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A91DX-9426-A2-4A00.©SiemensHealthcareDiagnosticsInc.,2015 The challenges of automating a laboratory, whether for the first time or the third, can be formidable. So having a partner with extensive experience is key to achieving your goals. Perhaps that’s why more laboratories around the world rely on Siemens for total laboratory automation than any other company. How does Siemens do something so complex so well? We bring expertise to every phase of your project. For example, our Lean Healthcare-accredited workflow consultants apply best practices and leverage Siemens’ proprietary database of sample-processing rules to streamline operations. Our teams are equipped with established analytical tools to set achievable benchmarks for throughput, TAT, staffing, and resource utilization. We perform periodic, data-driven evaluations that help you continually improve productivity throughout our years of partnership. And by being the only single-source provider able to connect all four key laboratory disciplines—chemistry, immunoassay, hematology, and hemostasis—to the automation track, we can help reduce interoperability issues, ensuring a more integrated and efficient overall solution. Laboratory automation can be complex, but having completed more than 1344 track-based automation projects, we can put your mind at ease and help you achieve your goals. And that is very good news indeed. Get more good news at siemens.com/automation-leader. siemens.com/automation-leader Good News: You’re automating your lab. Best News: We’ve done it 1344 times. At Siemens, we have the most experience turning complexity into efficiency, helping you drive better outcomes. 9426-A2_Automation Leadership Ad1_210x297.indd 1 10/5/15 9:46 AM www.healthcare-in-europe.com 5NEWS & MANAGEMENT Mark Porter MD is the elected BMA council chair and a consultant anaesthetist at the University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust. His spe- cial interest is in obstetric anaesthesia and the continual development of maternity services to improve mothers’ experience. Previous roles in the BMA have included chairmanship of the consultants com- mittee (2009-2012) and its deputy chair responsible for pay and conditions of service (2006-2009) vices are under enormous pressure, including how additional weekend care can be delivered without week- day services being affected.’ faces unprecedented threats for political giants in Europe Secrecy surrounding the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership currently being dis- cussed by the EC and USA is posing ‘a serious threat to the ability of governments to implement healthy public policies.’ With Europe failing to train enough health workers, Professor McKee points out that [health work- ers among] refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan entering a Europe with its falling birth rate and ageing populations can ‘make a major con- tribution to the delivery of health and social care over the years to come’. ‘Unfortunately, this means that they will no longer be able to pro- vide much-needed care for those who remain in the countries from which they have departed,’ reflect- ed Professor McKee, who is also research director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. His over-riding concern is that the political structures in Europe to tackle these current issues are not being effectively used. With a ‘frightening vacuum of leadership in Europe at present’ and some poli- ticians seeking to exploit the current divisions within Europe, there is a greater need for transparency within the Council of Ministers and parts of the European Commission, he concluded. ‘The idea of Europe was created by political giants, such as Adenauer and Schumann,’ McKee emphasises. ‘We now search in vain for anyone with that vision.’ – a WHO Collaborating Centre that comprises the largest team of researchers working on health and health policy in central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union – also remains concerned that the impact of bailout mechanisms on Greece and other member states were limiting the freedom of dem- ocratically-elected governments to act in the interests of their citizens. His specific theme of ‘Securing Solidarity in Europe - From Mare Nostrum to Mare Europaeum’ is based on the belief that there is a common European identity, and as someone who sees himself as a European first he believes Europe must work together for a better future for all. ‘It’s only by creating a genuinely inclusive society that we can secure the economic growth, better health, and overall well-being that we all desire,’ he added. Over the past decade the European Health Forum Gastein has made a significant contribution to the scope of European health policy in the development of guidelines and cross-border exchange of expe- rience, information and cooperation. The 2015 event (30 September to 2 October) welcomed the participa- tion of 600 representatives from the areas of health policy, administra- tion, science, business and patient organisations. Whilst the past few decades have seen progress in improving health in Europe – with increases in life expectancy and falls in death rates from conditions such as heart attacks – Professor McKee fears the security and resilience of European health systems and the strong value of solidarity are being tested, par- ticularly in countries such as Greece that are most severely affected by austerity. He outlined how health improve- ments have been achieved by a com- bination of measures against tobac- co and greater access to effective healthcare but feared powerful vest- ed interests are putting profit before health with ‘real concern’ about the impact of trade liberalisation – which has driven tobacco-related ill- ness, diabetes, and other conditions in low and middle income countries. Martin McKee is Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 9426-A2_Automation Leadership Ad1_210x297.indd 110/5/159:46 AM

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