New Standards of Care

The healthcare industry is one of the most regulated sectors in the world. That is primarily because the quality and level of care provided to patients could determine the course of their lives. We need standards because, in healthcare, the patient is always the top priority. Standards in healthcare promote transparency, accountability, governance, leadership, disease prevention and control, improved and early diagnosis, optimum treatment strategies and an overall direction and focus on providing quality services to patients.

In this issue, our contributors discuss New Standards of Care, the role these standards play in ensuring the delivery of high-quality patient care and the improvements that are needed to further ensure optimal patient outcomes.

Veli Strohmann and Strahil Birov talk about the digital health transformation in Europe and discuss the importance of data-driven decision support tools for better care delivery and policy-making. Arnaldo Stanzione, Vincenzo D’Ambrosio and Renato Cuocolo discuss biparametric MRI and explore whether it may be the new standard for prostate cancer imaging.

Henrique Martins and Luís Lino introduce the concept of Digital Anamnesis, a process of medical history taking using digital means and discuss how a systematic approach can improve clinician productivity and efficiency.

In their case study, Miroslav Mađarić and Vesna Nesek-Mađarić touch upon a very timely issue about standards related to medical information on the Internet and how it is important to make online health information more secure and useful for both patients and healthcare providers.

Stefan Heinemann explores the role of ethics in the digital transformation of cardiology and argues that in the future, the presence of a physician will continue to be necessitated in order to ensure value-driven care for patients. Carla Riera Segura and co-authors talk about how Telestroke 2.0, an innovative approach to optimise timing and automate workflow facilitates early detection and treatment of stroke for optimal patient recovery.

Wong Hon Tym provides insights on Singapore’s healthcare system and how the pandemic has driven progress within the system and enabled it to adjust to the new normal. Sam Maiden discusses integrated care systems and how they can help deliver long-term benefits to patients and clinicians and help overcome challenges presented by the pandemic.

Standards are critical in every aspect of healthcare – from diagnosis to treatment. Continuously adapting our standards is the only way to deliver value-driven, patient-centred care.

We hope you will enjoy this issue. As always, your feedback is welcome.

Happy Reading!