Editorial

Healthcare professionals have long recognised the benefits of fostering wellness—that is, focusing on what is going right—instead of just trying to head off, or ameliorate, what might otherwise go wrong. By understanding the key determinants of good health we can keep as many patients as possible out of doctor’s surgeries and hospitals, and greatly reduce the burden of preventable diseases and ill he...

Promoting Management and Leadership in Healthcare ImagingEditor-in-Chief Prof. Lluís Donoso Bach Hospital Clinic – University of Barcelona, Spain Honorary Board Member Prof. Iain McCall UK (Retired) Editorial Board Members Prof. Stephen Baker Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, U.S. Prof. Hans Blickman University of Rochester Medical Center, U.S. Prof. Georg Bongartz University of Basel, Switzerlan...

Cover Story

“The safe modality.” That’s what MRI is frequently referred to as. In a profession (and larger populace) focused on ionising radiation risks, MRI’s exclusive use of non-ionising magnetic fields and radiofrequency energies makes it an appealing alternative to many x-ray based imaging modalities, particularly for young and repeating imaging patients. However, the absence of ionising radiation in MRI d...

That the use of ionising radiation for medical purposes holds both tremendous potential and entails serious risks is not a new insight. The first resolution aiming to protect individuals from excessive exposure through x-rays was adopted a full one hundred years ago by the British Roentgen Society. However, various developments have lent new urgency to, and sparked renewed interest in, the issue, and both r...

ECRI,Health Hazards,EI, IEC, Imaging, ALARA,dose creep,radiation exposure

ECRI’s Top 10 Health Hazards 2015 (ECRI 2014) lists at no. 7 “dose creep”, which is a pattern of radiation exposure levels (ie, dose) being increased by clinicians over time in an attempt to achieve better image quality in diagnostic radiography. Although it is unlikely to result in immediate harm, it’s an insidious problem that can have long-term consequences and that, over time, can affect many p...

The Role and Value of Incident Reporting in RadiologyIncident Reporting Harm in Healthcare A systematic review has shown that 9.2% of hospital inpatients experience harm from their care, with a median percentage of preventability of 43.5% (De Vries et al. 2008). Over half (56.3%) of patients experienced no or minor disability, whereas 7.4% of events were lethal. Operation- (39.6%) and medication-related (1...

Critical Success Factors Related to Legislation, Regulation and Security The MOMENTUM thematic network was a European Commission funded initiative aimed at encouraging the sharing of knowledge about introducing telemedicine services into routine care (telemedicine-momentum.eu). The people involved in the network were telemedicine practitioners or “doers”: health authority personnel, decision-makers in...

Targeted Best Practices Outline Top Medication Safety Issues Hospitals and health systems around the globe that are deciding what to focus their medication safety efforts o n can gain input from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). In 2014 ISMP celebrated the 20th anniversary of its founding, and reflected on the feedback that it has received through its voluntary national reporting progra...

Developing Medical Device Plug-and-Play InteroperabIlity to Improve Patient Safety and Healthcare EfficiencyNeed For Interoperable Devices Medical devices are essential for the practice of modern medicine. However, unlike the interconnected “plug and play” world of modern computers and consumer electronics, most medical devices used for the care of high-acuity patients are designed to operate independe...

Point-of-View

Early adopters of digital breast tomosynthesis in Spanish and Italian breast cancer screening programs are confident that potential organisational limitations can be overcome in order to maximise the benefits of increased cancer detection rate and reduced recall rates. Key Implementation Factors • Impact of organizational changes • Technology feasibility in the screening program • Costs/replacem...

With more than 60 years’ experience in the field of Radiology, Zwanger-Pesiri is one of the largest non-hospital based radiology practices in the US today. Its staff of 60 radiologists comprises a number of specialties including Vascular Imaging, Inter ventional Radiology, Neuroradiology, Musculoskeletal Imaging, Abdominal Radiology, Cardiovascular Radiology and Breast Imaging. With such a diverse and la...

