HealthManagement, Volume 8 - Issue 3, 2008

Dear colleagues,

I write to urge you to attend the Management in Radiology (MIR) annual conference to be held in Vouliagmeni, Athens, Greece from Wednesday 29 until Friday 31 October 2008. The local chairmen are Greek radiologists Prof. Nikolaos Batakis, Dr. Athanasios Chalazonitis and Dr. Fotios Takis.

 

We have an exciting and interesting programme already organised with numerous national and international invited speakers, and proffered paper sessions.

 

Topics include:

• Financial and human resources management in imaging;

• How to manage imaging education;

• Management issues in ultrasound;

• Managing CD/DVD referrals;

• Managing data security and many associated ethical issues;

• The diffi cult question of managing imaging private practice and integrating into a public health system;

• The management of change; and

• Clinical audit and safety management.

 

All these issues are worthy of detailed debate, and we hope to air them fully at the congress. Make sure you are a part of it and we look forward to seeing you there.

 

There will also be an interesting social aspect to the programme, with a Gala dinner, and plenty of opportunity to organise sight-seeing in Athens and its surrounding islands during the weekend after the congress, as an added incentive to come!

 

Best wishes,

Dr. Nicola H Strickland

Chairman, Management in Radiology (MIR)


MIR News

Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) recently held the eighth IHE-Europe interoperability testing event, or Connectathon, from 7 - 11 April in Oxford, England.

 

Over 300 engineers from 83 companies representing a majority of countries across the continent gathered at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, testing the ability of their medical equipment to communicate with each other, or interoperate. This year, vendors from Japan, Korea and the US also took part.

 

More than 1,850 interoperability tests were carried out over the fi ve days, verifi ed by a team of over 31 volunteer monitors led by Eric Poiseau (INRIA), IHE-Europe Technical Project Manager.

 

IHE covers nine areas, called domains, which are essential for delivering healthcare services using computer support and information systems for patient monitoring, laboratory results and even assisting with surgeries. The IHE domains include IT infrastructure, radiology, cardiology, laboratory, radiation oncology, patient care coordination, patient care devices, pathology and pharmacy.

 

Exchanging radiology images and information was once again the leading domain tested during the Connectathon, but this year for the fi rst time there were an equal number of tests conducted in the IT Infrastructure domain, particularly Cross-Enterprise Document Exchange (XDS) integration profi les.


IHE NEWS – Report from Recent Connectathon

CIRSE has launched a new website (http://www.uterinefi broids.eu/) to provide accurate and up-to-date information based on scientifi c evidence, internationally published recommendations and the expertise of its membership about fi broids of the uterus, also known as leiomyoma, fi bromyoma or myoma. Since they were fi rst treated with Uterine Fibroid Embolisation (UFE) in France in 1989, the procedure has become widely available and is now routinely performed in many European countries.

 

Unfortunately, the general public and many patients suffering from fi broids have not yet heard of this alternative. Indeed, many gynaecologists and referring doctors remain unaware of its advantages. The vast majority of specialist medical practitioners performing UFE in Europe are members of CIRSE. With this in mind, it is to be hoped that the new website will go a long way towards raising awareness of this minimally-invasive procedure and its potential benefi ts. More information can be found on the CIRSE website at www.cirse.org.

 

The ECRI Institute is now accepting submissions to its third annual Health Devices Achievement Award programme. The award honours healthcare facilities for achieving excellence in health technology management. Submissions are accepted online at http:// www.ecri.org/hdaward. ECRI Institute will recognise top fi nalists on the ECRI Institute website prior to the announcement of the top honouree.

 

ECRI Institute’s 2008 Health Devices Achievement Award overall winner will receive a plaque honouring its accomplishment and will be featured in ECRI Institute’s Health Devices Journal. Finalists and overall winner may also be highlighted in other Health Devices System promotions.


Submission Requirements

Applicants should submit a 1,000- to 2,000 -word essay to ECRI Institute describing an initiative (or initiatives) undertaken at their facility that demonstrates excellence in the fi eld of health technology management. Please include:

• A description of the initiative(s).

• The motivation behind the initiative(s).

• Methodology used.

• The impact of the initiative, including outcomes and cost savings (as applicable).

