The Children's Island
By Heidi Heinhold
Unfavourable findings on U.S. hospitals
The Leapfrog Group is a U.S. organisation of member companies that pay for healthcare services, e.g. corporations, health insurers and local, state and federal government agencies. Established in 2000, its philosophy is that big 'leaps' in healthcare safety, quality and value to patients will be recognised and rewarded. The organisation mobilises purchasing power of its members, representing over…
J&J acquires Cougar
Positive CB7630 (Abiraterone Acetate) Phase II Data was presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting in Chicago this May/June, Cougar Biotechnology Inc, a development stage biopharmaceutical firm with a specific focus on oncology. In mid-July, Johnson & Johnson announced its acquisition of Cougar, which is now working with Ortho Biotech Oncology Research & Development, a division of the J&J firm Centocor…
The 61st Congress of the German Society of Urology
Dresden, Germany 16-19 September
The 27th World Congress of Endourology
Munich, Germany 6 - 10 October
Childbirth injury statistics
In 2006, 4.3 million children were born in US hospitals; of these, 158,000 mothers and infants (3.5%) sustained injuries that could have been avoided. For comparison purposes, newly published US statistics could prove interesting for European hospital administrators, says Dot M McSherry of i.t. Communications
Post-MI mortality
Measuring left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) is the gold standard for determining the risk of cardiac death or sudden cardiac death after a myocardial infarction (MI). If LVEF is below 30%, a cardioverter-defibrillator is implanted to avoid such an event.
Barco advance the frontiers of telemedicine
MultiSense Communications, a medical conferencing solutions provider based in High Wycombe, UK, in conjunction with medical imaging specialist Barco, recently demonstrated the clinical benefits of today's telemedicine systems. During a live open heart surgery operation at the Imperial College Hospital in Hammersmith, UK, an entire heart valve repair procedure was captured and transmitted to a…
Nurses call for drastic action on binge drinking
Responding to the publication of the Public Accounts Committee report, Reducing Alcohol Harm: health services in England for alcohol misuse, Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), renews the call for tighter alcohol regulation. "Nurses have said time and time again that the Government must take drastic action to stop this dire situation spiralling out of control,"…
Schlaganfall-Therapie 24 Stunden am Tag
Patienten mit Schlaganfall erreichen die Klinik in der Regel zu spät. Vor allem wenn die Symptome am Sonntag einsetzen und relativ gering ausgeprägt sind, zögern die Angehörigen oftmals zu lange. Ohne Grund, wie eine aktuelle Auswertung des hessischen Schlaganfallregisters zeigt: Die Patienten erhielten auch am Wochenende und in den Nachtstunden eine qualitativ hochwertige Behandlung. Die…
Heart pump with air propulsion
A tiny heart catheter pump which supports the human heart in critical conditions while pumping has been developed at the Vienna University of Technology. The pump may not be larger than five millimetres and no longer than 45 millimetres at a ratio of 1:1. The aim was to avoid the development of heat which is caused by heart pumps that are driven by an electric motor.
Maquet launches new solution for digital OR-integration
Medical Systems company Maquet developed a modular expandable solution for digital OR-integration. The AV CONFERENCE PREMIUM MODULAR makes it possible for hospitals to custom-configure individual components for digital OR-integration, in the future.
Maquet launcht neue Lösung für die digitale OP-Integration
Das Medizintechnik-Unternehmen Maquet hat ein modular erweiterbare Lösung für die digitale OP-Integration entwickelt. AV CONFERENCE PREMIUM ermöglicht Krankenhäusern zukünftig eine individuelle Zusammenstellung von einzelnen Komponenten für die digitale OP-Integration.
Revolutionary approach to heart failure
British girl Hannah Clark who was given an extra heart as a toddler has become the world's first heart transplant patient to make a full recovery after having her donor organ removed and function restored to her original heart. The case highlights that in some cases of cardiomyopathy, it is possible for the patient's own heart to make a full recovery if it is given adequate support to do so.
Lebermetastasen schonender behandeln
Dr. Lena Maier-Hein aus dem Deutschen Krebsforschungszentrum erhält den Waltraud-Lewenz-Preis 2008 für die Entwicklung eines computergesteuerten Zielsystems, das die Behandlung von Krebsmetastasen in der Leber entscheidend verbessert.
DICOM 2009
State of the art IT in a vintage venue: From 2 to 4 July 2009, venerable Waldhausen castle near Mainz, Germany, will host an expert forum on future-oriented developments in medical IT and medical technology in the German-speaking countries. DICOM 2009 is the ideal place to obtain first-hand and hands-on information on the newest trends in RIS and PACS as well as DICOM and IHE standards. Professor…
Leading UK hospital orders 50 NCR MediKiosks
The technology firm NCR Corporation, which specialises in automated teller machines, self-checkouts and other self- and assisted-service solutions, announced in April that King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London has chosen to install the firm's new patient automated arrival system NCR MediKiosk. This autumn, 50 MediKiosks will be deployed in the dermatology, haematology,…
Clever kiosk scoops EAFS award
A potentially life-saving kiosk has been voted the best self-service application of 2009 by the Board of the European Association for Self-service (EAFS), during Kiosk Europe Expo 2009, held this May in parallel with Digital Signage Expo 2009 in Essen, Germany.
Young diabetics use mobiles for self-management
A telemedicine programme, run through Leicester University Hospitals since last November, allows parents and young patients with Type 1 diabetes to use their mobile phone to record blood sugar levels.
Automatic dispensing systems
European hospitals are increasingly using robotic dispensing systems to accelerate drug distribution and the patients discharge process.
Qualified wound treatment starts with the identification of risks
The content of training courses on wound care and risk assessment would have one believe that chronic wounds are merely a marginal problem of medical care. The opposite is the case. The number of chronic wounds, and therefore cost of care, are on the increase. Where might the problems and sources of these errors lie?
Accidents? We can all make mistakes!
Paramedics and other first-aid workers are often confronted with severe bleeding that can be arrested relatively easily. However, inappropriate approaches are frequent, and sometimes even increase bleeding, or cause other damage to the victim. Medical journalist Karl Eberius MD, asked Dr Edgar Biemer MD, of the Praxisklinik Dr Caspari hospital, in Munich, Germany, and the former head of the…
RUT -
A system of national quality registers, established in recent decades in Sweden's health and medical services, now numbers 64 registers. Along with three competence centres, these cover, for example, diabetes mellitus (NRD), dementia (SeDEM), Swedish intensive care (SIR) and acute coronary care (RIKS-HIA), and the Register Ulcer Treatment (RUT), which was added at the dawn of 2007. The latter has…
Hard-to-heal wounds
In `Hard-to-heal wounds: a holistic approach´ a paper produced by the European Wound Management Association (EWMA), the authors analyse the calculation of treatment costs, based on international examples, and point out problems associated with a clear definition of the term treatment costs. They also emphasise the importance of the addition of the term holistic approach.
The impact on soma and psyche
There is a profound difference between the complexity of cosmetic surgery or organ transplant procedures, for example, and other operations. Whilst procedures such as hair transplants or eyelid surgery present an alteration to the owner's body composition and changes to the patient's outlook, those changes were desired and planned for, in the hope that something marvellous will result and so…
