Archive for category: E-News

E-News

Sink traps are surprising source of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in ICU

, /in /by

During a nationwide outbreak of healthcare-associated infections of an antibiotic-resistant bacteria, an Israeli hospital traced repeated infections of patients in its intensive care unit (ICU) to an unexpected source—sink traps, according to a study.
“Understanding the source of these resistant bacteria and how they were being spread was essential to effectively intervening and preventing the further spread,” said Gili Regev-Yochay, MD, lead author of the study and Director of the Infection Prevention & Control Unit at Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer in Israel. “While we were unable to prevent the sink traps from being colonized, by changing our behaviour associated with the sinks we have prevented the spread of these infections.”
From January 2016 to May 2017, 32 cases of OXA-48 Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) were detected, with all but the first two traced to the same bacteria. Most cases were initially detected through routine screening, 11 developed clinical infections, and three deaths were directly attributed to these infections.
The infection control team work closely with staff from the ICU—including clinicians, cleaning staff, a pharmacist and social worker—to systematically trace the source of CPE contamination to 22 sinks in the 16-bed ICU. Frequent decontamination of the sinks using different techniques only temporarily eliminated bacteria. However, decontamination combined with the adoption of sink contamination prevention guidelines eliminated new infections.  
CPE is usually spread from one patient to another through contact with staff or objects moved from room to room. But increasingly, hospital water has been recognized as a source of carbapenem-resistant organisms, the authors said. Running water from a sink can create an aerosol contamination of bacteria that can spread at least a meter from the sink during handwashing, authors said. Effective guidelines used by researchers included limited use of sinks in patient rooms, only using sinks for hand washing when necessary, a ban on clinical waste disposal in sinks, and avoiding storage of materials near the sinks.
Initial sink decontamination efforts included routine cleaning with bleach and later with acetic-acid, but weekly sampling showed that these efforts were effective for only a short time. In one room with a contaminated sink, a self-disinfecting sink trap was installed, but the trap was removed after a patient in a neighbouring room acquired an infection from the same bacteria that was detected again in the new trap.

SHEA
www.shea-online.org/index.php/journal-news/press-room/press-release-archives/626-sink-traps-are-surprising-source-of-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria-in-icu

2018 International Hospital Federation Award winners revealed

, /in /by

The winners and merit awardees of the 2018 International Hospital Federation (IHF) Awards were revealed October 10th at the Awards Ceremony held at the 42nd World Hospital Congress at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in Australia.
The IHF Awards, which celebrates and recognizes hospitals and healthcare organizations with demonstrable excellence, innovations, and outstanding achievements in the healthcare industry, attracted 160 entries from 118 organizations in 33 countries. Twenty-seven entries came out on top and were selected as finalists from which the eventual winners and merit awardees were chosen in the IHF / Dr Kwang Tae Kim Grand Award and Excellence Awards in Corporate Social Responsibility, Leadership and Management in Healthcare, and Quality & Safety and Patient-centered Care.
The Gold Award of the prestigious IHF / Dr Kwang Tae Kim Grand Award was bestowed to Dental Health Services Victoria from Australia for their program “Value-based healthcare: A new approach to improve oral health outcomes”.
Fundación Cardioinfantil Instituto de Cardiologia from Colombia took home the Gold Award of the IHF/Bionexo Excellence Award for Corporate Social Responsibility for their project “Give a Life”.
The University of Utah Health from the USA came out victorious as the Gold Award winner of the IHF/EOH Excellence Award for Leadership and Management in Healthcare for “Value Driven Outcomes (Implementation of Data Driven Approach to Manage Utilization of Resources and Improve Quality of Care)”.
Finally, for the IHF/Austco Excellence Award for Quality & Safety and Patient-centered Care, the Gold Award was given to Metro South Health, Queensland Health form Australia for their project “Gestational Diabetes Mellitis (GDM) App and Interactive Clinician Portal (Internet Based)”.
“This year’s winners and merit awardees are proof of how organizations across the globe are pursuing excellence, improving service delivery and moving healthcare forward, ” said Dr Lawrence Lai, Chair of the IHF Awards Committee.
“Congratulations to all the winners and merit awardees! When exceptional achievements and initiatives are awarded, it not only recognizes that their work is being valued but also brings to light programs and projects that others can emulate. More importantly, by sharing and learning from winning projects, it can inspire other hospitals and healthcare leaders to work together to strive for excellence.”
Winners of the Gold Awards presented their winning projects in a special concurrent session right after the Awards Ceremony while Silver, Bronze and Merit Awardees shared their excellent work by poster display at the World Hospital Congress exhibition.
Photos and more information about each of the winning projects will be made available shortly at the IHF web page. Health service providers aiming to deliver better and more efficient health services are encouraged to visit the page to be inspired by outstanding projects this year and IHF Award winning projects in previous years.

