The ICU: caring for patients' relatives
An intensive care unit (ICU) is a ward staffed by medical support who have been specially trained in the high levels of care required by each pathological state.
Emergency medicine
Achieving effective teamwork
“All we need to know was learned in kindergarten”, say Peter Pronovost MD PhD and Christine Holzmuller BLA.
Clinical quality ventilator for home use
Camena, an innovative ventilator that provides clinical-quality ventilation for patients at home, will be launched, at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) annual meeting (4-8 September 2004, Glasgow, UK), by Dräger Medical AG & Co KGaA, of Lübeck, Germany.
50 years of open heart surgery
Fifty years ago Henry Gibbon introduced a vital tool for cardiac surgery - the heart-lung machine. While pioneering efforts were made in the first half of the 20th century, this equipment enabled reproducible operations for either congenital or acquired heart disease in many patients.
AED - with spoken BLS instructions
For those without practised skills in using automatic external defibrillation (AED) and basic life support procedures, the prospect of coping with a case of sudden cardiac arrest is awesome.
Patients link with mobiles
Another new system introduced at Bad Reichenhall's city hospital, allows nurses to talk with patients and ascertain whether their calls are due to an emergency or for a non-urgent request.
Mobile test detects infarction in minutes
The earlier a cardiac infarction is detected the better the patient's chances of survival. However, because tests for cardiac infarction check for protein molecules that are released from heart muscle during cell necrosis, and these enter the blood very slowly, it can take three hours to gain a reliable result.
Airline tests in-flight telemedicine
Lufthansa - the first airline company to offer high-speed broadband internet connection for data transmission - has used the trial phase of its new in-flight internet service, Lufthansa FlyNet, to test telemedicine potential on board.
