Paul E Pepe MD MPH FACEP FCCM, Professor of Medicine, Surgery, Public Health and Chair, Emergency Medicine, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre and the Parkland Health and Hospital System (TSMC&PHHS), Dallas.
The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the Medicine and Dermatology Institute
Not so long ago, in addition to carrying their normal workload the surgeon, anaesthetist, lung specialist and internist worked in the intensive care unit (ICU). Now, however, the 'intensivist' has arrived - 'A real specialist'
Uncdertainty in prognoses causes symptoms of anxiety and depresiion in family members.
Germany - The Ultrasonic Cardiac Output Monitor (USCOM), a portable system that enables beat-to-beat cardiac output assessment at medical emergency locations, has been tested for use during helicopter patient transportations, and worked effectively, without suffering from or causing interference to helicopter electronics.
The Hartmann European Care Award 2004 has been presented to Dagmar Erdkönig, Petra Makara and Claudia Reicher of Austria.
A colourful collection of clinical clothing, with many motifs and designs inspired by nature, is now available throughout Europe.
Tissue engineering caused a stir at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Germany Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
Five years of therapy with the drug tamoxifen has become the norm for postmenopausal women with hormone-sensitive breast cancer. However, this has several adverse side effects, and studies have continued to compare the effects of other drug therapies with tamoxifen.
“All we need to know was learned in kindergarten”, say Peter Pronovost MD PhD and Christine Holzmuller BLA.
Most patients who receive health information change lifestyle and believe they reap benefits, according to a study carried out in Europe and the USA.
Many medical organisations have warned that no one who wishes to help in the relief work in tsunami-hit regions should travel there individually, i.e. without being officially affiliated with an already involved organisation.
The Netherlands - Immediately after the tsunami devastated countries around Asia, three trauma researchers at the Department Psychiatry, University Medical Centre Utrecht, The Netherlands, as well as from the Department Military Psychiatry, Central Military Hospital in Utrecht, became involved in the care for a group of wounded Dutch patients who had been in Phuket.
At a recent conference on the care of tsunami survivors, the Thai Health Ministry reported that over 5,300 of its population had been confirmed dead, leaving tens of thousands bereaved, as well as homeless, and that 10,000 people had already been treated by touring teams of mental health workers, as well as receiving counselling from Buddhist monks trained in psychology.
The Netherlands - Although this country became the first, in 2002, to legalise euthanasia for people aged 16 years and over, child euthanasia remains illegal.
Germany - The Federal Associations of Health Insurance Funds and the German Hospitals Association are now following Germany's Regulation 1 on the co-admission of child/adolescent patients and accompanying adults.
An intensive care unit (ICU) is a ward staffed by medical support who have been specially trained in the high levels of care required by each pathological state.
The requirement for mechanical ventilatory support is the most common indication for admission to an intensive care unit - and up to 50% of the time that a patient receives such treatment may be taken up by attempts to discontinue it: a process termed weaning.
Status quo of cross-border access to healthcare systems within the EU-Member States.
Waiting lists, EU limits on working hours, doctor and nursing staff shortages, how could healthcare providers overcome all those hurdles let alone glimpse the winning post ahead?
Although most patients do not react badly to prescriptions, a new study has found that one in 16 hospital admissions (in two hospitals) were caused by adverse drug reactions, and these resulted in an average of 8-day inpatient stays, using 4% of the hospitals' bed capacity.
Germany - Rehabilitation clinics are taking on an increasingly important role, because the country's Social Security Code indicates that, where possible, rehabilitation is preferable to providing pensions and long-term care.
The disturbing international comparative study on health behaviour in school children (HBSC), conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO), European regional offices, have been presented by the research director for Germany, Professor Hurrelmann, Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of Bielefeld, at the 3rd German Congress for Health Services Research.
Camena, an innovative ventilator that provides clinical-quality ventilation for patients at home, will be launched, at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) annual meeting (4-8 September 2004, Glasgow, UK), by Dräger Medical AG & Co KGaA, of Lübeck, Germany.
Blood pressure (BP) screening, either alone or in combination with other cardiovascular risk factors such as cholesterol levels, does not determine a person's chance of having a heart attack or stroke, reports Professor Malcolm Law and colleagues at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine in the Journal of Medical Screening.