Editorial

Author Jean-Louis Vincent Head, Department of Intensive Care, Erasme Hospital Free University of Brussels, Belgium As critical care specialists, we are accustomed to combating life-threatening illness and injury on a daily basis. Our staff must be vigilant and must be prepared to respond rapidly to any deterioration in a patient’s condition, as that patient’s life may depend on immediate m...

News and Innovations

Biosite® Incorporated Introduces Triage® MeterPro™ www.biosite.com Biosite® Incorporated recently unveiled its thirdgeneration testing platform, the Triage® MeterPro™ at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) 2006 Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, USA. According to a Biosite PRNewswire press release, the Triage MeterPro combines Biosite's rapid, easy-to-use technology wit...

WHO Finds Most Countries Fall Short of Ensuring a Safe Blood Supply www.who.int World Blood Donor Day was June 14, 2006. To mark the occasion, the World Health Organization (WHO) released an announcement stating that the world is making slow progress towards the goal of 100%unpaid, voluntary blood donation. According to the WHO, regular, voluntary donors are desirable, as they are less likely to lie ab...

Teleflex Medical Expands Respiratory Offering www.teleflex.com Teleflex Medical recently issued a press release announcing the launch of an innovative interface for non-invasive ventilation (NIV), designed to help patients breathe easier. According to the press release, the Nasal-Aire II Critical Care patient interface is a single patient use, disposable device intended for use in the hospital and...

Cover Story:Preparing for Disaster

New Tasks for Military Aeromedical Evacuation Systems Authors LtCdr. A. Faltlhauser, MD, DEAA Col. A. Thomas, MD Department for Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Prehospital Ambulance and Helicopter Service (Head: Col. A. Thomas, MD) Bundeswehr Central Hospital Koblenz, Germany (Head: BrigGen. C. Veit, MD) History Prior toWorldWar II, Germany had little ex...

Author Marc Maegele, M.D. Department of Trauma and Orthopedic Surgery Intensive Care Unit of the Department of Trauma and Orthopedic Surgery (Director: Prof. Dr. Bertil Bouillon, M.D.) Cologne-Merheim Medical Center (CMMC) University of Witten/Herdecke E-Mail: [email protected] Individuals evacuated following the 2004 tsunami disaster sustained traumatic injuries to the head, chest...

Author J. Christopher Farmer, M.D. Professor of Medicine and Consultant in Critical Care Medicine Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN 507-255-3275 [email protected] Overview We have traditionally focused on the pre-hospital care setting as the primary building block of our disaster medical response systems. We assume that the hospital will “be there,” will receive casualties on short-notice, wil...

Matrix Features

Author Stanley A. Nasraway, Jr., MD, FCCM Director Surgical Intense Care Units Professor Surgical Medicine and Anesthesia Department of Surgery, Tufts-New England Medical Center Washington St., Boston, MA 02111 [email protected] Salient literature is reviewed describing the benefits and concerns of tight glycemic control in critically ill patients. Hypoglycemia and other pitfalls wit...

Authors Brian L. Smith, RCP, R.R.T. Administrative/Clinical Director, Respiratory Care Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Department of Anesthesiology Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine [email protected] Sherif Afifi, MD, FCCM, FCCP Chief, Division of Critical Care Medicine, Northwestern Memorial Hospital Associate Professor of Anesthesiology Northwestern University Feinberg...

Product Comparison:Transport Ventilators

ECRI is a totally independent nonprofit research agency designated as a Collaborating Centre of the World Health Organization (WHO). Such organizations are appointed to contribute toWHO’s public health mission by providing specialized knowledge, expertise, and support in the health field to the WHO and its member nations. ECRI is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading independent organizations...

Management

Authors Todd Dorman, M.D. FCCM Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine Baltimore [email protected] Ronald Pauldine, M.D. Johns Hopkins Bayview, Medical Center Baltimore [email protected] Motivational incentives often are equated to financial or other material reward for performance; however material reward alone is rarely a sufficient motivating factor in achieving top perform...

Author D. Kirk Hamilton, B.Arch, MSOD, FAIA, FACHA, is an Associate Professor of Architecture and a Fellow of the Center for Health Systems & Design at Texas A&M University for which he currently serves as Interim Director. His research area is the relationship of evidencebased health facility design to measurable organizational performance. He has chaired the ICU Design Committee of the Societ...

Views and Interviews

Sir Peter Simpson is the 2006 - 2007 President of the European Society of Anaesthesiology (ESA). In this interview with Amanda Heggestad, during Euroanaesthesia 2006, Sir Peter Simpson discusses his experiences with the ESA so far, as well as his goals for the ESA going forward. Can You Briefly Describe How the ESA Came to be? The ESA formed when three existing European anaesthesiology societies �...

EU Focus

Author Ilze Raath Editor European Affairs The European Court of Auditors (the Court) is the external audit institution of the European Union (EU) and acts as its “financial conscience”. Founded in 1977 in Luxembourg, the Court is independent from other EU institutions. Its task is to keep track of EU funds, making sure that the Commission manages them properly. Based on the Court’s Annual R...

Country Focus:Portugal

Author Ana Luisa Jardim, MD ICU – H. Capuchos, Lisbon, Portugal [email protected] www.icu-management.org Healthcare is on every country’s political agenda, especially because of the need to find solutions to the continuing increase in cost while meeting the challenge, felt by every healthcare system, to guarantee more and better healthcare to its population. In order to explain t...

Author Rui Moreno MD, PhD Unidade de Cuidados Intensivos Polivalente (UCIP) Hospital de St. António dos Capuchos Centro Hospitalar d Lisboa (Zona Central) Lisbon, Portugal [email protected] The first intensive care units (ICUs) in Portugal were created in the late 1950s in Coimbra (Rui Carrington da Costa) and Oporto (Armando Pinheiro). Lisbon, the capital of the country, just intro...

Author Ricardo Matos, MD Unidade de Cuidados Intensivos Polivalentes (UCIP) Hospital de Santo António dos Capuchos Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa (Zona Central) Lisbon, Portugal [email protected] One of the most remarkable aspects of the evolution of medicine in Portugal in the last decade has been the growing development and recognition of emergency medicine. Introduction P...

Authors Teresa Fevereiro, MD Luisa Amado, MD Unidade de Cuidados Intensivos Polivalente (UCIP) Hospital de Santo António dos Capuchos Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa, Zona Central Lisbon, Portugal [email protected] Since the inception of the first Portuguese intensive care unit (ICU) in the late fifties, significant (but still insufficient) progress has been made, with the installation o...

Author Isabel Miranda, MD. Unidade de Cuidados Intensivos Polivalente (UCIP) Hospital de St. António dos Capuchos Centro Hospitalar de Lisboa (Zona Central) Lisbon, Portugal [email protected] Sepsis, defined as the host response to an infectious process, is one of the most frequent diagnoses in the intensive care unit (ICU),and when associated with organ system dysfunction, remains one of...

Congress Previews

Stay abreast of new developments, obtain needed tools to help advance your knowledge and further your practice of critical care at the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s 36th Critical Care Congress. Regardless of your profession or role in the critical care team, the Congress will offer you a well-rounded perspective on the latest diagnosis and treatment of acute diseases and conditions common in the in...


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