Introduced in the early 2000s, video laryngoscopy marks the first major development in airway management since the advent of laryngeal mask airways. In 2012, Ron Walls, then the Neskey Family Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School provoked considerable controversy after he
From 5 to 8 March 2015, the 31st Korea International Medical & Hospital Show in Seoul brought together domestic and overseas manufacturers and medical professionals.
More than 72,000 visitors convened last March to the COEX exhibition centre where KIMES is taking place every year. The 2015 edition saw 1145 companies showcasing their products over 38,350 square meters of exhibition space. Among exhibitors, the highest number unsurprisingly was from Korea, represented by 530 manufacturers, followed by China (137), the US (117), Germany (96) and Japan (67).
According to the post-show survey carried out by the organizers, a majority of exhibitors obtained positive results and fruitful contacts with qualified visitors at KIMES 2015. Most of them also reported that the medical market was continuing to grow in the Asia region. This is one of the main factors driving the expansion of Korea
Resistant bacteria do not only resist antibiotics. They have also demonstrated the capacity to successfully fight antimicrobial agents and once-robust sterilization processes. Public pressure on hospitals to do more is illustrated by British daily
The Internet of Things (IoT) has been hailed by some commentators as one of the biggest revolutions in the hospital environment since the inception of patient monitoring equipment thirty years ago.
The latter triggered dramatic improvements in outcomes and explains the panoply of equipment now standard in every hospital room – from pulse oximeters, ECGs and apnea monitors to infusion pumps and ventilators.
False positives and negatives
Few doubt that healthcare today has improved because of such equipment. However, as the devices proliferated, another kind of risk has emerged. These monitoring devices operate independently, with no means to assimilate information from multiple sources and intelligently understand patient status. As a result, some devices can occasionally fail to issue an alarm (a false negative), while others do so wrongly (a false positive). On their part, healthcare staff members – whose numbers have shrunk as many of their tasks began to be handled by the devices – often tend to shut off what they believe are nuisance alarms.
Many are just that – nuisances. Some are not. In both cases of false positives and false negatives, human lives are often put at risk.
Nine of 10 healthcare IT departments ready for IoT
The Internet of Things (IoT) is seen to offer a way out of such challenges. IoT uses sensors, radio-frequency identification (RFID) and Real Time Location System (RTLS) to capture or monitor data and automatically trigger certain events.
In times past, healthcare sensors covered devices such as vital signs monitors. Today, those monitors and much other hospital equipment is connected by the IoT
Anemia is a common complication of critical care, with up to 90% of ICU (Intensive Care Unit) patients being anemic by their third day in the ICU [1]. Anemia is associated with poor patient outcomes, especially amongst those patients with cardiovascular disease. The treatments of choice for anemia are the minimization of blood loss and the transfusion of red blood cells when necessary.
This article considers the issues in critical care around anemia, transfusions and blood conservation. With blood-based diagnostic testing being a significant factor in cumulative blood loss and the risk of anemia, the use of a patient dedicated arterial blood gas analyser to minimize blood loss is also described.
Anemia in the intensive care unit
Causes
The reasons for anemia in critically ill patients are multifactorial and include acute blood loss (e.g. from trauma, surgery or internal bleeding), iatrogenic blood loss associated with diagnostic sampling and blunted red blood cell production. Of these, blood loss associated with diagnostic testing is the factor that is most easily controlled by the intensivist.
Laboratory results are an important tool to achieve diagnosis and guide medical care, and a certain amount of blood is required to obtain this information. The gold standard for monitoring oxygenation, acid-base status and ventilation is an arterial blood gas measurement
A wave of new anesthetic agents on the market has been followed by intense interest in the cost-effectiveness of different anesthesia alternatives. This, however, is not something new.
Debate dates back 50 years
Attention to the economics of anesthesia use dates back a half century. In 1965, the
Respiratory tract infection (RTI) is the fourth leading cause of mortality globally resulting in around three million deaths per annum, predominantly from pneumonia. In the West, whilst RTIs do not wreak the same toll that they do in the lower income countries, they are the most frequent reason for consulting a general practitioner (GP). The majority of RTIs affect the upper respiratory tract and are of viral origin; numerous studies conclude that there is no benefit in prescribing antimicrobials for an acute uncomplicated RTI. And as currently one of the most serious global healthcare concerns is antimicrobial resistance (AMR), it is imperative that diagnosis and treatment at primary care level do not augment this problem. Relevant national guidelines exist in most European countries, but there are considerable variations across the EU in the frequency that antimicrobials are prescribed for patients with RTIs, ranging from 28% in the Netherlands to 92% in Greece.
Point-of-care testing by GPs, however, can allow more prudent use of antimicrobials. GPs are being encouraged to measure C reactive protein (CRP), a very early marker of inflammation produced by the liver, as an adjunct to clinical examination. Serum levels increase within six hours of infection, peak within two to three days and decline rapidly to baseline level once the infection is resolved. Bacterial infections result in high levels >100 mg/L, whereas levels in viral infections rarely exceed 50 mg/L. And a cost-effective CRP POC test that can be performed within five minutes is available. Although serum procalcitonin level is more specific for distinguishing between bacterial and viral infections, the POC tests for this analyte currently take longer to obtain a result and are thus more suitable for hospital settings. The consensus from European consortia concerned with managing RTI patients and combating antimicrobial resistance is that patients with CRP levels <20 mg/L should not be prescribed antimicrobials, those with levels >100 mg/L should, and for those with levels in between signs, symptoms and risk factors should all be scrutinized and antimicrobials prescribed if symptoms worsen. This approach appears to be acceptable to both patients and GPs.
Randomized clinical trials have been carried out in several countries comparing
The communications revolution has opened up dramatic possibilities for healthcare delivery across physical/geographical boundaries. Telemedicine, once held up as a miracle, and then seemingly forgotten, has been making a comeback in one of the most challenging frontiers of modern medicine – the ICU.
High-speed communications have also paved the way for ambulance-based telemedicine.
ICU Telemedicine
Video observation and advanced algorithms
The greatest benefit of ICU telemedicine or Tele-ICU care involves continuous surveillance and interactive care by offsite clinicians. This is achieved by direct video observation of the patient and interrogation of ICU equipment. Advanced computer algorithms, based on clinical data available in a patient
With the launch of its new electronic health record (EHR) Portal, Agfa HealthCare is taking customers on a journey towards an integrated care solution. Easy to implement, yet providing a comprehensive road map, the EHR Portal integrates the experience and knowledge Agfa HealthCare has acquired in its long history, to drive towards the future of healthcare delivery with an architecture that can be extended into the entire care continuum. International Hospital talked to Joost Felix, Lead Product Manager, and J
Prins Hendrikstraat 1
5611HH Eindhoven
The Netherlands
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.
