Health always has a political dimension, as seen at two recent international events - the World Health Summit in Geneva in May and the G7 Summit in the Bavarian Alps near Garmisch at the beginning of June. Report: Anja Behringer
Surveillance, hygiene and infection prevention, antimicrobial stewardship, diagnosis of infectious diseases, use of antimicrobial medicines as well as reporting and information. Report: Michael Krassnitzer
Since 2009, as part of diagnostic and antimicrobial stewardship strategies, Hampshire Hospitals National Health Service (NHS) Trust has used serum procalcitonin (PCT) – an innovative and highly specific marker to diagnose clinically relevant bacterial infections and sepsis. Report: Mark Nicholls
When trialled in Swansea, Wales, Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation – Time of Flight (MALDI-TOF) demonstrated sufficient advantages over conventional methods to be introduced into routine practice.
Bringing liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) testing into clinical laboratories has been a slow process but continues to show promise to help improve patient care. The medical device industry is on the edge of fundamental breakthroughs that can help drive the adoption into more mainstream clinical laboratories. We recently sat down with Dr Bori Shushan, Mass Spectrometry…
This article discusses examples of applications of genetic analyses in coagulation disorders and haematological and oncological diseases. Professor Christine Mannhalter highlights the impact changes have on the occurrence and severity of diseases and their influence on therapy response. Report: Christine Mannhalter
Agendia co-founder and Chief Research Officer, Laura van't Veer, Ph.D., has won the European Inventor Award in the SME category. The European Inventor Award is a prestigious innovation award presented by the European Patent Office, with only 15 inventors nominated in a total of five categories worldwide.
Unstable funding is threatening the viability of academic biomedical research, according to a new paper published this week in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The paper was written jointly by the deans of 19 prominent medical schools around the USA. Among this group is University of Maryland School of Medicine Dean E. Albert Reece.
Several EPFL laboratories are working on devices allowing constant analysis over as long a period as possible. The latest development is the biosensor chip, created by researchers in the Integrated Systems Laboratory working together with the Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit Group. Sandro Carrara is unveiling it today at the International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) in Lisbon.
Researchers at the University of Toronto design diagnostic chip to reduce testing time from days to one hour, allowing doctors to pick the right antibiotic the first time.
Scientists who use synchrotron light sources are welcoming an era of "on-demand" X-rays, in which they have access to the light beams they want thanks to a technique developed at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
People waiting for organ transplants may soon have higher hopes of getting the help that they need in time. Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology have developed a new technique that extends the time that donor organs last and can also resuscitate organs obtained after cardiac arrest.
Scientists from the Hubrecht Institute and the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMC Utrecht) have developed a cell culture model of human colon cancer progression. This model mimics the situation in patients more closely than any other colon cancer model so far. It enables researchers to study processes involved in colon cancer development and find new cancer drugs.
"Infection prevention and control is a matter of awareness and continuous education," says Dr Ernst Tabori, Medical Director of the German Consulting Centre for Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control (BZH), at the University Hospital Freiburg, specialises in building hygiene in hospitals and outpatient healthcare facilities, as well as surgical units. Report: Anja Behringer
The UK pathology sector faces numerous challenges as it strives to create a future medical laboratory workforce. As in many divisions of the National Health Service (NHS), this area has an ageing population yet must evolve against a backdrop of fast-developing technologies, emerging science, financial constraints and the challenge of working in tandem with the private sector. Report: Mark…
The turnover in POCT diagnostics will continue to increase substantially according to participants in an ‘In Vitro Diagnostic Products’ meeting held in Toronto, Canada last October. Sponsored by the German Institute for Standardisation, the event included participation by the DIN Standards Committee Medicine (NAMed; NA 063) and the Working Committee on Point of Care Testing (POCT) (NA…
The European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (ESCMID) today issued a special excellence award for outstanding achievement to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The award was bestowed in Copenhagen at ESCMID’s annual congress, on behalf of all its members, in light of the charity’s huge contribution to global health over the last 40-years, and in special recognition of…
Each year, approximately 1.6 million women in the USA have breast biopsies to diagnose or rule out cancer. Pathological diagnosis is considered the gold standard – how accurate are these diagnoses? Report: Cynthia E. Keen
Looking back, the founding fathers of laboratory medicine were doctors who carried out the historic medical practice of uroscopy in the Middle Ages, explains Professor Klaus Kohse MD, Director of the Institute for Laboratory Medicine in Oldenburg Clinical Centre at Oldenburg University Medical Faculty. Report: Walter Depner
It’s thumbs up for Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics’ Aptio Automation, following a two-year deployment by Dundee-based National Health Service (NHS) Dundee, the first north European healthcare organisation to use the system to consolidate formerly siloed biochemistry, immunology, haematology and haemostasis testing onto a single automation track.
Prescribing antibiotics for a viral infection with fever, a cold and a cough? There is no point! This is the best-known example of over-use in medicine. There are also numerous examples of diagnostic procedures and therapies that are pointless, yet still being doled out in surgeries and hospitals – sometimes even harming a patient. This is set to change, according to the German Society of…
Expecting 10,000 participants, prior to the 25th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark (25-28 April) its Programme Director, Professor Winfried V Kern MD, was keen to point out: ‘The findings and recommendations that emerge from this vibrant platform each year have, in the past, had a tremendous impact not only on guidelines and best…
The proposed EU draft IVD regulation looks set to have major implications for IVD manufacturers and laboratory-developed tests (LDTs). Replacing a current system that is inflexible, unresponsive and does not effectively protect patients, the new regulation will apply directly to all 28 EU countries and govern the manufacture and marketing of in vitro diagnostic devices (IVDs).
All laboratories should utilise quality monitoring systems and systematically work through their workflow processes to identify problem areas, according to Lucia Berte, who specialises in quality management systems in healthcare ancillary services through the Colorado-based organisation Laboratories Made Better. Report: Mark Nicholls
In European acute care hospitals, on any given day, an estimated 80,000 patients – roughly six percent of all patients – receive antimicrobial treatment to fight a healthcare associated infection (HAI), according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Report: Walter Depner