https://www.ihf-fih.org/

Mom’s voice may help babies sleep better in the NICU

, /in /by

Infants in the NICU were more likely to stay asleep during recordings of their mothers reading, finds new research.
Babies who spend their first days or weeks of life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit may not sleep as soundly as those who go home.
Now, researchers are examining whether one simple difference could help soothe these infants to sleep: the sound of their mother’s voice.
When they were played recordings of their mothers reading children’s books, babies in the NICU slept better and woke up less often, according to a new abstract presented at the annual meeting for Sleep Medicine.
“In the hospital, we take care of babies who are not in their usual environment, which can hinder their ability to have normal sleep,” says lead author Renée Shellhaas, M.D., M.S., a pediatric neurologist at University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital.
“Even though we do our best to make the ICU as quiet an environment as possible, there are hospital disruptions that are unavoidable. Alarms, monitors, ventilators, bedside care and even just the building’s heating and cooling noises may be disruptive. We designed this study to see how the sound environment in the NICU potentially influences sleep and to see if there are relatively simple interventions that may make a difference.”
“What we found was that babies in the NICU were more likely to stay asleep when the recordings of their mothers’ voices played than they were without them.”
"If we can find simple tools to help babies in the unit get higher quality sleep, they could make a big difference to infants’ health and development, especially for those who must stay in the hospital for an extended time."
 
University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospitallabblog.uofmhealth.org/rounds/moms-voice-may-help-babies-sleep-better-nicu

Oxford COVID-19 policy ‘Supertracker’ wins support from OECD, World Bank

, /in , /by

Oxford has launched the ‘Oxford Supertracker’ < https://supertracker.spi.ox.ac.uk > – a global directory for COVID-19 policy trackers and surveys – to enable policy-makers and stakeholders to follow and evaluate policy changes and their impact on the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK, Europe and around the world.
Marek Naczyk, Oxford Associate Professor in Comparative Social Policy and project lead, said: “As social scientists and concerned citizens, we felt compelled to work on this tool to ensure policy-makers and the public can access information on policy measures in the wake of COVID-19. We have been encouraged by the interest to date from many international organisations, including OECD and the World Bank, highlighting how the Department of Social Policy’s interdisciplinary background is well placed for the continued development of the tool. Our ambition is for the Oxford ‘Supertracker’ to be the go-to portal sharing all known policy-related data sources in one place.”
Numerous organisations have produced trackers to allow policy-makers and stakeholders to follow and evaluate policy changes and their impact on the pandemic. The Oxford Supertracker project makes this information freely available with one tool, allowing users to search and identify international policy.
Sebastian Königs and Andrea Garnero, Economists at The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said: “The team behind the Oxford Supertracker have done an impressive job in assembling the rapidly growing data on countries’ COVID responses and in making them readily available and easily searchable. This is an enormous service to the research and policy community, including many here at the OECD.”
Ugo Gentilini, Global Lead for Social Assistance at the World Bank, commented on the Supertracker, saying: “The Oxford Supertracker offers a precious compass to help policy-makers, practitioners and researchers to navigate the rich and evolving set of trackers available globally.”
The COVID-19 policy tracker started in March as a Twitter thread by Oxford DPhil student Lukas Lehner. But it has evolved into the Supertracker, a comprehensive global directory of more than 100 data sources.
Compiling policy trackers and surveys, the Supertracker allows users to search by:

  • Policy area – such as ‘education’ or ‘social and economic’
  • Country coverage
  • Data format, and
  • Author.

It will be updated with input from policy-makers, researchers and users, to identify symmetries and gaps in existing trackers and propose concrete actions to address these. These will be particularly relevant to the social policy and economic inequality prevention measures, that are put in place as lockdown policies ease.
Visit the Oxford Supertracker here: https://supertracker.spi.ox.ac.uk A data summary can be downloaded as a CSV for offline analysis.

