and cancer care services, announces the opening of a new ExpressCare Clinic in Tallaght in Dublin for minor injuries and minor illnesses, after an investment of €2 million. This is the second Affidea ExpressCare Clinic to open in Ireland this year, with the other clinic operating in Cork, and this adds to its network…
Novaerus, an Irish company specialising in non-chemical air disinfection using patented ultra-low energy plasma, announced the launch of the Defend 1050, a portable, easy to use device ideal for rapid disinfection and purification of the air in large spaces and high-risk situations such as operating theatres, ICUs, IVF labs, emergency and waiting rooms, and construction zones.
‘With Vacuette safety products you can minimise the risk of contamination and injury,’ the manufacturer Greiner Bio-One reports. ‘Needlestick injuries from contaminated puncture devices are the most common source of infection for diseases transmitted by blood or other bodily fluids and are still among the most common occupational accidents today. This is a serious danger!
The Vacuette Safety Winged Set is a new addition to Greiner Bio-One’s (GBO) range of safety products. GBO now offers its customers an even wider selection of safety blood collection sets. In response to high demand for Greiner Bio-One safety products, the existing range will be joined by the new Vacuette Safety Winged Set. As always, the aim is to provide functional, user-friendly and…
Point-of-care ultrasound is playing an important role in the anaesthesiology department at Spain’s Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. Dr Xavier Sala-Blanch, Senior Doctor and Head of Section in the hospital’s Department of Anaesthesiology and Resuscitation and Associate Professor of Anatomy in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Barcelona, discussed how the use of ultrasound technology…
Experts at the 70th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology, held in Bochum, exchanged information on newly discovered resistances. ‘Specifically, resistance against a class of antibiotics that has, so far, always been viewed as a reserve appears to be developing more intensively than previously assumed,’ explained Professor Sören Gatermann, congress president and…
Loreen Herwaldt doesn’t believe there is a ‘gold standard’ for infection prevention, but she knows there are common sense steps that hospitals can take to prevent disease outbreaks. ‘I don’t think there’s a gold standard, or a silver bullet, but more like standard operating procedures,’ says Herwaldt, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Iowa, USA. ‘These are…
Steps taken by a New York health system to identify and tackle acute kidney injury (AKI) at an early stage are having a significant impact on improving intervention and patient outcomes. Key to the turnaround has lay in pathologists accessing big data from the laboratory, and working more closely with administrative personnel to identify early AKI and then responding to it more quickly. Speaking…
Digital bed management systems being trialled in NHS hospitals to improve patient flow are showing early signs of success. Innovations such as patient tracking and real-time location of equipment and staff to help make hospital stays more efficient are being tested at 10 sites. Project leader Bernard Quinn is particularly optimistic about technology that monitors bed availability and patient flow.
Plans to bring together University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust - which runs the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham - and Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, which manages Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull hospitals, have been given the green light from the trusts’ respective Boards of Directors, with the decision cleared by both Councils of Governors. The enlarged…
Room decontamination using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) has proved to be a powerful solution for complete surface and final disinfection as well as outbreak management in modern hospital hygiene. Most final disinfections in hospitals are carried out using the scrub and wipe method, the specialist disinfection company Diop GmbH and Co. KG explains. ‘However,’ the firm adds, ‘this essential…
Synchronised efforts between preventive medicine and immunology enable powerful vaccination strategies in a Spanish seniors hub. Efficient prevention also comes with proper infection control and regulating antibiotics use in primary care, local expert in preventive medicine explained in an exclusive interview with EH. Working in a small structure has its perks, one of which is that departments…
With support from a research grant from the Academy of Architecture for Health Foundation, a West Virginia University researcher is leading a study that will help address the functional complexity of large hospitals. Shan Jiang, assistant professor of landscape architecture in the School of Design and Community Development, and her research team will utilize immersive virtual reality technologies…
New words are consistently spun out in the USA and frequently assimilated into ‘American English’. Take the term ‘hospitalist’ (little used in European English), which was coined by the renowned academic physician Robert M Wachter (University of California, San Francisco) and his colleague Lee Goldman, in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1996. Lisa Chamoff…