Some significant changes in the European hospital sector have occurred over the last 20 years. ‘The necessity to contain the exploding costs in particular has led to a reduction in the number of hospitals and hospital beds, and staffing levels have also been affected by the many cost cutting measures. This has not been without its consequences, as we now know,’ writes Ludwig F Rutten.
Waiting for test results can be a minor inconvenience for some patients, but for those who are critically ill, timing matters. At the CPOCT International Symposium in Copenhagen (21-24 September) Dr Craig Lilly, a professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts spoke about the point-of-care testing market, outlining currently available testing for critically ill adults, and also under…
FujiFilm SonoSite makes ultrasound machines tough for one reason — the people who use them need it that way.
Siemens Healthineers announced today it released a major software upgrade for the RAPIDComm Data Management System (V6.0), an informatics solution to centrally manage in vitro diagnostics analyzers and operators at the point-of-care (POC). In addition to the system’s enhanced productivity and performance features, RAPIDComm V6.0 now connects with POC cardiac devices.
The massive earthquake in Nepal in April 2015 killed more than 9,000 people and injured more than 23,000. Within days, medical teams from other countries had offered services to the disaster relief effort.
As a former top-flight athlete with the French national gymnastics team, physiotherapist Luc D'Asnières de Veigy appreciates the value of rapid diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation following an injury. A specialist in the treatment of shoulder disorders, he explains how using point-of-care ultrasound systems helps in his day-to-day practice at Monte Carlo Joint Repair.
Point-of-care ultrasound is an essential tool for Dr Mark Ridgewell, an early pioneer for sports and exercise medicine (SEM) and, for the past 13 years, consultant sports physician at the Sport Wales Institute.
ARIETTA Prologue has been designed especially for the point-of-care (POC) ultrasound market. Thanks to its intuitive and simple operation, it fulfils the fundamental role of a portable ultrasound system, bringing the clinical benefits of diagnostic ultrasound into new areas of healthcare.
Ultrasound technology is aiding specialist treatment of shoulder and elbow problems at Germany’s Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, enabling primary diagnosis, screening and monitoring of patients’ progress, as well as needle guidance for injections. Professor Markus Scheibel, Head of the Shoulder and Elbow Department at the hospital, explained: “We see a wide range of patients, from…
Point-of-care ultrasound systems play an important role in the treatment of complicated medical cases at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford, as consultant intensivist and anaesthetist Dr Justin Kirk-Bayley explained.
Seattle-based medical ultrasound systems manufacturer SonoSite has aimed to take ultrasound to the point of care (POC) since it was owned by ATL. The parent company had gained a contract from the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a lightweight ultrasound device for military use.
In addition to physical examinations, medical history laboratory test results are critical in almost all medical decisions made in the hospital. The demand for adequate, fast measurements has increased exponentially over at least the last 50 years and may have increased 100-fold, or more, since the 1950s. This could not have been achieved without the introduction of partial or full automation, of…
Royal Philips and Banyan Biomarkers, Inc. today announced that they have entered into a multi-year joint development agreement to develop and commercialize a new handheld blood test to detect and evaluate mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) - also known as concussion - at the point of care. The new handheld test will be based on Philips’ Minicare I-20 system. The financial details of the…
German charity Help in Motion has equipped its two new mobile hospital vehicles with robust and portable NanoMaxx® point-of-care ultrasound systems from SonoSite. The charity was founded by entrepreneur Ralph Mueller to provide healthcare to deprived populations in Germany and overseas.
Philips Minicare delivers rule-in/rule-out readings for heart attacks in 10 minutes. It takes a lot of hard work to make things easy. Biomedical experts at Royal Philips have spent more than 10 years developing a simple test for the emergency department that, in less than 10 minutes, may indicate whether a patient suffering chest pains is having a heart attack.
A growing number of clinical tests are being delivered in community hospitals with more patients receiving quicker, accurate diagnoses closer to home, without stays in acute hospital beds. Professor Daniel Lasserson, an Associate Professor in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at Oxford University, shares the opinion that using point-of-caretesting (POCT) to facilitate high…
Since 2009, as part of diagnostic and antimicrobial stewardship strategies, Hampshire Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Trust has used serum procalcitonin (PCT) – an innovative and highly specific marker to diagnose clinically relevant bacterial infections and sepsis. Report: Mark Nicholls
A new way of rapidly identifying bacteria, which requires a slight modification to a simple microscope, may change the way doctors approach treatment for patients who develop potentially deadly infections and may also help the food industry screen against contamination with harmful pathogens, according to researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejeon,…
Abbott's i-STAT® 1 Wireless System is now available for use in hospitals, emergency rooms, physicians' offices and other health care environments in Europe and regions that recognize CE Mark. A portable, handheld blood analyzer, the i-STAT® uses two to three drops of a person's blood to perform common tests right at the bedside. By providing and transmitting test results within minutes to a…
The time needed to genetically sequence the bacteria causing tuberculosis (Mtb) from patient samples has been reduced from weeks to days using a new technique developed by a team at University College London (UCL). This could help health service providers to better treat disease, control transmission of this infection, and monitor outbreaks.
Dr Sven Ballnus is Director of the Department of Intensive Care Medicine at the Hospital Centre Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, and an active member of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine. Formerly a chief consultant in intensive care medicine at Westküstenkliniken in Heide, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, he oversaw the development of an ultrasound course focusing on the specific needs of…
The turnover in POCT diagnostics will continue to increase substantially according to participants in an ‘In Vitro Diagnostic Products’ meeting held in Toronto, Canada last October. Sponsored by the German Institute for Standardisation, the event included participation by the DIN Standards Committee Medicine (NAMed; NA 063) and the Working Committee on Point of Care Testing (POCT) (NA…
Dr Paul Klein, team doctor of the Bundesliga football club 1.FC Köln for over 11 years, has recently taken advantage of the loan of a Fujifilm SonoSite Edge point-of-care ultrasound system to monitor players during a training camp in the United States. The ten-day trip to Orlando, Florida, was in preparation for the second half of the football season, and Dr Klein was keen to have a diagnostic…
Royal Philips today announced that it has entered into a multi-year development agreement with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. (Janssen). The collaboration aims to develop a new handheld blood test to provide doctors with a novel tool to improve the care of patients with neuropsychiatric disorders.
Sphere Medical, launches its in-line patient dedicated arterial blood gas analyser in Germany, Netherlands and Belgium at ISICEM 2015. The advanced Proxima System delivers true point-of-care testing (POCT) by enabling critical care staff to obtain frequent laboratory accurate blood gas measurements without leaving the patient’s bedside. This facilitates effective and timely clinical decisions…