Pan-European consortium established to rapidly develop vaccine

, /in , /by

A pan-European consortium of biotech companies announced April 23 that they will collaborate to develop and manufacture on a large scale a novel adenoviral vector-based vaccine against COVID-19.
The vaccine candidate is expected to enter clinical trials mid 2020 with vaccine production planned to start following the successful trials. If all goes according to plan, approximately 6 million doses of the vaccine are expected to be available early in 2021.
The consortium comprises Italian company ReiThera, German LEUKOCARE, and Belgian Univercells. They provide expertise in vector-based vaccine development, vaccine formulation and manufacturing, respectively. Their combined expertise is expected to enable efficient and ultra-fast vaccine development.
The vaccine technology is based on a novel, ReiThera-proprietary simian adenoviral vector with strong immunological potency and low pre-existing immunity in humans. Vaccines based on simian adenoviral vectors have been extensively evaluated in Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials and proved to be safe and immunogenic. ReiThera is currently preparing for a COVID-19 first-in-human trial to be started in Italy in mid 2020.
In parallel to its clinical development, the consortium will start manufacturing and stockpiling the vaccine. With these pilot scale processes, approximately 6 million doses of the vaccine are expected to be available early in 2021. Based on the Phase 1/2 clinical results and a path agreed with regulatory authorities, the intention with these doses will be to vaccinate the most exposed people such as medical and healthcare professionals and highly vulnerable individuals.
LEUKOCARE will contribute to the drug product development by developing a highly stable liquid vaccine formulation based on its well-established technology platform for formulations of viruses and viral vectors.
Univercells will take advantage of the previous successes of its scale-X bioreactor and NevoLine biomanufacturing platform to adapt and scale-up the technology platform and enable the mass production of ReiThera’s vaccine candidate.
Michael Scholl, Chief Executive Officer of LEUKOCARE, commented: “By combining the experience of the partners, the advanced stages of this vaccine development will allow for a swift response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Facing the current challenges, our approach for the fast and low-risk development of drug products with superior stability characteristics is even more important regarding timelines and social impact.”

The 43rd World Hospital Congress rallies for people-centered health services in times of peace and crisis

, /in /by

Hosted by the Ministry of Health of the Sultanate of Oman, the 43rd World Hospital Congress of the International Hospital Federation (IHF) will go over some of the most pressing subjects in the global healthcare community in over 40 sessions lined up for discussion on 6 to 9 November in Muscat.
In between times of peace, situations of humanitarian crisis always manage to creep in or sweep off the guards of healthcare systems and even governments. Epidemics, wars and terrorist attacks, natural disasters and man-made hazards, and major cases of poverty and famine often fall on the ground wrecking communities’ health defenses. The persistence of these phenomena and their prevailing nature demand collective attention and actionable long-lasting mitigation plans, which are best formulated with resilient health services, health investments for prosperity, and innovations for health impact.
Under an overarching theme “People at the heart of health services in peace and crisis”, the agenda of the World Hospital Congress will cover the stages of preparation while in peace, action when in crisis and moving forward to better healthcare services for communities.
The World Health Organization (WHO) will be hosting an opening keynote session on the role of hospitals in support of universal health coverage to be presented by Dr. Edward Kelley, Director of the Department of Integrated Health Services of WHO. It will be followed by a ministerial-level panel discussion to further explore how hospitals are integral to the UHC and PHC agenda and how they can contribute to transforming health systems.
In another keynote presentation, Dr. Akihiro Seita, Director of Health Programme of UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees in the Near East) will share about the challenge of UNRWA in providing Palestine refugees access to hospital services. In succeeding sessions, stories and perspectives taken right from the terrorist attacks in Kenya and the continuing displacement and refugee casualties in Afghanistan are ready to open many eyes to the bigger fights of the healthcare community against massive violence.
A number of sessions are equally dedicated to reviewing the central role of hospitals in the health system. In a keynote session, Dr. Agnès Soucat, Director of Health Systems Governance and Financing at WHO will help delegates further understand the role of hospitals and health services affecting population well-being. Likewise, Dr. Melinda Estes, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Saint Luke’s Health System in USA will share her knowledge about how hospitals and health systems can drive community health and prosperity.
Inspiring accounts about the birth of the Oman Cancer Association, an Omani community built from the sentiments of a cancer survivor now collaborating with several programs supportive of cancer patients, will also be told by Hon. Yuthar Mohammed Al Rawahy, Founder and Honorary Life President of the Oman Cancer Association. More sessions from this year’s congress host – the Ministry of Health of the Sultanate of Oman – will share about Oman’s stories of resilience, the integrated healthcare system they have established, as well as e-health innovations and achievements.
Innovation pathways will also take the floor in a keynote presentation to be delivered by Sir Andrew Dillon CBE, Chief Executive of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in UK.
More topics on health innovations will be tackled in detail through the inspiring digital transformation experience of Catalonia and the huge success of Taiwan’s healthcare IT transformation.
GS1 Healthcare has also arranged a session to share examples from several countries of enhanced healthcare results by the introduction of global standards, starting at procurement in healthcare organizations.
The concept of ‘anchor institutions’ will be elaborated by senior health service leaders and experts from the NHS Confederation.
Composed of several more currently relevant topics, the agenda of the Congress will once again serve eye-opener stories happening around the globe posting both serious challenges and ripe potentials to innovate and invest on people-centered health services whether in peace or in crisis.
The IHF Muscat World Hospital Congress will take place through four consecutive days of knowledge harvest including pre-Congress sessions on ‘Economics for Healthcare Leaders’ and ‘The “Fast Forward” Initiative for community- and person-centered hospitals and health services’. This annual event will close with a hospital tour to The Royal Hospital and the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital. https://worldhospitalcongress.org/

