HealthManagement, Volume 5 - Issue 3,2006
Contact:
DrAntonio Santoro
EMAIL: MIR@EWGMR.ORG
WEBSITE: WWW.EWGMR.ORG
Workshop on Management in
Radiology, XIIth Edition
5-7 January 2006, Bad Hofgastein, Austria. Supported by: GE Healthcare, Guerbet, Schering
Topic - Internal
and External Networking
This year’s winter course will look at the topic of ‘Internal and External Networking’. Hospital situations may be different in terms of detail across Europe. Nevertheless, they all require strong people-management and leadership skills to deal with the wide range of challenges inside and outside our departments, concerning individual, professional and organisational issues.
Even the most technical solutions only work if the different worlds inside and outside the hospital work together effectively. ‘Networking’ describes an oftenunderestimated aspect of people skills.
As a participant, you will explore what the topic means in everyday life, especially when leading a radiology department. An understanding of the significance of effective internal and external networking will unfold through simulations and mapping of how networking is currently structured.
You will learn tools for optimising internal networks and activating key nodes when dealing with conflicting demands and organisational ‘politics’. To maximise your personal learning in this course, the trainers will lead you through a lively mixture of theory, demonstrations, simulations, reflection and feedback opportunities.
The course will once again be led by the same two trainers as in previous courses: Tony Poots from the UK and Gerhard Pohl from Germany.
Course Venue
Bad Hofgastein is a very attractive small village in the Gastein valley, just south of Salzburg. It is a typical Austrian village, with a small church, a square, a few houses, and some small hotels. We have arranged the meeting at the Congress Center just on the main square. It is nice, modern and very comfortable for our needs, and provides the possibility to use different rooms for small meetings.
There is no single congress hotel, but there are many hotels in the vicinity of the Congress Center. Most of them are family-owned and all are in the same 4- star category. For those of you who want to arrive before the start of the conference, most hotels allow for you to arrive early: the conference conditions have been negotiated to start on 2 January.
The main attraction of the town is the newly restored ‘Thermen’, with hot water and many kinds of sauna at different temperatures. It is open until late at night and is well designed and attractive. During the lunch breaks, you will have the opportunity to visit the Thermen or to ski. The slopes are easy to reach via a single cable car that transports people directly to the upper slopes, with wide, empty pistes.
Further Information
EMAIL: MIR@EWGMR.ORG
WEBSITE: WWW.EWGMR.ORG.
New IHE Integration Profiles for Cardiology at ESC
Contact:
Dr Hans-Peter Bursig
Email: BURSIG@COCIR.ORG
Website: WWW.IHE-EURO
The first ever demonstration in Europe of IHE Integration Profiles from the new IHE Domain Cardiology took place in Stockholm during the ESC Congress 3-7 September 2005. The IHE Domain Cardiology is being jointly developed by participants from Europe and North America and has finished Year 1 of its development cycle. A similar demonstration took place during the ACC earlier this year in the USA. IHE in Europe is grateful for the support provided by the European Society of Cardiology, which has helped to make this demonstration happen.
The New Profiles
In Stockholm, three basic Integration Profiles for Cardiology were on display: Retrieve ECG for Display, Echocardiography Workflow and Cardiac Catheterisation Workflow. The Echocardiography Workflow aims to optimise the sharing of information and the consistency of the patient record procedures. The Cardiac Catheterisation Workflow addresses the difficulties of reconciling administrative requirements with patient needs in an emergency situation.
Virtual Cardiology Department
ESC participants were able to join guided tours through a virtual cardiology department that contained a cath lab and echo lab with administration and ward workplaces. The tours gave a practical demonstration of the interoperability of different vendors’ IT systems according to the IHE Integration Profiles on display. To achieve this, the guided tours followed clinical scenarios that were developed with the help of ESC representatives.
Benefits to Cardiologists
For cardiologists, the benefit of IHE is the description of practical IT problems that affect daily clinical work and the solutions offered on the basis of the IHE Integration Profiles. IT systems that implement these specifications provide better workflow support, better integration and better availability of information. This not only saves time, but also ensures that no relevant information gets lost.
