Training is key in NHS technology challenge
Paul Vousden outlines the role of the UK Training Hub for
Operative Technologies in Healthcare, the key tasks for improving
training in the use of medical devices across the NHS and the focus
areas for THOTH's activities.
18 July 2008
How can technology adoption be speeded up in the NHS?
Iestyn Williams, of the Health Services Management
Centre, University of Birmingham, discusses the reasons for the slow
uptake of medical technology in the NHS in England and how to overcome
the barriers to adoption. 20 June 2008
Home is where the best heart care is
 Joshua Rowe, chairman for telemedicine specialist Broomwell
Healthwatch, explains how a cardiac telemedicine service can improve
patient care whilst cutting the cost of congestive heart failure (CHF).
30 April 2008
 Multimedia PACS networks healthcare services on the Balearic
Islands
All public hospitals and about 80 primary health centres
in the Spanish region Islas Baleares are building the foundation of
a health service network which is unique in Europe for its scope
and depth of integration. 8 April 2008
 Smart clothing with
fluid biosensors to monitor health
The European BIOTEX project has produced textiles with woven-in
miniaturised biosensors that can analyse body fluids such as sweat to
assess the wearer's state of health. 31 March 2008
Controlling glucose levels for critically ill
A European project has developed a computerised decision support system that
monitors glucose levels of critically ill patients in hospital and delivers
the correct dose of insulin when correction is needed. 19 March 2008
Adoption of electronic work processes pushing
convergence of electronic health records and clinical trials
The move towards the use of IT and computer-based patient record systems
across hospitals in Europe and North America, and efforts to streamline the
functioning of clinical trials are promoting the expanded use of electronic
data capture. This is encouraging merging of work processes in clinical care
and clinical research areas. 2 Feb 2007
Top US health industry trends of 2007
Pressure on pricing amid demand for transparency will force pharmaceutical
companies, hospitals and health plans to rethink their strategies. This is
one of the top issues identified by PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research
Institute in a new report. 8 Dec 2006
RFID tags tested in tracking medicines in supply
chain
Cardinal Health, Inc., has completed a real-world pilot test of RFID tags
for automatic tracking of medicines in the packaging and distribution chain.
The technology has the potential to improve the safety and efficiency of
pharmaceutical supply chains. 28 Nov 2006
Videoconferencing enables neurology service to cover
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland Teleneurological Service has found that videoconferencing
eliminates time wasted in travelling to patients while still allowing
patients in remote areas to receive high levels of diagnosis, monitoring and
care. 21 Nov 2006
Home telehealth: the future of home care
The combination of increased healthcare spending, provider shortages and an
aging population has put homecare at a crossroads, where change has become a
rapid necessity. That change is evident with the creation of a virtual model
of care known as home telehealth, which delivers state of the art hospital
care in the home without interrupting the routine of everyday life, widely
known today as connected health. It uses available consumer technologies to
enable such services as remote monitoring, activity monitoring, and the
delivery of disease management and wellness programs. 13 November 2006
Archiving and protecting data to comply with
electronic data laws
Governments worldwide are placing companies under increasing scrutiny.
Businesses are challenged more than ever before by electronic data laws and
they need to ensure that they are complying with all of the different legal
requirements. 8 November 2006
The economic benefits of information technology in
healthcare
An EU project has demonstrated that information technology can provide
enormous benefits if the technology is properly implemented. The eHealth
Impact project developed a methodology for assessing the economic impact of
ehealth solutions and then evaluated the economic benefits of introducing
new technology in healthcare in ten flagship projects. The project
demonstrated that the benefits were twice the cost of implementing the
technology. 7 November 2006
Controlling blood sugar of ICU patients by
automatic insulin delivery
The control of blood glucose levels is one of the most important factors for
patients in intensive care units (ICU). Thousands die or suffer prolonged
illness every year, simply because intensive care units are unable to
monitor their patients' glucose levels during recovery. One EU project
CLINICIP is developing an intelligent, automated glucose monitoring and
control system to solve the problem. 30 October 2006
Digitisation of hospitals driving demand for medical
imaging displays and cheaper alternatives
The market for medical imaging displays is experiencing a dynamic shift.