Stanford researchers create a wireless, battery-free, biodegradable blood flow sensor

, /in /by

A new device developed by Stanford University researchers could make it easier for doctors to monitor the success of blood vessel surgery. The sensor monitors the flow of blood through an artery. It is biodegradable, battery-free and wireless, so it is compact and doesn’t need to be removed and it can warn a patient’s doctor if there is a blockage.
“Measurement of blood flow is critical in many medical specialties, so a wireless biodegradable sensor could impact multiple fields including vascular, transplant, reconstructive and cardiac surgery,” said Paige Fox, assistant professor of surgery and co-senior author of the paper.
Monitoring the success of surgery on blood vessels is challenging as the first sign of trouble often comes too late. By that time, the patient often needs additional surgery that carries risks similar to the original procedure. This new sensor could let doctors keep tabs on a healing vessel from afar, creating opportunities for earlier interventions.
The sensor wraps snugly around the healing vessel, where blood pulsing past pushes on its inner surface. As the shape of that surface changes, it alters the sensor’s capacity to store electric charge, which doctors can detect remotely from a device located near the skin but outside the body. That device solicits a reading by pinging the antenna of the sensor, similar to an ID card scanner. In the future, this device could come in the form of a stick-on patch or be integrated into other technology, like a wearable device or smartphone.
The researchers first tested the sensor in an artificial setting where they pumped air through an artery-sized tube to mimic pulsing blood flow. Surgeon Yukitoshi Kaizawa, a former postdoctoral scholar at Stanford and co-author of the paper, also implanted the sensor around an artery in a rat. Even at such a small scale, the sensor successfully reported blood flow to the wireless reader. At this point, they were only interested in detecting complete blockages, but they did see indications that future versions of this sensor could identify finer fluctuations of blood flow.
Stanford University https://tinyurl.com/y6g4qmng

European Commission raises €15.9 billion for Coronavirus Global Response

, /in /by

The ‘Global Goal: Unite for our Future’ pledging summit organised 27 June by the European Commission and Global Citizen mobilised €6.15 billion in additional funding to help develop and ensure equitable access to coronavirus vaccines, tests and treatments. This brings total pledges under the Coronavirus Global Response pledging marathon, launched by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on 4 May, to €15.9 billion. The money raised will also support economic recovery in the world’s most fragile regions and communities..
The latest pledging session includes a €4.9 billion pledge by the European Investment Bank, in partnership with the European Commission, and €485 million committed by EU Member States.
Forty governments took part in the summit and committed to ensuring universal access to coronavirus medicines. They also vowed to help rebuild communities that have been hit hard by the pandemic, in a fair and just way.
As a landmark of global solidarity, the summit resulted in commitments for the production capacity of over 250 million vaccine doses for middle and lower income countries.
“The world will only be freed from this pandemic when vaccines, tests and treatments are available and affordable to everyone who needs them. Today’s pledges and Europe’s contribution bring us closer to this global goal. Europe is in this for the long haul. We will use all of our convening power for the common good. There is a strong alliance out there to beat this virus, together.” Von der Leyen said.
The European Investment Bank is building a pipeline of investment projects to develop and scale up production of coronavirus vaccines, tests and treatments, in partnership with the European Commission, the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
In recent weeks, the EIB announced a new Memorandum of Understanding with the WHO, an Advisory agreement with CEPI, a collaboration with the Israel Innovation Authority and a €50 million financing agreement with Pluristem to develop therapies for coronavirus vaccine development finance for BioNTech and increased cooperation with UN-Habitat.

