Medical technology

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Trivialising breast cancer kills women

‘As we become more successful in the early detection and treatment of breast cancer, we tend to trivialise it. Yet one in 9 women still get breast cancer. Half of them become depressed, their partners don’t know how to react and their families are in disarray. We need to stop trivialising breast cancer. It kills women.’ So says Dr Fabienne Liebens, Head of the Saint-Pierre Hospital’s…

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Contrast-enhanced ultrasound - the benefits for children

For the paediatric radiologist an ultrasound system is as essential as a wrench for the mechanic, for three reasons, says Professor Michel Claudon, Head of the Department of Radiology at the Children's Hospital of Brabois, University of Nancy, France: ‘High image quality due to the low weight of children, which allows medium frequency, the absence of radiation and the possibility of performing…

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Increased International cooperation between COCIR, JIRA and MITA

Last week, DITTA, the organization of medical trade associations COCIR (Europe), JIRA (Japan) and MITA (United States) held a two-day international regulatory meeting. The associations discussed ways to improve the global regulatory environment for the medical imaging, radiation therapy and health IT industries to ensure that member companies remain at the forefront of technological innovation…

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OrthoMIT

More than 30 clinicians, researchers and industry partners (including Siemens, Aesculap and SurgiTAIX, an RWTH spin-off) are working on OrthoMIT, Germany’s largest collaborative orthopaedic research project that aims to develop future strategies for knees, hip and spinal surgery. Anja Behringer reports

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Assessing potential benefits in PET/MRI examination

In recent years, combined examination methods have increased, whereby two examination methods are used in a parallel examination, rather than performed separately. Frederik Giesel MD, Associate Professor of Radiology at the Nuclear Medicine Department, University of Heidelberg, and Philip Herold (Dipl. Econ.), Project Manager at RICT Heidelberg, report on the benefits.

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From CR to DR

Breathtaking though the rate of improvement in medical imaging systems may be, many hospitals remain locked into their various evolutionary stages – depending on their needs and capabilities. With its versatile portfolio, Carestream Health, provides choices to meet their diverse circumstances.

Ultra High Field Magnetic Resonance

2011 brought a second year for European and US scientists to meet up at the Annual Scientific Symposium on Ultra High Field Magnetic Resonance, held at the Max Delbrück Centre for Molecular Medicine Berlin-Buch (MDC), Germany, to present and discuss their recent findings. Along with technical improvements, the main issues of the one-day gathering were cardiac, cerebral and molecular MR imaging.…

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Hospital develops its own app

An original computer application that enables access to electronic patient records (EPRs) instantly via doctors’ smartphones has been designed by the IT team at the Holy Name Medical Centre in Teaneck, New Jersey, USA. The app also offers direct phone links to a patient’s nurse and emergency contact person via iPhone, Android, Blackberry and other mobile devices. Report: Mark Nicholls

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Purchasing diagnostic systems

The acquisition of large diagnostic imaging equipment is clearly expensive – but further costs also result from their energy consumption and maintenance, as well as hidden costs due to complicated, labour-intensive handling, removal and disposal of old equipment, etc. often not considered during purchasing. Report: Anja Behringer

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Papworth Hospital: A constant continuing success

Recent events have again underlined the reason why Papworth Hospital in ambridgeshire, England, maintains a enowned international reputation for cardiac and thoracic procedures. As Britains largest specialist cardiothoracic hospitals, over 2,000 major heart operations were performed there in 2010. In the year ending 1 April 2011, 824 patients had coronary bypass operations, including urgent,…

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Trends in cardiac pacing

‘Sacrilegious meddling with divine providence’ was the charge brought against New York cardiologist Alfred Hyman in the 1930s when, after successful animal experiments, he applied the first cardiac pacemaker – then still a cumbersome external device – in human patients. A quarter of a century later the first cardiac pacemaker, mounted in a shoe polish tin and covered by epoxy resin, was…

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Transcatheter aortic valve implants

Although transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is increasingly the most used surgical procedure in Germany, only two products have been approved for routine use. Although this has prompted other medical device manufacturers to go into action, according to Professor Justus Strauch, head of cardiac surgery at the Klinikum Bergmannsheil, Bochum, no one has yet taken the lead in this…

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From tissue uniformity to volume imaging

Explaining the value of the iU22 xMATRIX ultrasound system, Philips describes its new array transducer within the system – the X6-1 PureWave xMATRIX – as revolutionary.‘It harnesses the power of over 9000 active elements, more than 35 times greater than conventional transducers, to capture crisp, high-resolution images of even technically challenging patients,’ the company points out,…

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