HealthManagement, Volume 15 - Issue 1, 2015

Guest Editorial

Population ageing is one of the major global phenomena of the 21st century. Despite the great achievements of improved longevity that all human beings have dreamed of, we are faced with the challenging situation of needing to advance a sustainable future with an ageing population, while having to address the heavy burden imposed on societies, based on irrational assumptions on ageing per se and older peopl...

Editorial Board Members

Promoting Management and Leadership in HealthcareImaging Editor-in-Chief Prof. Lluís Donoso Bach, Hospital Clinic – University of Barcelona, Spain Honorary Board Member Prof. Iain McCall, UK (Retired) Editorial Board Members Prof. Stephen Baker, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, U.S. Prof. Hans Blickman, University of Rochester Medical Center, U.S. Prof. Georg Bongartz, University of Basel, Switzerl...

Guest Authors

Prof. Lorenzo Bonomo Italy Zoom On Prof. Hans-Peter Busch germany Organisational Development: Achieving Change Prof. Heung Bong Cha South Korea Empowerment of Older Persons for a Sustainable Ageing Society Shirley Cramer UK Creating Stronger Bonds Between Health Managers and Clinicians; Zoom On Gianluca D’Agosta, Teresa Gallelli Mathias de la Calle & Christine Petioky Italy & Austria Techn...

Fostering Geriatric Medicine in Europe

People are living longer, partly due to advances in medicine. On the other hand, older people can be seen as a burden on health and social care. Please comment. First, longer lives should be seen as a success story, because it is the result of society being able to provide more healthy conditions throughout the lifespan, but also because we understand better how to postpone age-associated chronic diseases...

Smart Ageing International Research Centre

Smart Ageing International Research Center The Smart Ageing International Research Center was established on 1 October 2009 with the aim of promoting international cooperative research on “Smart Ageing” as explained below. It aims to encourage individuals and societies to cope effectively with the changes brought on by ageing, and to mature intellectually. In Japan the percentage of elderly people...

Hospitals: Facing Austerity and Ageing

Global Challenges The major challenges faced by healthcare today are a result of both economic and demographic changes, palpable on a global level. Austerity measures that followed the crisis of 2008 affect all sectors in healthcare, with the exception of long term care (Kumar 2014) (see Figure 1). Future growth in healthcare expenditure will not achieve levels experienced in the past; as a consequence of...

Design for Care: The Collaborative Challenge of Wellbeing in Later Llife

Our Shared Challenge We all know that we need to think differently about the health system in the 21st century if we are to meet the growing needs of the frail elderly. Not only is the demand for care outstripping the capacity of the state, but also the expectations of each new generation massively exceed that of the previous one. Are we thinking radically enough to meet this immense challenge? Design...

A Life Course Approach to Cardiovascular Ageing

Although cardiovascular disease (CVD) is rare until middle age, it has long been known that the pathophysiological process of atherosclerosis, which ultimately results in disease, is initiated in childhood. In order to identify points of intervention early in the disease development process, well before the clinical manifestation of disease, it is important to understand age-related change in key CV risk f...

Technology Supports Patients at Home

Technology Supports Patients at Home

The European Union is not alone in facing unprecedented demographic changes (ageing population, low birth rates, changing family structures and migration) that will have an impact on several sectors. The European population is becoming old very quickly, and this situation is leading to a scenario in which support to the elderly will no longer be provided by the active population as it was in the past. In...

The Care Continuum

Thinking Digitally IT is critical to the way Philips designs, develops and brings to market our products and services. IT is not just internal to the company, but integral to what we do. As CIO, having transformed the IT organization internally to be much more agile, I started working on the digital strategy of the company – not just e-commerce and knowing your customer through digital means, but by look...

