
UK’s first Specialist Emergency Care Hospital takes shape
The UK’s first Specialist Emergency Care Hospital is on target to open for the first patients in 2015.

The UK’s first Specialist Emergency Care Hospital is on target to open for the first patients in 2015.

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.

Over the past decade the use of point-of-care testing (POCT) in European and North American hospitals has steadily increased, stimulated by the objectives of accelerating diagnostic treatment, increasing efficiency and improving patient outcomes.

Performing manual chest compressions well for an extended period of time is almost impossible.

New technological opportunities make it continuously easier to use medical devices anywhere, for in- and out-patient care. The technology has become mobile – and so have the patients. In-patient monitoring can be carried out wirelessly, independent of a patient’s respective location.

The rapidly growing importance of emergency radiology is underlined by the 10-15% annual increase in the number of emergency medicine scans performed in just the last few years. Clearly knowledge exchange in emergency radiology had become necessary.A European home for emergency diagnostics

Over the past 10 years the use of point-of-care testing (POCT) in in European and North American hospitals has steadily increased, stimulated by the objectives of accelerating diagnostic treatment, increasing efficiency and improving patient outcomes, Cynthia E. Keen reports

Football authorities across the world have been urged to adopt a universal standard of emergency care to help cut the potential for serious injury or death during matches.

Whole-body CT scans during shock room treatment of polytrauma patients are on the increase since their advantages are obvious: they are a fast and comprehensive examination that allows immediate therapy-relevant decisions.

Infusion solutions on the basis of HES (hydroxyethyl starch) are blood volume substitutes. They replace missing blood volume in patients with high blood loss, they stabilize the blood circulation and restore oxygen and nutrient supply to organs.

Experts from DEGUM, the German Society for Ultrasound in Medicine, are convinced that the use of ultrasound in preclinical and clinical emergency medicine can be further optimised, according to interim study results that indicate, in cases of unclear symptoms, the diagnosis and therefore decision for appropriate A&E treatment can be accelerated by using ultrasound.

Loading high performance functions on highly portable ultrasound systems puts life-saving tools in the hands of trauma physicians, John Brosky reports.

There is little evidence on respiratory support with extracorporeal systems – enough of an argument for most of those doubting the procedure not to use it, or even make it available.

Belgium – Last year, the annual ISICEM event attracted almost 6,000 participants from 101 countries. Its chairman, Professor Jean-Louis Vincent, from the Intensive Care Medicine Department in Erasme University Hospital, Brussels, offered EH a few reasons for its continuing success.

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.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the main cause of accidental death in Europe and all highly developed countries, accounting for around 40% of all accidental mortality.

Professor Ulrich Linsenmaier, a leading expert in emergency radiology, has highlighted the need for clinicians to read image data rapidly in an emergency department if they are to help improve clinical outcomes for polytrauma patients.

People prefer to seek medical help in public rather than private hospital

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.

ACEM Medical Company, specialising in the manufacture of medical equipment, scialytic and surgical lamps, is demonstrating the following products at Medica 2012:

Ensuring the safety of hospitalised patients is vital – and brought under a particularly strong focus in anaesthesiology. Launched in 2010, the Helsinki Declaration provided a further boost. Report: Holger Zorn

The Global Sepsis Alliance (GSA) is urging healthcare providers, patients and policymakers worldwide to treat sepsis as a medical emergency. “Tens of millions of people die from sepsis each year, making it the likely leading cause of death worldwide. Sepsis kills regardless of age, ethnicity, location and access to care,” said Konrad Reinhart, M.D., Chairman of the GSA and director of the…

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the world’s biggest public health problems. In the USA, for example, about 1.7 million people sustain TBI every year, costing healthcare $76.5 billion. Yet, the public knows little of the significance of TBI and also it once received the nickname ‘silent epidemic’ by the American Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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.