Strategic lab control
Managing physicians’ test requests is a key ingredient of modern lab management. However, doctors and nurses still do not provide the clinical reasons for orders to all labs.
Data management
Article • New Zealand
The earthquake that shook up healthcare
In recent years the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB), which organises and funds the healthcare of over 500,000 citizens in a remote region of New Zealand, has raised the quality of care and access to care – and the country’s major earthquake contributed largely to CDHB’s IT-supported approach.
Secure, dynamic networking during surgery
Operating theatre (OT) equipment is increasingly distributed and interconnected, and the staff depends on IT to access and exchange vital information.
The pros and cons of tabletcomputers in radiology
Although not yet suitable for primary readings, tablet technology does offer potential for second opinions, sharing information with patients and clinicians, and seeking expert support, according to radiologist Dr Erik Ranschaert from the Jeroen Bosch Hospital, Den Bosch, The Netherlands
Carestream opens portal for patients to view images
No more CD or DVDs! MyVue Patient Portal empowers patients to securely access, manage and share their medical images and radiology reports with specialists and healthcare providers.
Mobile devices are making their way into diagnostic imaging
Smartphones and tablets are a part of everyday life, and have rapidly proliferated among physicians. Today, nearly 80 percent of physicians are using mobile devices in their daily routine; as screen quality has improved, there is a widespread interest in mobile viewing of patient images.
Omron builds partnerships to expand personalised health lines
R&D is the core strength at Omron Healthcare, a leader in medical and home healthcare products with innovative technologies. At Medica the company is on the hunt for new partners to extend its portfolio and markets.
Healthcare needs automatic identification data capture
We are used to barcode scanning in supermarkets, our luggage being barcode tagged at airports and much else, yet in healthcare the use of Automatic Identification Data Capture (AI DC) technology – such as barcodes or Radio Frequency Identification (RFI D), is still rather rare, says Christian Hay of GS1* Switzerland.
We‘ll have highly personalised avatars
Petabytes of data on each patient will become the foundation of future diagnostics and therapy. Genetics, imaging and environmental information – toxins, lifestyle – will deliver a precise picture of the individual, allowing for diagnostic precision and targeted treatments.
The needs of European hospitals are similar
Procedures, financing and cultural philosophies can shape the difference, Michael Reiter, Mark Nicholls, Eduardo de la Sota, Jane MacDougall report
Healthcare needs automatic identify cation data capture
We are used to barcode scanning in supermarkets, our luggage being barcode tagged at airports and much else, Yet in healthcare the use of Automatic Identify cation Data Capture (AIDC) technology – such as barcodes or Radio Frequency Identify cation (RFID), is still rather rare, says Christian Hay of GS1* Switzerland.
News • Pathology
The future of pathology informatics
The Pathology Informatics Summit last October in Chicago showed that fast-moving trends are reshaping how clinical laboratories and pathology groups use information technology, in particular laboratory information systems (LIS), to deliver more value to physicians and patients.
Medical Transcription and Health Information Security
In July 2011 the Defense Department of the United States lost approximately 24,000 sensitive Pentagon files in a large-scale cyber attack. If you know anything about the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), you know that it is arguably one of the highest-priority sectors of the American government. Report: Abigale Washford
Present and future clinical laboratory management systems
Exit the monoliths, enter diversity -IT for labs is continuously progressing; solutions in the European market are becoming ever more complex and richer in functionality – all occurring in parallel with consolidation of equipment suites.
Article • Caradigm is here
New healthcare IT products reach the market
Back in December 2011, when General Electric and Microsoft announced their joint venture, Peter Neupert, then head of Microsoft’s healthcare solutions group said: ‘This industry needs a Windows-like platform.’ This June their efforts resulted in an ‘all systems go’ for Caradigm IT products, which aim initially to enable hospitals and large private medical groups to use a realtime,…
Agfa HealthCare and Dell form strategic alliance for cloud-based image management solution for the U.S. market
Agfa HealthCare extends managed services platform to cloud host ICIS - its Imaging Clinical Information System - and enable facilities in the U.S. to image-enable their EMR.
Weight and height
In many hospitals medical specialists from different fields work closely together. To give them access to centrally held information and patient data collected from admittance to discharge, hospitals increasingly use IT solutions such as the electronic patient’s record (EPR). Such installations demand an extensive data security policy and implementation plan.
The fmCh Public Database
Swiss surgical patients can check on and correct their treatment data and thereby facilitate reliable hospital benchmarking. In 1995, surgeons in the Biel, Burgdorf and Zurich Limmattal hospitals founded the Working Group for Quality Assurance in Surgery (AQC) to collect and compare reatment data.
Ambulance paramedics switch to on the spot electronic reporting
A British ambulance service has successfully made the transition from paperbased patient reporting to a fully electronic system enabling paramedics to capture patient data at the scene of an incident and transmit it to the receiving hospital ahead of arrival at the Accident and Emergency (A&E) unit.
What’ s new in information technology?
This remains critical in radiology and demand rows for even more rapid report turnaround and quicker access to imaging, especially for cancer.
Helping to create the ‘medical home’ EPR
Neuroradiologist and researcher Gregory Sorensen MD, changed roles in June 2011 when, as the new President & CEO of Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., he became responsible for the entire Siemens Healthcare portfolio, including therapy, laboratory diagnostics medical imaging and – healthcare information technology.
Describing Community Nursing: Building blocks for improvement
The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is delighted to announce the release of a new publication, Community Nursing, in partnership with the Scottish Government and the National Health Service (NHS) Scotland. The publication presents a dataset that has been developed and tested in the NHS Scotland. The dataset is mapped to and encoded with the International Classification for Nursing…
Eucomed statement on PIP breast implant incidents
The European medical technology industry association Eucomed notes with great concern recent press reports that the French firm Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP) may have violated the regulations by using unapproved industrial-grade silicone in some of its implantable products and by allegedly falsifying or withholding documents.
Process management for future hospitals
Architect Herbert Michael Küpper Dr-Ing from M+ management, demonstrates that full understanding of the working needs of a hospital is necessary to arrive at a successful new construction.
US community hospital develops its own unique app
Accessing patient files on smartphones physicians can view laboratory and radiology reports, vital signs and all relevant patient data
