Editorial

Author Jean-Louis Vincent Head, Department of Intensive Care, Erasmus Hospital, Free University of Brussels, Belgium Conflict arises in all fields and workplaces and in ICU Management we are not immune to issues of disagreement. On the contrary, our unique role as physicians to patients and managers to staff puts us in a seemingly inevitable and continuous environment of conflict. Whether we mu...

News

The European Parliament has called on the EUMember States and the European Commission to tackle today's biggest killer in Europe: Cardiovascular disease. MEPs believe prevention strategies, public awareness campaigns, and the promotion of healthy lifestyles is urgently needed. Cardiovascular disease accounts for 1.9 million deaths each year, i.e. 42 percent of all fatalities in the EU, generating cos...

PULSION Medical Systems have started the implementation of the PiCCO2 system in leading hospitals across Europe after successful CE-Approval. The PiCCO2 offers a unique combination of parameters, providing a complete overview of the cardiovascular system and the haemodynamics of patients. The different display options such as SpiderVision enables the user to detect at a glance whether the patient is...

LiDCO, the UK based, AIM-quoted cardiovascular monitoring company, announced that it has received confirmation of the approval of its US Patent application for a new method and apparatus for optimally adjusting a biventricular pacemaker – used for the treatment of congestive heart failure (CHF). The method involves the measurementof changes in certain haemodynamic parameters (arterial pulse pressure and...

A judgment was awarded to Johns Hopkins University and Arrow International, Inc. in their patent infringement lawsuit against Datascope Corp. on Friday, June 15, 2007, in the United States District Court in Baltimore, Maryland. Johns Hopkins and Arrow had brought suit against Datascope for infringing patents relating to the Arrow-TrerotolaTM Percutaneous Thrombolytic Device (PTD®), a device used by interv...

Constructed to be small and unobtrusive, the new BreatheX™ Journey CPAP from VIASYS is powered by a rechargeable battery that will provide 11 hours of use at 10 cm H2O. Providing CPAP pressures from 5 to 12 cm H2O, the BreatheX™ Journey features ramp and altitude compensation and includes a 72 inch hose, which allows the system to be positioned in the most comfortable or convenient position. Compact an...

Patients with high blood pressure respond very differently to antihypertensive medication, making treatment selection tricky for physicians. But new research published in the online open access journal, BMC Medical Genetics, pinpoints a number of gene-drug interactions that could allow medication to be tailored to individual patients based on their genetics. The US research team studied siblings with...

Cover Story: Conflict Management

Authors Laura Hawryluck MSc (Bioethics), MD, FRCPC Associate Professor, Critical Care Medicine University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital Toronto, Canada [email protected] Bernard Lawless MD, MHSc, CHE, FRCSC Provincial Lead, Critical Care and Trauma, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care Lecturer Department of Surgery, St. Michaels Hospital Toronto, Canada...

Author Kathleen Bartholomew Consultant Nurse Author “Ending Nurse-To-Nurse Hostility” (2006) Seattle, US [email protected] Managers are in a pivotal position to decrease conflict. By their response, or lack of response, they informally create the code of behaviour for the unit. Staff members are always watching: What did the manager do when the physician yelled at the nurse...

Author Nathalie Danjoux, MSc Senior Policy Analyst, Critical Care Secretariat Toronto, Canada [email protected] Laura Hawryluck MSc, MD, FRCPC Associate Professor, Critical Care Medicine University Health Network, Toronto General Hospital Toronto, Canada [email protected] The complexities of decision-making and risk of conflict in ICUs will continue as demand for...

Special Focus on Hypothermia

Author Said Hachimi-Idrissi MD, PhD, FCCM Professor of Paediatrics and Critical Care Medicine Critical Care Department and Cerebral Resuscitation Research Group, University Hospital Brussels Brussels, Belgium [email protected] Historical Perspective of Hypothermia The use of hypothermia in the clinical setting has it roots with the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. Hipp...

Author Prof. Kees H. Polderman Vice Chairman Department of Intensive Care University Medical Centre, Utrecht, The Netherlands [email protected] In recent years, the issue of temperature management in critically ill patients, in particular those with neurological injuries, has gained increasing attention from the critical care community. An increasing body of evidence has shown that th...

Author Said Hachimi-Idrissi MD, PhD, FCCM Professor of Paediatrics and Critical Care Medicine Critical Care Department and Cerebral Resuscitation Research Group, University Hospital Brussels Brussels, Belgium [email protected] Sudden cardiac arrest (CA) remains an unresolved public health problem. It is the major cause of death in western countries and some of the few survivo...

