The genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 play a significant role in hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. Recent media attention has focused on American actress Angelina Jolie's decision to have her ovaries and fallopian tubes surgically removed after genetic testing for such cancers.
Given the increasing focus on telehealth and telecare services aimed at improving long-term patients’ living conditions and save costs, numerous pilots in various countries have been conducted for proof of concept purposes. Among these, the United Kingdom’s ‘Whole System Demonstrator’ (WSD) programme is the largest randomised controlled trial. Set up by the English National Health Service…
A new "lab-on-a-disc" technology developed by an EU project research team can diagnose malaria and other febrile infectious diseases simultaneously in just an hour - allowing faster point-of-care treatment and precise drugs administration that could save thousands of lives.
Publicly insured Americans who undergo lung transplantation for cystic fibrosis fare markedly worse in the long run than both publicly insured patients in the United Kingdom and privately insured Americans, according to the results of a study conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and U.K. colleagues working in that nation’s government-funded National Health Service.
The idea of a ‘dossier médical personnalisé’ (DMP, or electronic health record) for every French citizen was first inaugurated in 2004. Now, over 10 years and €500 million later, we can look at the pros and cons encountered during this still incomplete journey and consider if similar projects would be a useful addition to healthcare administration in other European countries, or…
The appetite for mobile information technology (IT) seems insatiable. Boosted by the sales of the iPhone 6 Plus, Apple generated a record $18 billion profit in 2015’s first quarter alone. Social media use is exploding, and dedicated professional platforms, such as Figure 1, a sort of Instagram for doctors, increasingly emerge. These changes are affecting our daily lives, and this is also true…
Facing challenges common to any manager, Russian radiologists must also confront a funding crisis, system dysfunctions, self-referring patients, and head-hunters chasing staff.
During an exclusive European Hospital interview, in the run up to ECR 2015, Professor Lluís Donoso-Bach MD PhD, incoming President of the European Society of Radiology (ESR), outlines his plans to tackle challenges facing radiology in Europe – and anticipates a brighter future in Spain.
Where some decry the commoditisation of radiology, Gabriel Krestin MD, sees an opportunity to redefine the profession, for radiologists to rise up from basement reading rooms to consult as equals with other medical specialists in multi-disciplinary conferences focused on patient care. ‘If we are going to think about the future, we should not be looking in a rear view mirror. We need to be open…
At the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance (IMED 2014), in Vienna, this year’s focus was on one particular emerging infectious disease: Ebola. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as of January 14th, more than 8.400 people have died of this dangerous disease and more than 21.000 cases were reported in nine countries. Report: Michael Krassnitzer
They are not such strange bedfellows, say Walter Depner (Frankfurt) and Professor Norbert Gässler (Hildesheim), who find themselves ‘kissed by the European lab muse’ and were prompted to ask: What links literature and laboratory medicine at a European level? Commentary: Walter Depner, Prof. Norbert Gässler
Last October the Association of the German Diagnostics Industry (VDGH) warned that the proposed EU regulation on in vitro diagnostic medical devices will increase production costs. Simultaneously with the Brussels proposal publication, the German Federal Ministry of Health presented a draft fees regulation that includes significant increases and several new fees, inter alia the minimum fee for…
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has issued strict new guidelines on safe nurse staffing levels to all hospitals. Report: Mark Nicholls
A third of NHS contracts have been awarded to private sector providers since the Health and Social Care Act came into force, finds an investigation by The BMJ today. The report examines the reality behind the claims of widespread NHS privatisation
A panel of experts has recommended that existing programmes be phased out and that systematic screening programmes be replaced with systematic screening information that would give women the opportunity to make individual choices. Report: Mark Nicholls
EHRs (Electronic Health records) will deliver cost savings to the global healthcare industry of $78 billion between 2014 and 2019, becoming an integral part of future digital healthcare initiatives, forecasts a new report from leading hi-tech analyst house Juniper Research.
The medical departments of Danish hospitals routinely function at 100 percent in-patient bed capacity. Is this situation a factor of productivity and efficiency or a situation to be concerned about? Is there any clinical impact on patients admitted to such a crowded hospital? Report: Cynthia E Keen
‘Germany has realised that something must be done,’ Professor Britta Böckmann of Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts, concludes, referring to a 2012 study from Accenture that showed this country to be only average in expandable healthcare networking compared with other countries. Report: Chrissanthi Nikolakudi
The number of cancer patients in Germany continues to rise steadily. An increase in the number of newly diagnosed cases of 14% is expected by 2020 compared to 2008. Therefore early detection is increasingly the focus of attention.
Fever, vomiting, internal and external bleeding – these are the symptoms of the Ebola virus infection. The current epidemic in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is the largest recorded Ebola outbreak ever and a serious challenge for the healthcare institutions worldwide.
Today, COCIR releases its recommendations for the EU institutions on how to improve healthcare in Europe, promoting the importance of the medical technology sector in driving efficiency and productivity of healthcare systems, and in helping to boost the EU economy.
This year’s Journées Internationales de Biologie (JIB) in Paris (8-11 October) will include the new France-Germany Forum on its opening day.
The numbers of ‘suicide tourists’ going to Switzerland to take their own lives has doubled within the space of four years, reports a study published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
‘Better hygiene’ is the frequently and loudly recommended panacea in the intensifying struggle against hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). However there are currently no evidence-based studies that evaluate the efficacy of additional hygiene measures.
Free fertility treatment should be banned for those making "lifestyle" reproductive choices, such as sterilisation reversal or single motherhood for fertile women. And fertility clinics should be subject to carbon capping schemes, in a bid to help curb climate change, argues a bioethicist in the Journal of Medical Ethics.