Security

A time to celebrate greater child protection

The words ‘Image Gently’ are synonymous with protecting children from unnecessary or excessive exposure to X-rays.

Healthcare IT must adopt top security

Hospitals across Europe need to take further steps to better protect the sensitive data stored on their healthcare IT systems. With eavesdropping into secure systems brought sharply into focus as a result of revelations of monitoring by the US National Security Agency (NSA), a leading communication expert has warned that many hospitals across Europe need to take further steps to better protect…

Quips and Pain Out provide worldwide pain data

Around 50% of surgical patients experience moderate to severe postoperative pain, and ‘minor’ surgery patients receive little pain care.

Cancer: How to cut costs without risking the patients

In a review article published Feb. 14 in The Lancet Oncology, Johns Hopkins experts identify three major sources of high cancer costs and argue that cancer doctors can likely reduce them without harm to patients.

Beckman Coulter’s new assay for safer pregnancies

New Assay Is First to Standardize to World Health Organization’s 5th International Standard for Chorionic Gonadotropin

New AF classification by ECG will deliver personalised treatment

Despite the availability of cardioversion, ablation and medications to treat AF, outcomes are often poor because it is unclear which patients will benefit most. A new classification of atrial fibrillation (AF) by electrocardiogram (ECG) is set to be developed by European experts to aid personalised management of this devastating condition.

The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture

A Swiss and German researcher asked whether, where and how the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPS) is used in Europe and how relevant this survey – developed in the USA ten years ago and where it is widely accepted today – is in the European context.

Point-care-testing in emergency departments

Over the past decade the use of point-of-care testing (POCT) in European and North American hospitals has steadily increased, stimulated by the objectives of accelerating diagnostic treatment, increasing efficiency and improving patient outcomes.

Cross-border healthcare directive and patients’ rights

For the first time, the right of patients in Europe to seek healthcare in another Member State, and be reimbursed for it, is clearly established thanks to the EU Directive on Patients’ Rights in Cross-Border Healthcare. EPF organised a three-day regional conference to enable Patient leaders to understand the details of this legislation and its transposition at national level.

'Women have a right to make informed decisions'

Breast cancer hurt her but after a long treatment, she is now 10 years past the day she heard "You have cancer."

Aquilion ONE next generation from Toshiba

The ‘world’s best scanner’ just got even better. While Toshiba Medical Systems’ Aquilion ONE has impressed radiologists in recent years further enhancements and technical innovations have taken it onto a new level of performance and added yet another dimension to CT imaging.

Transforming healthcare

Philips at MEDICA: New healthcare solutions developed with users and patients help improve the recovery process and treatment options for patients while supporting medical staff in their work

Printable IVDs put diagnostics in a patient’s pocket

Using electrically conductive, ink-like materials, a Swedish consortium has created a fully functional prototype for a self-monitoring blood glucose (SMBG) test that could be disruptive for in vitro diagnostics.

Politicization of health care preventing real changes to out-of-control system

Over the last decade, the biggest driver of the high health care costs in the United States has been neither the aging of the population nor the large numbers of tests and treatments being prescribed.

Clostridium difficile infection

The realisation that the fight against C. difficile needs its own specific hygiene management dawned relatively recently. Up to the new millennium a common perception regarding European hospital infection prevention and control was that this bacterium was under control; it was considered a marginal phenomenon, which is why C. difficile was not the focus of problematic pathogen monitoring.

Understanding parameters

Clinical chemistry influences almost all medical disciplines: most diagnoses are made or confirmed only after the laboratory has determined at least one or two parameters.

Too many tumour boards?

Multidisciplinary tumour boards (MDTs) are widespread in the Netherlands, and ‘they tend to be proliferating lately,’ according to Professor Folkert van Kemenade, Chair of the Pathology department at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam.

Hospital mortality figures should be calculated differently

The mortality figures as they are currently calculated for Dutch hospitals are not a good measure for the quality of the health care they provide.

Chronic disease

There is a global shortage of doctors that is getting worse every year. With the demographic shift in many countries from a predominantly young to an increasing aging population, a steep increase in chronic disease is occurring.

Interview • Focus: Healthcare Mobility

The dark side of healthcare mobility

Professional mobility has always been high on the EU agenda. But what are the impacts on the medical sector, if physicians and nurses leave their countries en masse? Daniela Zimmermann asked Günter Danner, Associate Director of the European Representation of the German Social Insurance in Brussels