Management Matrix

Ultrasound is a popular modality, widely used in healthcare, and there are a host of vendors in the market. For their Ultrasound 2014: Saving Time and Money with Workflow Automation r eport K L AS Research interviewed 178 healthcare providers to find out their opinions on which ultrasound vendors deliver when it comes to providing best value and saving time. To quote one sonographer, “Every minute we sav...

The delivery of clinical care is based on careful research to determine the most effective way of providing care for patients. At the same time the UK National Health Service (NHS) spends huge amounts on leadership development without a clear understanding of what kind of leadership and leadership development has most impact on patient outcomes. The Leadership Task The leadership task is to ensure directi...

General practice will not remain “the jewel in the crown of the National Health Service”, as it is often described, without change. Indeed, given the onslaught of criticism directed at this health sector by the media in recent times, it might appear that it has already lost much of its sparkle and will soon be neither fit for purpose nor sustainable. The need for change was set out by NHS England in i...

Has it Led to the Progress We Hoped For?Over the last two decades, successive policies have aimed to increase competition within the UK National Health Service (NHS) with the aim of improving outcomes and efficiency. This article reviews the successes and failures of these reforms, to assess whether the introduction of competition in the NHS has resulted in the progress hoped for by policymakers. The priv...

Several factors influence the length of time it takes for a medical device, particularly a new device, to reach its end user. One is the time it takes medical manufacturers to navigate regulatory demands, proving a device’s safety and effectiveness before it gets to market. In terms of these demands, companies routinely face one simple but weighty decision: should they seek the United States’ Food and D...

Sometimes insights, hitherto unperceived can be gleaned by finding points of connection between seemingly disparate pairs of organisations. The power of an apt metaphor can serve to transcend differences in focus and mission by bringing to the fore mutualities of concern and opportunity. In this regard, two small countries in Northeastern Europe—Finland and Estonia—have much in common with two relativel...

Big Data Initiatives to Support Next Generation Neuroimaging of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) American College of Radiology Head Injury InstituteTraumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a major societal issue that has recently captured a progressively greater degree of public attention. TBI occurs across a spectrum of mild to severe disease with outcomes that range from transient symptoms to lifelong disability or d...

The European Heart Agency was opened two years ago as the Brussels office of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and is located in the centre of the city close to the European Commission. It has three branches: European Affairs, the European Heart Health Institute and the European Heart Academy. ESC Immediate Past President Professor Panos Vardas, Managing Chair of the European Heart Agency, says: “...

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the major causes of death worldwide affecting both women and men. Sedentary lifestyles along with hereditary factors are some of the major reasons for deaths due to CAD (Antman et al. 2008). Mortality due to these conditions has increased to the extent that it is attracting attention the world over, resulting in concentrated ef for ts to curb it. This has led to a hug...

An emerging management approach in healthcare delivery is that of a migration towards comprehensive examination of chronic diseases, and entire populations as a whole instead of the individual. In essence, slowly moving from episodic-quantity care to population-quality care. Managing the overall wellness or health status of an “assigned” risk pool or population of patients has been a constant for third...

The Internet is full of blogs. They are multi-themed sites, self-managed by the authors and demonstrative of, and only limited by, the authors’ level of creativity. They are potentially accessible to anyone and everyone. There are numerous health blogs, but the proportion of health professionals who are bloggers is low. Having a blog is a cost-effective option to share health information, to promote inter...

The growth of social media for medical CPD has been astronomical over recent years. More and more healthcare professionals are taking to Twitter to share useful papers and educational resources. The emphasis on encouraging Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAM) is embedded throughout these interactions. We have no intention of reinventing the wheel with this one, but have tried to combine the wealth of...

Technology Update

Interview with Joost Felix, Lead Product Manager, and Jörg Schwarz, Global Business Development Director, Agfa HealthCare With the launch of its new electronic health record (EHR) Portal, Agfa HealthCare is taking customers on a journey towards an integrated care solution. Easy to implement, yet providing a comprehensive road map, the EHR Portal integrates the experience and knowledge Agfa HealthCare has a...

