Editorial
By Editor-in-Chief Prof. Iain McCall
Dear readers, Delivering a first-class imaging service to emergency departments is a major challenge for many radiology departments around the world. Traditionally most radiologists are not resident in the hospital and specialists have a large inpatient and outpatient workload during the day, which often precludes providing immediate service to emergency patients and anything other than an on-call after-...
Association News
Latest Updates From Leading European Associations
MIR Announces Call for Abstracts Management in Radiology (MIR) has announced that the deadline for abstract submission for its forthcoming annual scientific congress, to be held in Athens, Greece from October 29 – 31, 2008, will be Friday, July 18, 2008. Submissions should be no longer than 350 words and delivered by sending an email in Microsoft® Word format - including purpose/ methods and mat...
EU News
- CORDIS Launches FP7 Health Research Web Service
Author Dervla Gleeson Managing Editor, IMAGING Management [email protected] CORDIS, the European Community Research and Development Service, has launched a new health research web service for the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to provide information on health research, a part of the FP7 Cooperation programme. On this website, an ‘About Health’ page gives comprehensive d...
- European Parliament Approves Postponement of Controversial MRI Directive
The European Parliament has recently approved the request by the European Commission to postpone the Directive on the use of MRI for a period of four years in order to have sufficient time to review the EU Physical Agents Directive 2004/40/EC (EMF). The European Parliament approved the postponement with a clear majority. The Directive will be delayed by four years until April 30, 2012, to allow time...
Industry News
Coverage of Corporate News and Updates
Philips Closes Visicu Acquisition Philips Holding has completed a 427 million dollar acquisition of Baltimore-based Visicu, a healthcare IT and clinical solutions company focused on critical care. The terms of the deal include payment to option holders, pursuant to the previously announced merger agreement by and among Visicu, Philips and Ice Merger Sub. With the close of the acquisition, shares of Visic...
Product Comparison Chart
Magnetic Resonance Imaging Systems
ECRI Institute, a non-profit organisation, dedicates itself to bringing the discipline of applied scientific research in healthcare to uncover the best approaches to improving patient care. As pioneers in this science for nearly 40 years, ECRI Institute marries experience and independence with the objectivity of evidence-based research. ECRI Institute’s focus is medical device technology, healthcar...
Cover Story:Streamlining Emergency Radiology Services
The Changing Board Exam Schedule in the US:
General Radiologists to be Re-homed in the ER Department? Author Dr. Stephen R. Baker New Jersey Medical School New York, US [email protected] General Radiologists to be Re-Homed in the ER Department? Change, though a constant in radiology, does not always announce its arrival. Though the introduction of a new modality, for example, is readily manifest, in contradistinction, some profound cha...
Restructuring Emergency Radiology Services: Increasing Efficiency and Decreasing Staff Turnover
Author Dr. Turid Langli Head of Department Department of Radiology Ullevål University Hospital (UUH) Ullevål, Norway [email protected] Ullevål University Hospital (UUH) is one of the largest hospitals in Scandinavia with about 9,000 employees. The hospital functions on four different levels. As well as acting as the local hospital for the largest part of the Oslo region, it is...
Streamlining Emergency Radiology Services: Collaborative Approach Gets Results
Author Dr. Jamlik-Omari Johnson Radiologist Department of Radiology Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School Boston, US [email protected] According to the Centre for Disease Control, over 115 million patients per year visit emergency departments in the United States. At our institution, approximately 48% of the admissions originate in the emergency department. Howe...
Healthcare Economics
Principle Components of Conducting and Reporting a Cost-Effectiveness Analysis:
What Every Decision-Maker Needs to Know Author Dr. Silvia Ondategui- Parra Associate Hospital Director Teknon Medical Center Barcelona, Spain also, Adjunct Assistant Professor Boston University School of Medicine Boston, US [email protected] The fundamental principle of economic analysis is that choices have to be made between alternative uses of resources, as the...
Features
Open Source PACS: Does it Really Decrease Costs of Healthcare IT?
Authors Ing. Elisa Talini Prof. Davide Caramella (above) Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology Department University of Pisa Pisa, Italy [email protected] [email protected] During the last two years the radiology department at the University Hospital in Pisa, Italy, has introduced PACS technology, implementing an open source PACS. Pisa University Hospital is the second larg...
The Digital Age in Medical Imaging:
Authors Thomas J. Vogl (above) M.G. Mack T. Lehnert Department of Radiology Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany [email protected] Digital technology has revolutionised our lives. We are collecting, storing, analysing, and using more and more information at a faster and faster pace. X-ray imaging is no e...
Sharing Medical Data Across Organisations and Systems
Author Dr. Hanna Pohjonen (above) Healthcare IT Consultant Rosalieco Oy Finland [email protected] The EU e-Health initiative and action plan is a driver for the sharing of patient information and networking of expertise across different institutions and countries. It was launched in 2004 and will be applied in its current form till 2010. Besides organisational eHealth, this init...
Imaging Leaders
Interview with Dr. M. Rosselli Del Turco, President,
European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists (EUSOMA) Interviewee Dr. Marco Rosselli Del Turco President European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists (EUSOMA) Florence, Italy [email protected] Why did You Decide to Focus Your Career on Dreast Cancer Imaging? My participation in the student’s political movements at the time of my degree in medicine, inspired me to seek a new ap...
Country Focus: Austria
Overview, Austrian Health and Hospital System: Towards Managerial and Financial Convergence
Austria is a democratic republic and a federal state which is composed nine Länder. The Länder have their legislative competencies and also participate in legislation at a federal in the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament). The Austrian healthcare system is characterised by the federalist structure of the country, the delegation of competencies to self-governing stakeholders in the social insuran...
Management Challenges for Medical Imaging in Austria: The Chairman’s Perspective
Author Prof. Werner Jaschke Chairman Department of Radiology Medizinische Universitat Innsbruck Innsbruck, Austria [email protected] The radiology department at Innsbruck University Medical Centre has two divisions located in two different buildings, staffed by 66 physicians, approximately 200 technicians and 88 scientists. Our centre is a wellknown leader in fields such as int...
Profile of the Austrian Society of Radiological Technologists:
Interviewee Dr. Michaela Rosenblattl President Verband der Radiologietechnologinnen Österreichs (Austrian Society of Radiological Technologists) Vienna, Austria [email protected] Please Tell Us a Little Bit About the History of Your Society and How it has Evolved Since it was Founded. Founded in 1961, the Austrian Society of Radiological Technologists is now...
Radiology Management in Austria: Profile of the AKH Imaging Department
Author Prof. Dr. Anton Staudenherz Specialist in Internal & Nuclear Medicine University Clinic of Nuclear Medicine Vienna University Hospital (AKH) Vienna, Austria [email protected] The history of the Vienna General Hospital goes back more than three hundred years. It came about as the result of the reconstruction of the “Home for the Poor and Invalid“, wh...