Digitisation initiatives are creating opportunities and challenges across
Europe, as data and image sharing across hospital departments and regions
becomes an established driver of efficiency. Some hospitals, however, are
seeking to save costs by using non-medical grade displays, which poses a
significant threat to the business of suppliers. 27 Sept 2006
Data storage solution saves terabytes for West
Yorkshire NHS IT services
Wakefield Health Informatics Service data storage solution is expected to
save 40% over three years, reduce unnecessary data storage by 4TB and
significantly cut backup and restore times. 26 Sept 2006
 World
in danger of missing targets for sanitation and clean drinking water
The world is in danger of missing targets for providing clean water and
sanitation unless there is a dramatic increase in the pace of work and
investment between now and 2015, according to a new report from the World
Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. More than 1.1 billion people in both
urban and rural areas currently lack access to drinking water from an
improved source and 2.6 billion people do not have access to even basic
sanitation. 20 Sept 2006
European point-of-care testing market boosted by
clinical and cost advantages
Point-of-care testing (POCT) offers multiple benefits, particularly in
improving turnabout time (TAT) and in supporting the prescription of earlier
and more appropriate treatment. However, some physicians are still sceptical
about the new technologies and continue to use ineffective traditional
methods of diagnoses. The challenge is to persuade these users of the
benefits of POCT. 19 Sept 2006
 Telemedicine
project improving health in rural Cambodia
To leverage a growing Internet infrastructure for health purposes within
rural Cambodia, an email-based medical consultation program called Operation
Village Health was established by Partners Telemedicine. Harvard-affiliated
physicians have been providing clinical recommendations to Cambodian health
workers caring for patients at rural health centres. Approximately 700
telemedicine-supported patient encounters have been completed. Operation
Village Health is the 2006 winner of the international Stockholm Challenge
in the category of Health. 11 Sept 2006
Opportunities in pharmaceutical RFID and smart
packaging
RFID in healthcare is growing rapidly and is forecast to become a $2.1
billion global business by 2016. Smart packaging for healthcare has multiple
applications, including recording patient use in drug trials, stock
tracking, tamper recording, anti-counterfeiting, preventing medical errors,
and child-resistant packaging. 5 Sept 2006
European coordination in smart-systems research
Smart systems based on microtechnology and nanotechnology hold great promise
for future systems integration, with a variety of potential applications
especially in medicine, automotive safety and aeronautics. However, lack of
coordination among European research institutions, industry and government
means that research and product innovation are not advancing as fast as they
could. 5 Sept 2006
Targeting the private sector in the European
healthcare market.
Many medical device and diagnostic manufacturers may be focusing largely on
the public healthcare providers in Europe and missing out on the
fast-growing opportunities in private sector markets, according to a study
by HBS Consulting. 29 August 2006
Item-level RFID tagging set for 100-fold growth in
decade
A new study forecasts the market for item-level RFID tags to rise from
US$0.16 billion in 2006 to US$13 billion in 2016 involving up to 550 billion
items ranging from OTC drugs to blood bags, cigarette packets and books. 28
August 2006
Digitisation and high costs driving
consolidation in European medical imaging market
Novel picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) and moves towards
digitisation are spurring growth in the European medical imaging market, but
this is set against pressures from cost reduction, reduced hospital beds,
lack of radiologists and a trend towards multi-modality deals. 17 August
2006
Growth potential for cardiology PACS in
Europe
End-user willingness to purchase digital cardiology picture archiving and
communications systems is forecast to increase the market from US$73.6
million in 2005 to US$200.5 million in 2012. 21 June 2006
VISTA opens new frontiers in ultra high field MRI
research
The Virtual Institute for Seven Tesla Applications (VISTA) is a Dutch
initiative of researchers from medical in centres Leiden, Utrecht and
Nijmegen. VISTA groups the expertise on ultra high field magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) in The Netherlands into one powerful virtual institute. Ultra
high field MRI provides unique advantages that can be used not only to
obtain better results for many current diagnostic applications, such as for
Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Multiple Sclerosis, but opens up new fields of
activity, by enabling previously unattainable applications. 16 June 2006
Email communications can benefit orthopaedic
surgeons and their patients
Due to the rise in patients using the Internet for communication and
information, orthopaedic surgeons should consider incorporating this
resource into their practices; but they should do so in a thought-out and
systematic way, according to a paper published in the March 2006 issue of
the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. 9 March
2006. More ...
Wireless technologies to play increasingly central
role in healthcare
The nascent European wearable wireless patient monitoring markets are likely
to see rapid growth over the next four to five years. Heightened awareness
about the benefits of remote monitoring combined with the growing popularity
of homecare is likely to boost the uptake of wearable wireless patient
monitoring systems. 9 March 2006. More...