 

Submissions should also include the institution’s name, the name of the individual or department(s) initiating the programme, and contact information (name, title, phone number and email address) for the person submitting the nomination.

 

EuroPACS have announced that the next editionof their annual conference, covering hottopics in PACS, will be held in Berlin, Germanyin 2009, and in Krakow, Poland, in 2010.


About the Association

EuroPACS’ core interest is centred on medical images embedded into electronic healthcare whatever the producer (radiology, nuclear medicine, surgery, cardiology and other clinical fi elds). Its objective is to promote the exchange of information in the fi elds of research, user experience, implementation, assessment and audit of the benefi t of the development and the use of digital systems for the acquisition, storage, transport, processing, display and reproduction of medical pictures (PACS) and related technologies as well as their integration in the eHealth context


Annual Congress Promotes Knowledge- Sharing

With this in mind, an annual congress is held to promote the exchange and presentation of this kind of information between all different users. This year’s edition took place in Barcelona, Spain from June 25 – 28, 2008, held in conjunction with the annual CARS congress, chaired by expert topic leaders such as Dr Jarmo Reponen, Prof. Davide Caramella and Prof. Berthold Wein.

 

It included between 400 - 600 delegates from different countries and highlighted the following topics in PACS and radiology IT:

• Achieving RIS/PACS/CR productivity – the need for a comprehensive approach involving systematic redesign of workfl ows and procedures

• O3-DPACS system: challenges and original solutions in developing an open source project for the PACS critical system

• Development of an automated search method to fi nd lost images in PACS environment by use of “biological fingerprints” and image-matching technique

• Remote teleradiology in mobile PET-CT unit

• A DICOM based telemedicine record

• Integration of multidisciplinary PACS with teaching fi les and eLearning platform

• Utilisation of medical imaging informatics and biometrics technologies in healthcare delivery

• Visible light imaging in PACS – unexpected benefi ts to radiologists and clinicians

• E-learning and video conference for distance learning in mini-invasive surgery

• Wireless “low-delay”-live streaming for telepresence in the OR

• E-atlas with advanced image analysis functions

• Workfl ow driven user interface for radiological system: a human factors approach

• Enhanced MR objects address multi-vendor interoperability issues in clinical radiology

• How about the end-users? Critical factors during the implementation of PACS

 

Each of these topics is at the core of an interoperable and intelligent data management system for healthcare IT and radiology departments across the globe. To fi nd further information, please visit www.europacs.org.

 

The 22nd International Congress and Exhibition of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery (CARS) took place in Barcelona from 25 - 28 June 2008 in the new hotel NH Constanza, located in the centre of Barcelona, providing ample opportunities for presentations, workshops, discussions, posters and exhibits.

 

As is well known, the CARS congress (www.cars-int.org) is the most important forum at an international level on the application of advanced information technologies in radiology and surgery. It covers a wide spectrum beginning with the radiological image and its management (PACS), to informatics and engineering applications in surgery (planning, simulation, navigation, robotics, etc).

 

The 22nd CARS in 2008 included in its programme the following events:

• 12th Annual Conference of the International Society for Computer Aided Surgery – ISCAS (President: T. Dohi)

• 22nd International Congress and Exhibition on Computer Assisted Radiology – CAR (Chairmen: S. Baum, L. Donoso Bach)

• 26th International Meeting of the European Society for the promotion of Picture Archiving and Communication Systems in Medicine

- EuroPACS (President: J. Reponen)

• 10th International Workshop on Computer- Aided Diagnosis - CAD (Chairmen: K. Doi, U. Bick)

• 14th Computed Maxillofacial Imaging Congress

- CMI (Chairman: A.G. Farman)

 

In order to make the new technologies available to medical and healthcare specialists, the scientifi c committee decided to extend the programme with a clinical day, an educational event where experts from radiological and surgical specialities presented advanced IT applications in diagnosis and therapy of highly relevant clinical topics.

 

Engineers, physicians, surgeons, industrial representatives and healthcare managers met during the management day with a focus on the application of new technologies in the present healthcare system.

 

CARS information is available at www.carsint.org.

«« Carestream Health Provides Digital Medical, Dental Imaging Technology To Beijing 2008 Olympic Games


Hologic completes cash tender offer for Third Wave Technologies, Inc. »»