Italian doctors call on world to change perspective on care

, /in , /by

Doctors at the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy have made an urgent call on the rest of the world to change the way they treat pandemic patients. In a paper published in NEJM Catalyst (21 March 2020) they say patient-centred care is no longer feasible in a pandemic and that ‘community-centred’ care should be the new norm.
They say that hospitals might be the main COVID-19 carriers as they are rapidly filled with infected patients.
“This disaster could be averted only by massive deployment of outreach services,” they emphasize.
The doctors (Nacoti M, et al – At the Epicenter of the Covid-19 Pandemic and Humanitarian Crises in Italy: Changing Perspectives on Preparation and Mitigation) who work at Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo, a brand-new state-of-the-art facility with 48 intensive-care beds, say: “Our own hospital is highly contaminated, and we are far beyond the tipping point: 300 beds out of 900 are occupied by Covid-19 patients. Fully 70% of ICU beds in our hospital are reserved for critically ill Covid-19 patients with a reasonable chance to survive. The situation here is dismal as we operate well below our normal standard of care. Wait times for an intensive care bed are hours long. Older patients are not being resuscitated and die alone without appropriate palliative care, while the family is notified over the phone, often by a well-intentioned, exhausted, and emotionally depleted physician with no prior contact.
“But the situation in the surrounding area is even worse. Most hospitals are overcrowded, nearing collapse while medications, mechanical ventilators, oxygen, and personal protective equipment are not available. Patients lay on floor mattresses. The health care system struggles to deliver regular services — even pregnancy care and child delivery — while cemeteries are overwhelmed, which will create another public health problem.
They say pandemic solutions are required for the entire population, not only for hospitals.

  1. Home care and mobile clinics avoid unnecessary movements and release pressure from hospitals.
  2. Early oxygen therapy, pulse oximeters, and nutrition can be delivered to the homes of mildly ill and convalescent patients, setting up a broad surveillance system with adequate isolation and leveraging innovative telemedicine instruments.

https://catalyst.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/CAT.20.0080

IHF Congress will convene health leaders from around the globe in Oman

, /in /by

Health leaders and professionals from more than 40 countries will be in Oman on 6-9 November for the 43rd World Hospital Congress of the International Hospital Federation for in-depth discussions on people-centered health services in times of peace and crisis. The scientific sessions will bring up actionable ideas on how health services can be resilient to various issues, supported by investments contributing to the prosperity of the country and innovative to increase health gain.
IHF’s annual Congress, hosted this year by the Ministry of Health of the Sultanate of Oman, will showcase a comprehensive event experience with:

  • 150 notable Speakers who will present advancements and share best practices in leadership, management and service delivery;
  • 40 Sessions that will delve into various dimensions of resilience, contribution of the health industry to prosperity and impactful innovations;
  • Poster display of best practices from different hospitals and organizations;
  • Solid networking opportunity enhanced by a new mobile application – CERCA – for secure and privacy-protected network-building activity; 
  • Two intensive Pre-conference sessions: Economics for Health Leaders and The “Fast Forward” Initiative for Community- and Person-Centered Hospitals and Health Services;
  • 2019 IHF Awards where outstanding initiatives will be recognized;
  • A friendly exhibition environment to make new connections or reunite with peers;
  • Hospital Site Visits to The Royal Hospital and Sultan Qaboos University Hospital, of which funds collected will be donated to St. Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds, a charity supported by a life-changing campaign called #hellomynameis.


The World Hospital Congress is a one-stop shop for the healthcare professional seeking the opportunity and environment in which to engage in a 360-degree learning and knowledge-sharing experience among peers. http://worldhospitalcongress.org

Latest issue of International Hospital

April 2024

Digital edition
All articles Archived issues

Free subscription

View more product news

Get our e-alert

The medical devices information portal connecting healthcare professionals to global vendors

Sign in for our newsletter

Beukenlaan 137
5616 VD Eindhoven
The Netherlands
+31 85064 55 82
info@interhospi.com

PanGlobal Media IS not responsible for any error or omission that might occur in the electronic display of product or company data.