CARS to Launch International Journal
Contact:
Heinz U. Lemke, PHD
Email: HULEMKE@CARS-INT.DE
Website: WWW.CARS-INT.ORG
CARS is to launch a journal for interdisciplinary research and development for image guided diagnosis and therapy in February 2006.
The International Journal for CARS will be a peer-reviewed journal that provides a platform to close the gap between the medical and technical disciplines and that encourages interdisciplinary activities in an international environment.
It will look at innovations in CARS as a means of changing processes in health care in a variety of R&D areas. To increase the value of health care for citizens, one focus of the International Journal of CARS will be on new diagnostic and therapeutic processes that are facilitated by CARS. This will include providers' experiences, patient outcomes, economic considerations and scientific/medical validation results.
New Directions for EUROPACS
Contact:
Dr Jarmo Reponen
Email: JARMO.REPONEN@OULU.FIN
Website: WWW.EUROPACS.ORG
EuroPACS (European society for the promotion of Picture Archiving and Communication Systems in medicine) held its 23rd scientific meeting and general assembly at the CARS congress in Berlin 23-24 June 2005. During the scientific meeting high-quality presentations portrayed the most recent developments in radiological PACS development.
The EuroPACS general assembly accepted a new mission statement, which underlines that the core interests of the association are centred on medical images embedded into electronic healthcare for all production disciplines (radiology, nuclear medicine, surgery, cardiology and other clinical fields). This means that the association is prepared to proceed beyond radiology as clinicians use more and more information technology tools in patient care.
EuroPACS nominated a new president, Dr Jarmo Reponen from the University of Oulu, Finland, who was the organiser of the 2002 EuroPACS conference. Dr Reponen has a special interest in mobile technology and electronic patient record integration. Former president Professor Davide Caramella from the University of Pisa, Italy, continues on the board as a past president. New directions will include collaboration with the ECR office, which will help EuroPACS to run its secretarial tasks.
The next EuroPACS scientific conference will take place in Trondheim, Norway, 15-17 June 2006. Norway is one of the countries that already have an advanced network for digital radiology services.
Innovations from ECRI
Contact:
Michael Stewart
Email: MSTEWART@ECRI.ORG.UK
Websire: WWW.ECRI.ORG.UK
ECRI Develops Clearinghouse
for Medical Device-Related Disaster Relief
ECRI is establishing a clearinghouse for information on medical device-related disaster relief as a public service. In the wake of the disaster that continues to unfold from hurricane Katrina, healthcare organisations in the Gulf region are in need of a wide range of medical technologies and related services. Medical device manufacturers, suppliers, and service providers from all over the world are responding to the needs of the affected region with special services and products. This central resource aims to find out where products and services are available and how to obtain them.
As a first line effort, ECRI is contacting nearly 15,000 manufacturers, service companies, and distributors listed in ECRI’s Health Devices International Sourcebase and asking them to provide ECRI with information on any products or services being offered to help with the Katrina relief effort.
ECRI will post this information on a central clearinghouse web site and will send printed copies of the materials to hurricane-affected healthcare facilities that may still not have access to the Internet. The clearinghouse will be located at ECRI’s main Web page at www.ecri.org, which also gives further information about it.
Protect Computer-Based Medical
Devices from Viruses and Other Threats
ECRI has published advice to hospitals on how to protect and maintain the security of computer-based medical devices in the July 2005 issue of its monthly journal Health Devices. This article features ECRI’s step-by-step approach to maintaining, updating, and protecting such devices.
ECRI offers the following planning steps to avoid the exposure to viruses resulting from integration projects that rely on commercial software and operating systems: assemble a team, examine existing devices, request patches and upgrades, consider isolating devices on the hospital’s network, and protect new devices.
ECRI recommends that medical device security involve a collaborative approach to defend against viruses and other threats. This article helps information technology staff (IT), biomedical engineering personnel, and others involved with the security of computerbased medical devices to ensure that their equipment is made safe and will continue to remain safe, ensuring patient safety.
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