Ultrasound use in airway management
Ultrasound is playing an increasing role in the management of the upper and lower airways, particularly in interventional procedures and emergency situations. It is also used to enhance patient safety.
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Premature newborn survival 30% higher in high volume neonatal centres
The survival of premature newborns in England is 30% higher in specialist units treating large numbers of neonates, reveals an analysis of national data published in the online journal BMJ Open.
Poor management and overcrowding exacerbate MERS outbreak
“The Saudi Arabian government’s response to the new virulent Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has recently been criticized, following high-level dismissals within the Saudi state healthcare service. Criticism has been leveled at the slowness of the government’s response to the outbreak, as well as in-fighting between physicians", says Andrew Thompson, Ph.D., GlobalData’s…
Delayed diagnoses result in high mortality
Sepsis kills around 130 patients daily In Germany alone. This systemic disease is mostly caused by bacterial pathogens, and less frequently by fungal organisms or parasites. Professor Dr Frank M Brunkhorst of the Centre of Sepsis Control and Care (CSCC), at Jena University Hospital, Germany, is seeking strategies to combat such scary figures.
Underway: The Eurosafe Imaging Campaign
It was long overdue: Seven years after the arrival of the USA’s Image Wisely and Image Gently Campaigns, a European campaign for greater radiation protection in diagnostic and interventional imaging has arrived.
Burnout: The physicians’ dangerous affliction
Burnout. The word jars – and it is particularly unsettling when associated with medical professionals. Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and feelings of low personal accomplishment.
Pictures help illiterate patients take medicines correctly
Using pictures and symbols, rather than handwritten words, on prescriptions helps illiterate patients take their medicines correctly when they leave hospital, say doctors today. The idea was first tested in a hospital in Pakistan using simple pictures of the sun, moon and stars to help patients understand when and how long to take their medication for.
British-made early warning monitor a “game changer”
A disposable vital signs monitoring system no bigger than a plaster was today hailed a “game changer" by a leading hospital medic ahead of its UK rollout.
Statistics: Where is there safety in numbers?
Doctors slam claims of 18,800 preventable hospital deaths in just one EU country.
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.
