Editorial
Shrinking the Gaps: E-Health and Cardiology
According to Moore’s law (named after Intel cofounder Gordon E. Moore), computer capacity increases exponentially, approximately doubling every two years. Two decades ago, for many medical professionals, a computer was still a novelty. Nowadays, an office without one looks bare, incomplete. The healthcare industry has been slow to adopt this new technology. Understandably, caution has been the watchwor...
News & Views
Update From the European Institutions
Spain Takes Over Presidency of EU Council Spain has pledged to drive forward the realisation of the European Research Area (ERA) during its six-month Presidency of the Council of the EU, which started on January 1st. Innovation and equality are at the heart of the Spanish Presidency programme, explained Science and Innovation Minister Cristina Garmendia who added, “Promoting the construction of the ERA...
Exhibitors @ RSNA 2010
Update From Healthcare Industry
European Approval Given to ST. Jude Medical ICD and CRT-D Devices St. Jude Medical implantable cardio verter defibrillators (ICD) and cardiac resynchronisation therapy defibrillators (CRTD) have been given the European CE Mark approval. The products, including the Fortify(TM) and Fortify ST ICDs as well as the Unify(TM) CRT-D, will be fully launched in Europe this spring. Their reduced size, the sma...
Cover Story: E-Health - New Horizons for Cardiology
Applications of Telecardiology: Recommendations for its Use in Practice
Cardiovascular diseases play a major role in general morbidity and disability, representing one of the major burdens to our healthcare system. Telemedicine can reduce the pressure on medical experts, who are limited in number, and extend their expertise to patients in isolated or remote locations. Telemedicine appears particularly promising in cardiovascular disease, because early, tailored interventions a...
The Role of the Electronic Health Record in Research: Applications Beyond Clinical Care
Conceptually, the Electronic Health Record (EHR) is intended be a lifelong collection of health-relevant data for a consenting person. The main purpose of the EHR is to assist medical care by providing health professionals with the information for diagnosis and therapy where, when and how it is needed. This is particularly important in the highly specialised and sometimes fragmented health sector of today,...
Oldes & E-Health for the Elderly: An Affordable and Customisable Telecardiology System
Background on Telemedicine- Related EU Policies A European Commission Communication, adopted on the 04/11/2008 (COM – 2008 - 689 final), advocates the development and use of telemedicine services, including diagnosis, treatment and monitoring at a distance across Europe. The Communication highlights how, in an ageing Europe, where more and more citizens live with chronic health diseases, telemedicine...
Guidelines for Running a Paediatric Telecardiology Service:
Children’s Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Shares Their SuccessFor paediatric cardiologists, telecardiology has become a valuable tool in diagnosing and triaging newborns with suspected congenital heart disease at remote hospital nurseries. The tele echocardiography programme developed over 15 years ago at the Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL, has spawned similar programmes both in the United States...
Making an E-Health Investment: High Potential Opportunity and Managerial Challenge
The increase in demand for health services tends more and more often to outstrip the increase in supply. Ageing populations, increasing incidence of chronic diseases, and improvements in medical knowledge and technological equipment are the main demand drivers across the EU. The financial and real resources available for meeting this increase in demand are limited. As a result of this worsening mismatch, th...
Features: Intervention
Developments in Structural Heart Disease Interventions
How Progress is Changing Practice for Interventional SpecialistsInterventional treatments of structural heart disease are evolving at a rapid pace and are now established routine in many centres worldwide. Some have even left the traditional interventional field of cardiology behind and have emerged from coronary catheterisation labs into specialised units for catheter-based therapy of structural heart dise...
Features: Practice Management
Managing Surge Capacity: Balancing Resource Utilisation
Worldwide, healthcare systems are struggling with higher costs and demands of becoming more cost-effective. Despite our efforts, diseases cannot be exterminated and treatments of curable diseases sometimes result in the manifestation of new ones. For instance, decreasing neonatal mortality has been replaced with diseases among aging population e.g. cancers, raising the need for new areas of competency, tr...
Matching Talent and Jobs
Programmed to under-perform? This is how some healthcare managers may feel when they go home after a typical day at work, according to a recent white paper ‘What Does Being in Over Your Head Look Like’. In reality, the average healthcare organisation creates leadership alignment (the right people in the right roles) approximately 55 percent of the time. Realistic expectations for leadership appointment...
Features: Cardiovascular Pharmaceuticals & Medicine
Diastolic Dysfunction and Diastolic Heart Failure: Part One - Pathophysiology
Diastolic dysfunction represents a mechanical malfunction of the relaxation of the left ventricular chamber primarily diagnosed by two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography and in most cases, has no immediate clinical relevance. The abnormal relaxation is usually separated in different degrees based on the severity of reduction in passive compliance and active myocardial relaxation. Diastolic heart fa...
Country Focus: The Nordic Countries
Overview of the Healthcare Systems in the Nordic Countries
The Nordic healthcare system has a long heritage. It is especially well-established with regard to primary and preventive healthcare. These couple into sophisticated occupational health standards which are considered to be models by the outside world. All Nordic countries also have highly-developed hospital services. Nordic healthcare systems are taxation based, and locally administrated with every citize...
Cardiology in the Nordic Countries
Overview of the National Societies of Cardiology in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark Norwegian Society of Cardiology (NSC) The Norwegian Society of Cardiology (NSC) was founded in 1969. Its main activities can be divided into: Organisational: Provides advice and support for the Norwegian Medical Association related to education in cardiology, professional advice and defining national priorities for hea...
Interview: Cardiology Leaders
Interview with Prof. Valentin E. Sinitsyn:
Co-Founder of the European Society of Cardiac Radiology Talks About Collaboration Between Cardiologists and Radiologists Born in Elizovo, on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia on 14 November 1961, Prof. Valentin Sinitsyn began medical school at the Sechenov 1st Moscow Medical Institute in 1978, and graduated in 1984. From 1984 to 1988 he worked as a resident and fellow in the Diagnostic Radiology Department...