Medical technology

Cost-effectiveness analysis in the ICU

In most OECD countries, healthcare costs take 8-15% of GDP and, even more problematic, they are rising faster than the GDP growth rate.

FDA strengthens device monitoring

Following a 12-month examination of the way medical devices are monitored for safety after approval, the USA's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched a new programme to `transform and strengthen´ current monitoring of new technology as well as existing products.

Article • Company Profile

In the spotlight: Schiller AG

Alfred E Schiller, founder and managing director of Schiller AG, based in Baar, Switzerland, describes the rise of his company and its place in today’s highly competitive intensive care market. Alfred Schiller founded Schiller AG in 1971 and three years later introduced his first product – a pocket-sized electrocardioscope, which has been built on successively over the years. The…

Procuring large equipment

Around €18 billion annually is spent on medical technology in Germany. After the US and Japan, the German medical technology market is the third largest in the world.

Save time! Don't change media containers

In 1982, ulrich medical - a 3rd generation family concern based in Ulm - presented the first contrast agent injector for CT examinations.

Mobile patient positioning table with quick-change battery

The bucky table is an inexpensive tool for X-Ray departments. However, due to the increasing use of movable stands, especially combined with digital imaging receptors, further requirements for a patient positioning table arise.

SMS messaging in paging systems

Bosch launched a new paging system which automatically diverts paging calls to mobile phones, so that an SMS message can be sent.

Regulations and laws

In 2005, De Lage Landen financed (worldwide) medical equipment worth US$1 billion, by various methods such as loan, lease, rent and ppp, either directly with end-users or indirectly by refinancing manufacturers.

Sound philosophy leads to quality led lighting

Formerly integrated with the electronics/medical division of ...

Top award for single use laryngoscopes

England - The Thames Gateway Business Awards

The Imaging Science Institute

The Imaging Science Institute (ISI) — officially opened in December by Professor Werner Bautz, Director of the Institute of Radiology at the University Hospital Erlangen and Professor Erich R Reinhardt, member of the board at Siemens AG and chairman of the divisional board at Siemens Medical Solutions (Erlangen) — is the third institute (after Berlin and Tubingen) in which Siemens is…

The 3rd Hospital Administrator Forum

I am delighted that the Hospital Administrator Symposium organised by European Hospital is being held in conjunction with the ECR again this year.

In production: A scanner with the biggest gantry aperture and widest scan field

Following enthusiastic reactions to the Aquilion Large Bore (LB) scanner, when shown as a work in progress at last year's ECR, and with orders in hand, Toshiba has commenced production.

Dual-Source CT

X-ray computed tomography (CT) has shown an absolutely remarkable and impressive increase in its performance characteristics for many years - remarkable because the modality was declared dead in the 1980s, impressive because these developments seemed impossible to many, for technical and for physics reasons.

Centralised control for OT devices

Core is a modular system that interacts with individual operating theatre (OT) devices to bring them under the ontrol of one centralised monitor.

Multifunctional lithotripter

Lithoskop, a new multifunctional lithotripsy system, is to be publicly launched by Siemens Medical Solutions at the European Association of Urology Congress, to be held in Istanbul, Turkey this March.

Virtual visits with neonates

Although parents are allowed in neonate ICU units, family members and friends are barred. To meet this need, Innsbruck Medical University recently launched the project 'Babywatch' in its neonatology ICU.

Efficient screening programmes

Modern methods and technology make it possible to combine out- and inpatient treatment through comprehensive, overlapping systems and to standardise and optimise early diagnosis, therapy and aftercare for malignant diseases of the female breast regionally.

Ploughing vigorously forward

The UK - In the 1990s, the nationally co-ordinated NHS Breast Screening Programme was already saving lives - a 21% fall in breast cancer mortality over the last decade and, with the cervical screening programme, this was viewed as among the best cancer screening programmes in the world. However, in that period, the country's cancer services, as a whole did not match up to those of other European…

Small silent VADs

Ventricular assist devices (VAD) have been used since the 1980s, primarily to provide support after cardiac surgery for several days during recovery, or more often to keep patients alive until later heart transplantation (HTx).

The electronic stethoscope

A processing system said to pick up cardiac sounds and correlate these with any related abnormalities, e.g. valve defects, stenosis, fibrillation, septal defect, etc, has been developed by the US firm Biosignetics Corporation.

Wireless at the bedside

Italy - The WardInHand project, which set out to provide a tool for medical teams to access a hospital information system (HIS) from wards, does not replace or compete with existing hospital systems but adds mobility and 'ubiquitous computing' to the HIS, by exchanging information with existing tools and updating clinical data in real time.