Eliminating the threat of malware on
the desktop
Spyware, malware, crimeware, whichever name you pin on it, the threat is
very real and it has been infiltrating networks on a global scale at an
increasing rate over the last six months. This new breed of viruses arrives
through email, over the web and can even be inadvertently introduced by
poorly educated users. 14 February 2006
Increasing cardiac disorders in
Europe driving demand for diagnostic imaging systems
An increase in the incidence of cardiac disorders has led to a rise in the
number of diagnostic procedures, thereby resulting in a spurt in
interventional cardiac catheterisation procedures. There is also a greater
demand for non-invasive diagnostic techniques using CT and MR imaging
systems. 5 February 2006
German government initiatives to
boost use of IT in healthcare
Expenditure on healthcare IT in Germany represents a paltry 0.5% of total
healthcare outlays — an extremely low proportion compared to other developed
countries. However, the pursuit of a more integrated healthcare IT policy,
government initiatives and new reimbursement structures are set to boost
demand for healthcare IT in Germany. 5 February 2006
IT professionals neglect security on
mobile devices
A third of IT professionals using mobile devices such as PDAs and
smartphones don't use passwords or any other security protection, according
to a survey by Pointsec Mobile Technologies and SC Magazine. This is despite
the fact that three out of ten of these users store their PIN numbers,
passwords and other corporate information on the devices. 15 January 2006
Trial of mobile technology at George
Eliot Hospital shows significant benefits
 George
Eliot Hospital (GEH), a 440-bed acute care hospital in England and Intel
Solution Services tested the usefulness of mobile technologies. Twenty
wireless tablet or notebook PCs were deployed to a cross-section of care
providers. They used the devices with a mobile application portal to access
pathology and radiology results, a dashboard application for tracking
patient status, and other information sources. The pilot demonstrated
significant time savings for mobile clinicians and reduced administrative
burden on nurses.
More ... 8 January 2006
The FinnWell programme — making
healthcare healthier and wealthier
For many years Finland has built up a healthcare system to be proud of.
Nonetheless, no society can rest on its laurels. The older, better informed
and more demanding population is forcing big changes in Finnish healthcare
as in the rest of the world. And one of the ways Finland will be able to
deal with these changes is through activities such as FinnWell, one of
Finnish funding agency Tekes´ biggest ever technology programmes.
More ... 21 December 2005
GE revs up the engine
GE Healthcare has made two announcements that give shape to its vision of
the future of medical technology. Both announcements further blur the
already fluid boundary between medical equipment and health informatics.
Together with Swiss pharma giant Roche, GE will conduct trials to detect the
amyloid plaques believed responsible for Alzheimer's. The two companies will
use GE's PET scanning technology coupled with a specially developed imaging
agent. More ... 12 July 2005
Philips looks to medical computing
Philips is planning a big push in medical equipment, including more growth
in healthcare informatics, over the next year. Chief executive Gerard
Kleisterlee has set ambitious sales targets for the medical division, and
has set aside over €3 billion for healthcare acquisitions. Philips hopes
that expanding further into healthcare technology can off set losses and
setbacks suffered by the company's semiconductor and telecoms divisions.
More ... 8 July 2005
Healthcare reform helped French No vote
So, France has voted no in its referendum. Europe's constitution lies in
ruins. Or not, depending on what Europe's foreign ministers can cobble
together in a Brussels backroom. Which points out a key reason why
France's voters sent a resounding non! to its government and Europe's
elite. But another major reason why France voted no to Europe was
France's own programme of health and social welfare reforms.
More ... June 2005
French public spending policy in crisis
France faces a crisis in every area of public spending: pensions;
welfare; education; health. Governments have been trying to address these
problems since Édouard Balladur's conservative administration in 1993.
More ... June 2005
France's national disease coding
The first component of France's national health IT programme to go into
service is the health and cost coding system known as 'la Codage'. The
Codage will result not only in shifts in hospital funding, with many
departments receiving less money as a result, it is also intended to lead to
hospital cut-backs and closures. More... June
2005
DMP: the French EPR
The DMP, or personal medical file, is the centre-piece of France's health IT
programme. This will be a single unified computer health record. It will
hold all relevant medical information, which will be centralised into a
national data centre. More ... June 2005
The lesson for Europe
The relevance of the attempted French reforms for European governments is
that healthcare and social reform can be risky stuff. Right across Europe,
governments are engaged in re-engineering their health sectors.
More ... June 2005
Siemens retreats from the consumer
The giant is shifting onto its backfoot. But it will need to hone its
consumer marketing skills to retain its position in med-tech over the
next decade. More ... March 2005
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