France puts public hospitals on the ‘Road to Performance’
One year after boldly launching a far-reaching programme for reforming France’s troubled hospitals a newly created French agency has surprised its detractors and created a way forward.
Surgery
Updated equipment improves trauma care
Treating seriously injured patients is part of daily routine for medical teams at the Orthopaedics and Traumatology Department of the University Hospital in Brno, Czech Republic. Up to 2,600 operations a year take place in this department alone, in the second largest Czech clinic. Updated with Trumpf medical technology, the centre reports quicker and more appropriate responses to planned as well…
Negative pressure wound healing technology
Despite some uncertainty about how it works, there is a growing consensus that Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) – also known as Vacuum Assisted Closure (VAC) – is revolutionising wound care. Speaking at the 1st International Surgical Wound Forum, held recently in Amsterdam, surgeons from Europe and the USA predicted the growing use of this innovative technology across the spectrum of…
Intelligent temperature management
The normal regulation of the core body temperature of a healthy, resting adult human (around 37°C) is affected during surgery, which can lead to an increased rate of wound infections, bleeding and cardiac complications. The manufacturer of MoeckWarming System reusable blankets reports that these provide comprehensive temperature management to ensure patients remain normothermic.
Surgical site infections
Post-operative wound infection occurs after an estimated 17% of surgical operations – sometimes with devastating consequences for the patient. The list of preventive measures is manifold and long. However, one strategy is increasingly moving into the spotlight: the use of antibacterial coated sutures. Ethicon Products is at the cutting edge in this field. Sandra Rasche, head of this Business…
The Surgical Planning Unit
Surgical planning is complex. Today’s surgeons can utilise information from various sources – including CT and MRI images, as well as f-MRI, PET or electro-physiological signals. For minimally invasive surgery (MIS) these additional imaging data are of particular importance, in that they enable precise navigation within the body.
The MR-guided intra-operative surgical suite
Intra-operative MR imaging is still uncommon in Europe – particularly in neurosurgery. One of the first neurosurgery departments to work with a 3-T MR is in the Central Military Hospital in Prague. The experience and initial clinical findings from treating more than 300 patients, over a two-year period, was reported at this year’s ECR.
Hybrid operating theatres
Basically, a hybrid operating theatre (OT) is a combined operating room containing large imaging equipment, such as MRT and CT, which enables intra-operative diagnostics. If provided for in the hygiene and theatre concept, the hybrid OT can also be used purely as a diagnostics room, or as a classic operating room.
The UK’s Vanguard is going global
Last January Dr Maurizio Pupi became the International Business Manager of Vanguard Healthcare – the UK supplier of mobile healthcare facilities – which intends to spread its already very established and necessary services beyond the United Kingdom.
Carestream Health now taking orders for DRX-Mobile retrofit kit
Carestream Health announced it is taking orders for its CARESTREAM DRX-Mobile Retrofit Kit that will allow healthcare providers to upgrade selected mobile x-ray systems to wireless DRX-1 technology. This wireless DR system can help increase on-site productivity and deliver immediate access to images for improved patient care, especially for critically ill patients in emergency rooms, operating…
Olympus Surgical Technologies Europe
From 1 April 2010, the Olympus Group will be pooling its expertise in the field of minimally invasive diagnostics and therapy under a common “Olympus Surgical Technologies Europe” umbrella. To this end, Olympus Winter & Ibe GmbH, Celon AG and Olympus Medical Products Czech SPOL. S.R.O. will be joining forces to accomplish a shared presence under a new, single brand.
Advances in medical imaging: Moving on – from measuring to planning
Prior to the imaging workshop , Meike Lerner asked programme organiser, Professor Thomas M Deserno (Dept. of Medical Informatics, RWTH) about current developments today and how they affect future input from imaging manufacturers.
TopClean 60 multiwasher
For utmost patient safety, MEIKO is proud to present a so-called multiwasher with the type designation “TopClean 60”. This state-of-the-art development from the Offenburg manufacturer of disinfection appliances for hospitals and nursing homes involves a cleaning and disinfection appliance for practically everything that has to be treated safely in terms of hygiene.
Safer indoor air
Innovate Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is a conceptual and operational development. It is comprehensive, modern and multifaceted, to understand the risks and find solutions for indoor air. It goes beyond the sick building concept to define healthy environments and beyond the idea of indoor air being the only contaminant source.
LESS Surgery
Introduced in mid-2007, Laparo-Endoscopic Single- Site Surgery (LESS Surgery) has shown itself as one of the most significant innovations in medical technology, and Olympus is among the first to provide a complete surgical instrument set tailored specifically for LESS Surgery.
Start-up firm shoots towards success
The road from a great idea to a marketable product is long, rocky and often too expensive. Thus innumerable ground breaking, even revolutionary ideas have never seen daylight and innumerable great inventions and inventors have remained hidden behind desks, in labs and garages. Start-up competitions such as Senkrechtstarter, in Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia, ensure that hidden…
TruLight 5520
TruLight 5520 - the world’s first operating theatre (OT) light to provide the ‘adaptive light control plus’ function – is being presented at Medica by Trumpf Medical Systems.
Logi Flex
Logi Flex, manufactured by the award winning firm Surgical Innovations Ltd, is a flexible laparoscopic device that uses pioneering flex technology to provide surgeons with better rigidity during delicate surgical procedures.
Mobile surgical services
The mobile healthcare provider Vanguard Healthcare, which reports unprecedented success in the UK in recent years, is planning to expand into the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland and Scandinavia - an international push implemented, in part, by the firm´s new partnership with the multinational healthcare company Alliance Medical.
Introducing Skytron to Europe
Based in Michigan, Skytron has been as a recognised healthcare supplier in the American market since 1972. Having extended its business focus towards the Asian market, during Medica this year the company is introducing its new venture in the European and African market -- Skytron Europe, which has been set up in the Netherlands.
Seamless patient monitoring throughout the hospital
Draeger Medical showcases its new component for the Infinity Acute Care System, the M540, at this years Medica. The system makes it possible to seamlessly monitor and record vital signs data while moving through the hospital. It is fully integrated with Infinity C700 or C500 Medical Cockpit, which display vital signs data together with networked clinical information.
'Smart' patient monitoring needed to improve workflow
In the operating room, a surgeon typically is surrounded by 11 different medical devices, « and they all keep beeping at us, » complains Dr. Martin Schuster at Charité University Hospital in Berlin. «Which one of these alarms is important, » he asks, adding that blood pressure, oxygen saturation and ventillator alerts can sound between 10 and 12 times during each case.
Managing children´s anxiety before surgery
The prospect of surgery for a child is a frightening unknown for child and parent alike, and the pre-operative process that most children go through only heightens their anxiety. Research on how hospitals can minimize the anxiety and trauma children face both before and after surgery was recently published in the journal Anesthesiology
Barco advance the frontiers of telemedicine
MultiSense Communications, a medical conferencing solutions provider based in High Wycombe, UK, in conjunction with medical imaging specialist Barco, recently demonstrated the clinical benefits of today's telemedicine systems. During a live open heart surgery operation at the Imperial College Hospital in Hammersmith, UK, an entire heart valve repair procedure was captured and transmitted to a…
Maquet launches new solution for digital OR-integration
Medical Systems company Maquet developed a modular expandable solution for digital OR-integration. The AV CONFERENCE PREMIUM MODULAR makes it possible for hospitals to custom-configure individual components for digital OR-integration, in the future.