Author Gene Sung, M.D., M.P.H. Director: Neurocritical Care and Stroke Division, University of Southern,California Los Angeles, California, US [email protected] The use of hypothermia has been an area of interest for scientists for many decades. Scientific rationale seemed obvious, cold temperatures stopped many of the destructive processes of cell injury and death. Observations of the mammalian...

Product Comparison: Defibrillators

ECRI is a totally independent nonprofit research agency designated as a Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization (WHO). Such organizations are appointed to contribute to WHO’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 organization...

Matrix Feature

Author Dr. Thomas Heidegger (above) Consultant Anaesthetist Quality Manager in Healthcare Department of Anaesthesia, Walenstadt, Switzerland [email protected] Dr. Hans Joerg Gerig Consultant Anaesthetist Department of Anaesthesiology, Cantonal Hospital St. Gallen St. Gallen, Switzerland Research has amply demonstrated that the two most important tasks for the anaesthetist...

Author L. Chelluri, MD, MPH Professor of Critical Care Medicine Department of Critical Care Medicine University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine Pittsburgh PA, US [email protected] Improvements in life-sustaining technologies in the past few decades have resulted in an increase in the number of intensive care units. Critical care is resource intensive, with 25 - 30% of the overall hos...

Author Scot A. Mountain (picture above) [email protected] Bradley S. Quon The Department of Medicine University of British, Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia Canada Najib T. Ayas (picture below) Sleep Disorders Program and Respiratory and Critical Care Divisions University of British, Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia,Canada [email protected] ‘On call’ or e...

Author Mariam Alansari MD, FRCSI Consultant Intensivist, Intensive Care Unit Salmaniya Medical Complex Ministry of Health, Manama, Bahrain [email protected] In most hospitals, medical services are overstretched and senior house officers (SHOs) in particular, have to spread themselves thinly over what is often a significant number of acutely ill patients. The traditional way in which many...

Management

Authors Hans Ulrich Rothen, MD, PhD Ludger Mende, MD Department of Intensive, Care Medicine Bern University Hospital (Inselspital) Bern, Switzerland [email protected] In recent years, obesity has emerged as a major problem, both generally in terms of public health, and at a more personal level. Body mass index (BMI) is the ratio of weight for height, often used as a simple indicator of adiposi...

Country Focus: Norway

Author Bjørn Magne Eggen Director of the Clinic of Medicine, Akershus University Hospital, Lørenskog, Norway Organisation of the Healthcare System More than 85% of all healthcare expenditures are publicly covered. The 431 municipalities/communes, with population size ranging from 250-500,000 inhabitants, have been responsible for the primary health and care services since 1984. Almost every...

Treatment of the critically ill is usually only infrequently debated in public in Norway. However, in the last two years there have been a few ICU cases that have generated a large amount of public interest in Norway. In these cases, the issue usually stems from a conflict between ICU physicians and relatives regarding ending life sustaining treatment. ICU physicians advise ending treatment, but the relativ...

Author Pål Klepstad MD, PhD Medical Director, Department of Intensive Care St Olavs University Hospital Trondheim, Norway [email protected] A key issue in Norwegian ICU care is how to give adequate ICU treatment to all patients despite a scattered population and geographically and meteorologically challenging conditions for patient transfers. These conditions necessitate that many patient...

Views & Interviews

Dr. Nils Smith-Erichsen is a Consultant in the ICU at Akershus University Hospital in Oslo, Norway. He shares his views on Intensive Care in Norway. Please Tell Us About Your Experiences Working as an Intensivist in Norway. When I began as a full-time intensivist in 1979, only a few colleagues were in the same position in Norway. I trained as an anaesthesiologist at Rikshospitalet University Hospit...

Congress Preview

Authors Stephen A. Bernard, MD Director of Critical Care, Knox Private Hospital Wantirna, Victoria, Australia Louis Brusco, MD, FCC M Director, Critical Care Anesthesiology St. Luke’s-Roosevelt, Hospital Center New York, New York, US Hiroyuki Hirasawa, MD Professor and Chairman Chiba University, School of Medicine Chiba, Japan Robert M. Kacmarek, RRT, PhD, FCC M Direct...

Epic II: Preliminary Results

Author Jean-Louis Vincent Department of Intensive Care Erasmus Hospital, Free University Brussels Brussels, Belgium On April 29, 1992, the European Prevalence of Infection in Intensive Care (EPIC) study collected data from more than 10,000 intensive care unit (ICU) patients in 17 countries in Western Europe (Vincent et al. 1995). This one-day point prevalence study investigated the prevalence o...


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