Held at La Defense in January, the International Congress of Intensive Care Medicine, sponsored by Société de Réanimation de Langue Française (SRLF) – the French Society for Intensive Care – is, with more than 3,500 participants, one of the major intensive care meetings to take place in 2012, Jane Mac Dougall reports.
Every year, around 80,000 lower extremities in Europe have to be (partially) amputated as a result of peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD). Half of the affected patients die within five years of the amputation.
Integrated information management reduces risks and cuts cost, Finn Snyder reports. Intensive care units (ICUs) are vital in healthcare. ICUs in US hospitals, for example, treat six million of the sickest and oldest patients annually, according to a document recently published for the Massachusetts Technology Park Corporation, which states that choices about how to manage them carry high stakes:
Five recommendations to prevent central venous catheter-related infections. Catheter-related bloodstream infections are the third frequent infection in the intensive care unit (ICU) after pneumonia and peritonitis worldwide. The incidence of CVC infections lies between 1-4 for 1,000 catheterdays. This means for the USA, as an example, that more than five million patients annually need a central…
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.
PBT uses a high-energy beam of particles to destroy cancer cells by more accurately targeting the affected areas and is particularly suitable for complex childhood cancers. It also increases success rates and reduces side effects, such as deafness, loss of IQ and secondary cancers.
Every year in Germany, four million wounds leave a legacy of 30 000 amputations and six billion Euros in treatment costs. These shocking figures drew wound experts to the Pflege Kongress 2012 (2012 Care Congress) held in Berlin.
Modern wound management can shorten treatment and turn in-patient treatment into out-patient care, reducing time and costs. It’s all down to today’s more sophisticated materials.
The patient is soothed and ready for proton therapy
Patients in the new Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham are already enjoying the benefits of the scheme which aims to tailor nursing care to their individual needs via hourly nurse rounds. The Care Round initiative was introduced to all 28 inpatient wards at the hospital in March 2011 with the aim of supporting nursing on the wards.
Health-promoting laughter… As our year ends amid depressing global economic uncertainty, budget and staff cutbacks, threats to healthcare workers’ pensions and much else, some events shine brightly through, writes EH Editor Brenda Marsh. ‘These confirm that vision, courage and laughter can indeed cure many ills’
Schiller reports that its new range of touch screen ECG systems combines precision performance and attractive ergonomics. With a touch to the large, high-resolution colour display, 12-lead ECGs and pulmonary function tests can be recorded, selected and printed in seconds.
Excising the entire cancer tumour from the stomach prevents relapses. This procedure can now be performed endoscopically. Holger Zorn reports from the Visceral Medicine 2011 Congress in Leipzig.
Major advances in Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) lead to a tremendous interest in new surgical endoscopes. The advantages of minimally invasive surgery via natural body orifices, such as the mouth, are obvious: less post-operative pain, a minor infection rate, minor incisional hernia, shorter hospitalisation and, finally, better cosmetic results. Karoline Laarmann reports
London firm Max Medical Products Ltd is at Medica for the first time to demonstrate its quality diagnostic devices, first aid equipment and medical disposables.
Operating theatres are highly complex and costly hospital areas. The smoother everything runs, the better. Instant access – in emergency or planned cases – to the patient’s radiological examinations is vital, as is the seamless integration of images acquired during surgery.
Hospitals are clearing out the clutter in the surgical suite with a new design for integrated OR. Yet there remains a tangle of cables underfoot that Barco plans to eliminate with an IP-based network.
In 2012, Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital will be in transition, with a change of name as well as location, when its top class technology, physicians, scientists, staff and patients transfer to a new state-of-the-art complex three miles away.
Located in Vatican City in the heart of Rome, the Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù not only profits from a literally blessed base but also from an advanced IT-infrastructure in the radiology department. For over a year and a half, the largest children’s hospital in Italy has worked with the Carestream PACS, connecting the institution with two cooperating sites, one in Palidoro, one in St.…
Gathering in Austria, plastic surgeons proclaim the need for clarification and standards. Michael Krassnitzer reports
Participants at European Health Forum Gastein 2011 (EHFG) agreed: the tendency in Germany and Austria is to operate far too soon (particularly for hip, knee and disc surgery), and many surgical interventions are unnecessary, posing a particular and increasingly urgent problem especially in industrialised countries. Hans-Christian Pruszinsky reports
Point of care technologies (POCT) have an important, quality enhancing, risk-reducing and cost-impacting role within the extremely time-critical medical decision structures of a central Accident and Emergency department, says Professor Wilfried von Eiff, Centre for Hospital Management, University of Muenster, Germany.
Medical advances learned from treating military casualties severely injured on the battlefield are helping to enhance medicine for British civilians. Mark Nicholls reports on a conference to hasten advances into the public arena.
Having secured significant contracts with hospitals in Sweden and the Netherlands, the UK-based mobile surgical services firm Vanguard Healthcare aims for further expansion in Europe. Mark Nicholls reports
September saw the international crème de la crème of bariatric surgery descend on Hamburg for the 16th World Congress of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO 2011). Among their discussions: new minimally invasive procedures, the importance of aftercare and the lack of recognition of the importance of surgical treatment of the severely obese in…