Revolutionizing Orthopaedic Imaging

What are the main areas of EOS Imaging’s business interest? Bringing solutions to musculoskeletal radiology. Bone imaging has not seen a lot of innovation since the invention of x-ray more than a century ago, and bone imaging will not go much longer with just plain x-ray and recumbent CT. EOS, as a platform, offers pure radiographic imaging, low dose, and the capacity to image the whole body and ext...

Organisational Development: Achieving Change

A wanderer asks a woodcutter in the forest the way. The woodcutter says that he has so much to do that he has practically no time for explanations. The wanderer then asks him if he has ever thought to sharpen his axe. To which the woodcutter says that he has so much to do that he has absolutely no time for that sort of thing. (Anon.) A typical situation associated with the optimisation of processes in a h...

Creating Stronger Bonds Between Health Managers And Clinicians

Managers and clinicians in health and social care are committed professionals working towards a common goal - achieving better patient outcomes - but tensions in the relationship can risk getting in the way of driving forward service improvement. Managers and clinicians, in whatever area of health and social care they work, are on the same side. Both strive to provide the best possible patient experien...

Putting Quality and Safety for Patients First: ESR EuroSafe Imaging

The demand for medical imaging examinations is constantly growing, and safety and qualit y in radiological practice are more important than ever. The European Society of Radiology (ESR) has taken a major step in raising awareness of the importance of radiation protection with the launch of EuroSafe Imaging at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) i n M arch 2 014. With the establishment of this ra...

Breast MRI: The New Standard in Breast Imaging?

Breast MRI is standard practice in all major breast imaging clinics worldwide. This is due to the unrivalled sensitivity of breast MRI, reported to be between 90 and 95% (Peters et al. 2008; Phi et al. 2014). Moreover, the three-dimensional nature of the examination allows a much better understanding of the spread of eventual disease throughout the breast (see Figure 1). Detailed guidelines on techniques a...

Dangerous Boobs Tour

Breast density was a hot topic at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago in December. A new grassroots initiative, “Each One. Tell One.”, also known as the Dangerous Boobs Tour, made its debut through the sponsorship of SonoCiné AWBUS™, an Automated Whole Breast Ultrasound technology that provides a supplementary examination for women whose mammograms a...

Breast Imaging 2014: Finding a Partner for the Future

The breast screening landscape is changing rapidly as providers seek to increase cancer detection and decrease screening recalls. Tomosynthesis is increasing its uptake in the USA, and breast density legislation is increasing awareness and use of breast ultrasound. KLAS Research surveyed providers on their choice of vendor currently and in the future, in Breast Imaging 2014: Finding a Partner for the Futur...

Nuclear Medicine And Prostate Cancer

What are the issues with imaging of prostate cancer when it comes to early detection, tracking and management? In recent years there has been a significant decrease in mortality, which is mainly due to early detection. However, early detection may lead to over diagnosis and overtreatment with resultant impact on the quality of life of men with prostate cancer (PCa). These problems are due to the variabil...

Controlling Patient Workflow in a Radiology Department

For the purpose of protecting patient safety and upholding quality standards in hospitals and healthcare facilities, governments and authorities have been implementing stricter rules and healthcare regulations. In order to meet these requirements, hospitals face a pressing need to improve their organisational structure. This is one of the greatest challenges facing the healthcare community in the near futu...

Real-Time Monitoring in Radiology

In healthcare today control is mainly based on retrospective analysis of business data, usually financial key performance indicators (KPIs) or performance KPIs such as utilisation or number of examinations. Control is often misinterpreted as an instrument of scrutiny, a misconception that is particularly common in the german-speaking world. However, control should be more than just that; it should rather b...

Interoperability Standards for Medical Device Integration in the OR

The Digital Operating Room Advances in medical technology, specifically information technology (IT), in the last quarter of the 20th Century have produced extraordinary changes in the way medicine, and in particular surgery, is practised. These advances have not been without certain drawbacks and shortcomings, including escalating healthcare costs and the challenge of handling the complexity of these techn...

