Geriatrics

MANAGEMENT

Reforming the Viennese hospital structure

Healthcare and the 2009 EU Presidencies

The next two countries to preside over the EU Presidency - the Czech Republic (first half year of 2009) and Sweden (second half) recently presented the priorities of their presidencies for healthcare at the European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG).

Want to open a care facility?

Operators and funding bodies of care facilities, politicians and representatives from nursing care insurance companies and their advisory body the Medical Service of the Central Organisation for Medical Insurers (MDS), as well as investors, gathered in November for the two-day Euroforum Conference.

Finding new ways of monitoring elderly patients at home

Hungary is going to start a major new collaborative research programme to transform the care of elderly citizens was announced in Hungary. A broad consortium of private and public sector organisations, led by GE Healthcare has secured HUF 895 million (US $4.2 million) from the Hungarian government to research and develop new ways of monitoring the health of elderly citizens in their own homes. …

Sotec Medical SAS

Sotec Medical designs and manufactures medical equipment for hospitals, clinics and nursing homes, as well as homecare. The firm emphasises that it's wide range of appliances, from standard to custom-made, are subjected to in-depth study both in their workings as well as aesthetics.

Stents: Most patients don't receive stress tests to confirm need

Investigating the appropriate use of procedures to open narrowed coronary arteries, e.g. angioplasty and stenting, researchers at UCSF (University of California, USA) found that less than 50% of Medicare patients had documented non-invasive stress testing prior to elective percutaneous coronary intervention, or PCI (clinical name for these procedures).

MEDICA 2008 opens its doors

When from 19 to 22 November the world's largest medical fair takes place in Dusseldorf, the entire city is in a kind of emergency state: hotels are bustin' out of their seams, traffic periodically comes to a standstill and at night exhibitors and visitors alike crowd the narrow streets of the Altstadt and the fancy hotel bars and enjoy whatever entertainment North Rhine-Westphalia's capital has…

Orthopaedic surgery in France: cause for concern?

While consensus varies according to source as to the number of orthopaedic surgeons in France, all statistics point to a steady decline the numbers of qualified specialists and particularly in the numbers entering the specialty.

Minimising the risk of falling

By Hans Peter Hartl, member of the Nursing Directorate at the Department of Gerontopsychiatry, Mainkofen District Hospital, Germany.

Techniken für ein eigenständiges Leben Daheim

Trotz der Einschränkungen, die ein hohes Alter mit sich bringt, eigenständig und selbstbestimmt leben: Der Kombination modernster Technik, Pflegedienstleistung und Hilfpersonal macht dies möglich. Die geschickte Verbindung von Pflegedienstleistungen, Hilfspersonal und moderner Technik bietet vielfältige Chancen, derartige neue Wohnkonzepte und Versorgungsmodelle zu…

NICE renewed flu guidance

The next flu season will come. To prevent high-risk people from infections, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recently published a final guidance on the use of the drugs oseltamivir, amantadine and zanamivir for the prophylaxis of influenza. "But vaccination is the main way to prevent flu", says Gillian Leng, NICE Deputy Chief Executive.

Care of the elderly varies widely within the EU

Drug access by older citizens varies widely across 25 EU member countries, according to a new study by IMS Health. Per capita usage of drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease in the five EU countries where utilization was highest was 20 times greater than in the five lowest-use countries.

Heart failure

The ageing population and growing risk factors have made a significant impact on driving up the number of registered heart failure (HF) cases. Existing pharmacological strategies are improving the survival rates of acute and early-stage HF patients, ironically providing a growing body of patients with progression of the disease to HF.

NHS not good enough for elder people

British researchers found that the NHS and private healthcare are not providing good enough basic care to a large portion of the population in England. Particulary older and frailer people are suffering from lack of care.

Seniors got more - prescriptions

Compared to 1997 people aged 60 and over receive a lot more from their physicians: Not more attention but more drugs or other medical aids. The average number of prescriptions for elder people doubled from 1997 to 2007, a report from The NHS Information Centre reveals.

Microbubbles for a new ultrasound technique

Tiny lipid-shelled microbubbles injected in vessels may serve as an new ultrasound contrast agent to evaluate microvascular blood flow. By this microbubbles US-researcher devised a ultrasound imaging technique that can spot early signs of PAD.

Rising of unrecognised dementia in the developing world

The 10/66 Dementia Research Group warns that dementia is often not diagnosed in low-income and middle-income countries. Latest research shows that these figures has been underestimated and the economic costs of dementia and other age-related illnesses are rising.

Many more strokes

Even in 2004, the medical costs for the care of stroke patients in Germany came to 7.1 billion euro. The neurologist Tobias Neumann-Haefelin of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and his colleagues have calculated the projected number of strokes in the German federal state of Hesse for the year 2050.

Mental health and radiology

The Uliazpi Foundation in Spain, which studies and cares for severely mentally retarded patients, carried out an interesting study to identify bone mineral density values in a group of its patients, compare these with the general population and investigate the possible influence on these values on certain clinical variables and therapeutic regimens.

Hospitals must be governed by business rules

In those European countries where citizens are entitled to comprehensive healthcare financing the healthcare systems are becoming increasingly daunting tasks. Whilst in some isolated cases medical progress may indeed lead to certain cost reductions, overall this inflates costs.

FRANCE: Thousands will lose healthcare cover

"If you think 53 makes you old enough to retire, then fine, go ahead and retire. But don't expect the state to pay for it." President Nicolas Sarkozy, during his election campaign

Toshiba Introduces: Dyssynchrony Imaging

In recent years, Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) has become increasingly important in the treatment of patients with impaired left ventricular contraction. Since this patient group is growing constantly experts estimate that by 2010 about 10 million people in Europe will be suffering from heart failure. Especially the “baby-boomers”, born just after World War II and in 2010 about…