The IN-TIME study remains the only major trial to show a clear mortality benefit for remote monitoring in heart failure (HF) patients. A recent analysis by Hussar et al. suggests workflow processes such as daily, multiparametric data transmitted using Biotronik Home Monitoring, may be key to this benefit. Dr Wilfried Mullens, Head of the Heart Failure and Cardiac Rehabilitation Section at…
Burnout in doctors has devastating consequences on the quality of care they deliver, according to a large-scale systematic review and meta-analysis. The study, by experts at the Universities of Manchester, Keele, Leeds, Birmingham and Westminster, looks at 47 papers which together analyse the responses of 43,000 doctors. It finds that doctors with burnout are twice as likely to make mistakes,…
As the world’s largest cardiology congress gets underway in Munich, it’s worth looking back to previous ESC sessions to see how scientific debates have evolved. At ESC 2016, held in Rome, REM-HF investigators presented data suggesting remote monitoring in implantable cardiac devices offered no added clinical benefit. Two years on, there are new reasons to re-examine that conclusion, with a…
Beckman Coulter announced commercialization of its DxM MicroScan WalkAway system, a diagnostic solution for bacterial identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing for microbiology laboratories. The DxM MicroScan WalkAway system uses direct minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) for detection of antimicrobial resistance, offering greater confidence in results through gold-standard…
What do customers say? To answer this question, medavis, a provider of radiological workflow solutions, regularly conducts a customer survey of its users. The aim is to review the company's own quality standards and internal key figures and to consistently place the results of the survey at the centre of future trade. The Karlsruhe specialist for radiology workflow solutions keeps all values at…
The UK urgently needs a joined up and strategic approach to the recruitment of international health professionals, argue experts in The BMJ.
Laboratories can now automate manual steps and achieve high sample throughput and high productivity with a new autosampler and liquid handling system intended for use in pharmaceutical, contract research, food safety, environmental, clinical research and forensic workflows.
Faced with the constant challenge of increasing demand and a backdrop of falling reimbursement, Mayo Clinic in the United States has adopted an innovative and proactive approach to managing its laboratory services. That has seen the US-based medical giant embrace a variety of tools and reference materials to aid clinician decision making, improve care and lower costs. Dr Curt Hanson, Chief…
Digital bed management systems being trialled in NHS hospitals to improve patient flow are showing early signs of success. Innovations such as patient tracking and real-time location of equipment and staff to help make hospital stays more efficient are being tested at 10 sites. Project leader Bernard Quinn is particularly optimistic about technology that monitors bed availability and patient flow.
Over the last 60 years, medicine has made major advances in diagnosis, treatment and surgery. Radiography and Fluoroscopy imaging are essential to medical science. As a result, Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM’s) need to deliver ever more sophisticated turnkey platforms for their systems which are dedicated to end-users. Thales has designed a platform that meets all of these needs. ArtPix…
With support from a research grant from the Academy of Architecture for Health Foundation, a West Virginia University researcher is leading a study that will help address the functional complexity of large hospitals. Shan Jiang, assistant professor of landscape architecture in the School of Design and Community Development, and her research team will utilize immersive virtual reality technologies…
Half of cancers can be avoided if institutions would exchange knowledge, according to Joxel García, executive director of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who opened the Center’s meeting in Madrid in October 2016. Technology has progressed enormously and there has never been that much knowledge of cancer to prevent it and find treatment tools.
New words are consistently spun out in the USA and frequently assimilated into ‘American English’. Take the term ‘hospitalist’ (little used in European English), which was coined by the renowned academic physician Robert M Wachter (University of California, San Francisco) and his colleague Lee Goldman, in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1996. Lisa Chamoff…
A motorised PRS 500 B X-ray system, added to the portfolio of Protec, specialist in traditional analogue X-ray film processing machines, ‘combines efficiency, high work precision and optimum operating comfort,’ the manufacturer reports. ‘In addition to the user-friendly touch display, it also offers an automatic retraction of the tubular column, which adapts to the position of the bucky in…
Carestream Health makes converting to DR easy and affordable with the launch of its Carestream DRX-Transportable System/Lite. The system equips facilities to convert room-based or mobile imaging systems to digital radiology through use of a wireless tablet PC that gives users complete control of the X-ray system and displays diagnostic images as they are acquired.
Digital pathology has been the next big thing for about a decade. Yet, today only a few pathology laboratories are fully equipped to digitise their workflow, mainly for legal or financial reasons.
Among the earliest centres to embrace the concept of digital pathology, the Leeds Digital Pathology Project began in 2003 thanks to a Department of Health grant. Today the centre is Europe’s largest.
Beckman Coulter Diagnostics introduces a new integrated system of technologies and capabilities called DxONE, designed to ease data access and usability. DxONE was created in response to the increasing challenges faced by laboratory technicians to expedite result times, reduce costs, maneuver personnel shortages and navigate network consolidations.
In a small study of opioid prescriptions filled at a Johns Hopkins Medicine outpatient pharmacy, researchers found that handwritten orders for the drugs contribute heavily to a trio of prescribing and processing errors in contrast to those created electronically.
Konica Minolta, leading company in the medical imaging market, introduces its Premium Portable Ultrasound solution, Sonimage HS1.
In today’s digitised world, hospitals are already embracing the benefits which technology brings to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Against a backdrop of stretched resources and operational scrutiny hospital managers are able to address the needs of multiple stakeholders through hospital-wide digitalisation.
The hybrid operating room is one of the most innovative developments in the surgical sector. The combination of interventional and minimally invasive surgical procedures is exciting for many clinical disciplines. The room design, intraoperative imaging techniques as well as interdisciplinary collaboration play a pivotal role in this.
The MALDI Tissuetyper is a system that records spatially resolved mass spectra directly from tissue. This allows the direct measurement of proteins, lipids and other molecular classes without the need for antibodies or molecular probes. This results in highly multiplexed datasets in which hundreds or thousands of compounds are measured simultaneously.
Cost constraints, higher workloads, and a shortage of qualified staff are three distinct market trends driving demand for greater efficiency in the laboratory. The goals of automation are to make workflow more efficient, improve the turnaround time and predictability, and reduce errors - all while accommodating future growth. Automation also frees up staff for other activities. Report: Franz Walt
A fully automated clinical microbiology laboratory system went into service at Heidelberg University Hospital this April. Produced by medical technology firm BD Life Science, this first installation at a German university hospital will play a major role in a study exploring the potential benefits of lab automation in containing the spread of pathogens in a hospital.