COCIR welcomes the adoption of the Medical Device Regulation (MDR) after successful vote during the European Parliament Plenary Session today. These new rules should allow for continuing improvement to the safety of medical devices, benefitting patients and ensure timely access to innovative healthcare technology.
Dutch healthcare is internationally viewed as high level. However, the cost of care continues to rise, despite all the cuts.
Laboratory medicine delivery, regulation and accreditation vary between countries, e.g. Norway, Serbia and France recently aired at FiLM 2017. Leading figures explained the shape, scope and funding of healthcare and lab services and roles played by different professionals and challenges they face.
Leading clinicians, scientists, academics and crossbench peers have urged a radical rethink of the approach to health in the United Kingdom.
Medical laboratories must be pro-active if they are to meet the new challenges being presented to the sector globally, according to Dr William Morice from the renowned Mayo Clinic in America.
The British government has pledged to increase the number of places available at United Kingdom medical schools by 25 per cent by 2018 in a bid to boost the number of home-grown doctors within the National Health Service (NHS).
The average human being is living longer than ever before. Nearly every country on the planet has seen an increase in life expectancy since the beginning of the 21st century. But though we are living longer, not all of us are living healthier. Health Adjusted Life Expectancy (HALE), or healthy life expectancy, is a metric used by the World Health Organization to measure the number of years a…
The EPF campaign on Universal Health Coverage will be officially presented in the European Parliament on the 27th of February. Co-hosted by MEPs Kateřina Konečná (GUE/NGL, Czech Republic) and Andrey Kovatchev (EPP, Bulgaria), the event will be the opportunity to identify concrete steps towards universal access to healthcare. #Access2030.
Is it time for a dedicated (hypothecated) tax to fund the NHS, asks The BMJ in a debate article? A dedicated tax is the only way that we can be sure the government is reflecting public wishes, argues Richard Layard, emeritus professor at the London School of Economics.
Catalonia, Spain’s richest region, is launching one of the largest Big Data healthcare projects in Europe, after scrapping a polemic plan that would have enabled patient data to be shared with private for-profit companies.
The British decision to leave the European Union was and still is constantly discussed. Thinking about the consequences leaves more open questions than answers.
A leading British medical organisation has issued a hard-hitting report that paints ‘a grim picture’ of the National Health Service (NHS).
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is widespread globally, with an estimated 480,000 cases in 2014.Although rare in European countries, the risks posed by the current migrant crisis makes MDR-TB an important and urgent public health priority.
The Endocrine Society expressed disappointment in the European Commission's revised proposal on defining and identifying endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), citing unnecessarily narrow criteria for identifying EDCs that will make it nearly impossible for scientists to meet the unrealistically high burden of proof and protect the public from dangerous chemicals.
Hardly any topic has been discussed as broadly as personalised medicine, with countless stakeholders, ministries and organisations involved. That’s good news says Professor Angela Brand, Professorial Fellow at the Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT) and Professor at the Department of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences at Maastricht University.…
A global spotlight has at last highlighted the truly acute problem of antimicrobial resistance.
New policy recommendations on preventing occupational exposure to cytotoxic drugs were launched in the European Parliament on 26 April 2016, an important new initiative designed to protect healthcare professionals working across the EU.
Mental Health Europe (MHE) is deeply worried by barriers which may prevent migrants and refugees from accessing much needed quality mental healthcare and support. MHE is further concerned by the current handling of the migration question by the EU, which has failed to address basic humanitarian and protection needs. In its most recent position paper, MHE explores the human rights, economic and…
Radical steps have been taken to address a growing financial crisis facing hospitals across England. Under new rulings, NHS England will allow the worst affected hospitals to relax critical performance indicators, such as waiting time targets, as the NHS financial crisis deepens. Report: Mark Nicholls
According to Dr Peter Liese (CDU), speaker for health issues for the European People’s Party (EPP Group), the largest parliamentary group, this is an important step for Europeans who have long awaited appropriate consequences to follow scandals such as poor quality breast implants, stents or unsafe HIV tests. Due to extremely complex issues, it took several years to reach an agreement,…
A largely stunned nation now asks what will happen to its beloved NHS and the EU medical professionals who are here to support it.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of Bath, and The BMJ, show how NHS England, unable to budget for broad access to these drugs, tried to alter the outcome of the NICE process, and when it failed, defied NICE’s authority by rationing access to them.
At Europe’s most prestigious medical conferences, as many as half of the doctors attending are only there because of the generous sponsorship by pharmaceutical and medical technology companies. The practice has been going on for decades, to the point that continuing medical education (CME) in Europe is heavily dependent on the largess of these companies. In 2018 it all comes to an end when a…
A ‘technology’ project to modernise healthcare for patients with long- term medical conditions is being trialled in the United Kingdom in seven ‘test bed’ initiatives. Test Beds, a term used to describe a technology project resulting from collaborations between the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) and international innovators, aims to harness technology to address issues facing…
Bed blocking is a major problem within NHS hospitals across the UK, with thousands of patients sitting in hospital beds facing a ‘delayed discharge’ until the necessary next stage of their care becomes available. A delay may be non-availability of a temporary or permanent space in a residential home, or rehabilitation unit, or a smaller community hospital, or lack of a supportive care package…