Point-of-Care testing offers not only a smart way of increasing patient safety, but also enables restructuring staff working patterns.If done in the right way, both are more than likely to increase the quality of care delivered, or efficiency and staff morale.1a 1b Cardiac surgery is increasingly being performed on patients who are 70-80 years of age. However, alongside the increase in age comes also an inc...

In Focus

EuroMedLab 2015, organised by the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), will be held in Paris from 21-25 June 2015. EuroMedLab is one of the most important and influential European events in laboratory medicine. The motto of the conference is R-evolution in Lab Medicine, and the goal is to emphasise the importance of lab medicine in patient care and wellness. The con...

The EuroMedLab Congress this year aims to offer insight into the direction of Laboratory Medicine in the 21st century. On the agenda is the role this field can play in a fast-changing health environment and the medical and scientific innovations that continue to take place. In an exclusive interview with HealthManagement, Prof. Damien Gruson shares his thoughts about the goals of EuroMedLab 2015, the future...

Markers for Therapeutic Progress in CancerLiquid biopsy in the oncology field is an emerging noninvasive diagnostic technique, which enables tracking of the course of the disease at various points in time. This diagnostic test refers to the genetic analysis of either circulating tumour cells (CTCs) or circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) in order to predict drug response and monitor therapy. Although still in the...

New Challenges for Regulatory ComplianceWith healthcare spending on home soil drying up, and the UK National Health Service (NHS) set to achieve unprecedented efficiency savings of £50bn by 2020 (NHS England 2013), savvy UK life sciences firms are looking to emerging markets for growth. Unlike the UK, emerging markets are becoming increasingly appealing, due to a growing middle class that expects a better...

IntroductionThere have been various predictions about the future of laboratory medicine and its subspecialties, both general and specific. The article “Future of Laboratory Medicine” by Larry J. Kricka, Tracey G. Polsky, Jason Y. Park and Paolo For tina presents an overview of previous predictions that have already become a reality and some future predictions that are expected to play a critical role in...

Datebook

More Than Two Events in One The High Level eHealth Conference is the largest pan-European conference of its kind: an all-encompassing event focusing on leadership and the continuum of care – healthcare from the home to the hospital. It is organised by the Latvian Ministry of Health and the Latvian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and scheduled alongside WoHIT – World of Health IT Confe...

Bringing the fight against cardiovascular disease to the vibrant city of London between August 29 and September 2, the ESC Congress 2015 will focus on patient care this year and spotlight “Environment and the Heart” to highlight the many different kinds of interactions between the Environment and Cardiovascular Diseases. By presenting, sharing, and debating on the latest science and research in car...

A platform for personal and scientific exchange, the ESGAR Annual Meeting has become the largest and most prestigious gastrointestinal (gI) radiology meeting in Europe. With its high standard education and scientific programme it is the best place to learn about the latest advances in the fields of gastrointestional and abdominal radiology. The Annual Meeting advances the study of gastrointestinal and abdo...

Compass

Singapore’s transformation from a low-income country to a rich, developed economy within a span of five decades is truly remarkable. The country’s GDP per capita of US$55,182.5 (World Bank 2015a) is currently among the highest in the world. This is in contrast to US$516 gDP per capita in 1965, the year Singapore became independent after seceding from the Federation of Malaysia. Equally remarkable is...

Zoom On

Dr. Strickland is a consultant at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London, UK, and is an esteemed member of HealthManagement’s Editorial Board. 1. What are your key areas of interest and research? Imaging information technology; chest and oncology imaging. 2. What are the major challenges in your field? • Lack of interoperability of digital systems in imaging IT. Unwillingness of vendors to...

Prof. Blickman is Vice Chair, Department of Imaging Sciences at the University of Rochester’s Medical Center and Radiologistin- Chief at the golisano Childrens Hospital in the USA. He is a valued member of HealthManagement’s Editorial Board. 1. What are your key areas of interest and research? • Paediatric imaging: trauma, gastrointestinal, genitourinary; • Management of imaging departments. 2...


No comment