The German care system for patients with acute and unspecific chest pain is unique in Europe. The closely knit and countrywide network of accredited Chest Pain Units (CPUs) ensures fast and targeted diagnosis of acute cardiac events. The German CPUs may soon serve as a blueprint for other European countries. The German Cardiac Society (DGK) has already accredited the first institutions – others…
The recently launched Respironics V680 ventilator, from Philips Healthcare EMEA, was guided onto the market by Arne Cohrs, its Sales and Marketing Director of Therapeutic Care in Patient Care and Monitoring. We asked him about his department and the merits of non-invasive and invasive ventilators. Report: Chrissanthi Nikolakudi
‘There are still only 24 hours in a day – even for surgeons,’ said Professor Vogt MD during our interview. The Director of the clinic for plastic, hand and reconstructive surgery at Hanover Medical School and President of the DGCH (German Society of Surgery) is calling for solutions to the dilemma trainee surgeons face: undergoing high-quality specialist medical training while completing…
Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center project a national influx of patients who will need immediate treatment.
In the USA, some patients have bled to death while in the CT scanner because this type of examination takes too long for blunt abdominal trauma diagnosis. Report: Chrissanthi Nikolakudi
Given their quality, small size, portability and robustness, SonoSite point-of-care ultrasound systems play vital roles in hectic A&E and surgical departments, and also in monitoring patients in transit.
Recently, ways to improve trauma care, particularly the care of acutely injured victims of traffic accidents, was discussed by international experts gathered at the World Trauma Congress (held in Frankfurt/Main, Germany).
There is room for worldwide improvement of trauma care, as Congress President Professor Ingo Marzi, Frankfurt/Main (Germany), emphasised.
Conflict and crisis situations pose specific challenges for medical care. The only way to cope with them is to apply scientific evidence from an exchange between academic surgeons and their colleagues active in the field. The EFORT Congress in London is a crucial hub at European level for this exchange.
Johns Hopkins scientists have developed three new Web-based software tools designed to help hospital emergency departments, first responder organizations and others model and prepare for major disasters, including flu outbreaks.
Mobile healthcare is a major buzzword nowadays: take the devices and the data to the patient, not the other way round. Mobility in this concept is not restricted to the hospital where devices and data flow freely from department to department, but encompasses follow-up care at home. Report: Anja Behringer
At October’s annual congress of trauma and orthopaedic surgeons in Berlin, the session Ultrasound beyond trauma and orthopaedic surgery – What can we learn from neighbouring disciplines? exposed the unexploited potential of ultrasound for trauma and orthopaedic surgery, EH correspondent Bettina Döbereiner reports.
Countries vary considerably in the number of cases in which artificial knee joints are employed, according to researchers from the Medical University of Graz (Austria) reporting at the EFORT Congress in Istanbul.
A UK hospital is assessing trauma patients by taking them directly for CT scans rather than to the A&E department. Piloted at King’s College Hospital, this new approach to assessing patients with life-threatening injuries aims to speed up diagnosis by conducting CT simultaneously with patient resuscitation and stabilisation.
Rapid and accurate diagnosis using ultrasound has won increasing use by physicians and radiologists. The new MyLab Alpha delivers high-end performance in an easy-to-use, highly mobile system.
Although scientists and medics have sought ways to grow artificial skin in laboratories since the 1970s, only now has it become possible to reproduce the top layer of skin, thanks to work at the Trauma Surgery and Orthopaedics Clinic in Berlin (ukb).
Around 20,000 people become major trauma victims every year in England. Studies have shown that Major Trauma Centres (MTCs) with dedicated personnel and specialist equipment save more lives and reduce the risk of serious disability. Thus, to offer such victims better chances of survival, a new network of 22 MTCs has been established across the country to provide centralised care, with experts…
Meeting with EH editor Brigitte Dinkloh, Congress Secretary Professor Alexis Ulrich MD (left), Assistant Medical Director at the Clinic for General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery at the University of Heidelberg, outlined the scientific programme, discussed some impressive advances in surgical procedures, and explained why the gathering bears the slogan Surgery in Partnership.
Figures suggest that imaging of pregnant women increased by 121% between 1997 and 2008, even though radiologists face several critical challenges when imaging these patients.
Swiss surgical patients can check on and correct their treatment data and thereby facilitate reliable hospital benchmarking. In 1995, surgeons in the Biel, Burgdorf and Zurich Limmattal hospitals founded the Working Group for Quality Assurance in Surgery (AQC) to collect and compare reatment data.
The injury was as spectacular as it was ruesome. Struck by a train a male patient was brought to the emergency department in Munich, his right foot hanging on only by muscle and bloody tendons, the bone shattered.
Traumatic injuries result in 800,00 deaths per year in Europe, making this one of the leading causes of mortality and the primary cause of death in patients aged 45 years old or younger. Depending on the type and severity of injury, usually trauma patients are treated by a team of experts from different disciplines.
Medical advances learned from treating military casualties severely injured on the battlefield are helping to enhance medicine for British civilians. Mark Nicholls reports on a conference to hasten advances into the public arena.
The project consortium Alarm has developed new software to enable a computer-assisted triage-system for mass accidents and catastrophes. Torsten Schröder, emergency physician at the Charité Clinic for Anaesthesiology, with the focus on operative Intensive Care Medicine in Berlin, gave a mid-term review of the project and explained the advantages of the IT-supported triage-system for…