TeleCardiology: Results of a Highly Successful Service in The Netherlands

Telemedicine Telemedicine is the delivery of healthcare and sharing of medical knowledge by use of information and communication technology (ICT), enabling caregivers and caretakers to work together independently of place and time for the purpose of consultation, examinations or medical procedures, and education (Strode et al. 1999). Telemedicine has been considered an organisational answer to keeping heal...

Screening with Breast Tomosynthesis : An Emerging Reality

The amount of clinical proof for the efficacy of Tomosynthesis in screening is significantly larger the proof available in the early days of the transition from analogue mammography to FFDM. Results from studies in Europe using Tomosynthesis in population based screening and results from screening with Tomosynthesis in the USA are concordant around an increase in invasive cancer detective and a reduction i...

ECR 2015 Educational Events Hosted by Toshiba

Toshiba Medical Systems invites you to the educational events we offer at ECR to learn more about how we are bringing innovation to life. In addition to two lunch symposia, which we will be hosting on Thursday and Friday, our comprehensive hands-on workshop program throughout the day from Wednesday to Saturday provides the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge and skills on the latest imaging technologies...

Screening with Breast Tomosynthesis (Per Skaane)

What are the key benefits of implementing tomosynthesis in screening programmes? The key benefits are the higher sensitivity (i.e., the higher cancer detection rate) and the higher specificity (i.e., the lower recall rate) using this new technique. What the key points from the Norwegian experiences that you will be presenting? My experience from the Norwegian experience is based on the preliminary re...

Screening with Breast Tomosynthesis (Sarah M Friedewald)

The study involved 13 sites, which included academic and non-academic centers, and specialist and nonspecialist radiologists. A total of 454, 850 screening mammograms were interpreted by 139 radiologists, of which 281,187 were digital mammograms and 173,663 were digital mammography + tomosynthesis. The volume of examinations across institutions ranged from 4,801 to 53,181 for digital mammography only and f...

Pharma Supplement

European Association of Hospital PharmacistsJoan Peppard, President-Elect European Association of Hospital Pharmacists EAHP represents hospital pharmacists at European and international levels Risks in Dietary SupplementsAsli Ozyildirim, Pharmacy Manager, vKv Amerikan Hastanesi, Turkey The safety of these treatments has become one of the major concerns of local and international health authorities and r...

EAHP: Representing Hospital Pharmacists

Joan Peppard is President-Elect of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP). She commences her term of office in June 2015. Joan Peppard is a Chief Pharmacist at the Midland Regional Hospital Tullamore, Co Offaly, Ireland, and serves on the EAHP Board as Director of Professional Development and has been the head of the Hospital Pharmacists Association of Ireland twice. In an exclusive i...

The Reputation Riddle

While the fruits of a good corporate reputation translate into increased revenue and growth, a poor one can cause considerable commercial damage, and the importance of keeping reputations strong should not be underestimated. This is especially pertinent in the medical industry, where patient safety, ethical procurement and shrinking budgets are finding too many firms unprepared and vulnerable to expensiv...

Improving The Provision Of A Compliance Aid Dispensing Service

North Bristol National Health Service (NHS) Trust (NBT) is the first Acute Trust to improve the provision of Compliance Aid Dispensing through a third party dispensing partnership for discharge patients, particularly patients with long term conditions. In accordance with the objectives of the Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP) programme, our innovative solution of outsourcing work to...

Medication Compliance Aids - Towards Smarter & Safer Use

Medication compliance aids (MCAs) are used extensively in Bristol. In July 2014, 20% of all the drugs for patients being discharged (To Take Away [TTAs]) prepared by the North Bristol Trust (NBT) pharmacy were dispensed in MCAs. 94% of these were for patients already using MCAs at the time of their hospital admission, rather than being initiated during their admission. Other local hospital providers report...

Risks in Dietary Supplements

Risks in Dietary Supplements The use of natural substances for treatment and healthcare dates back 5000 years, and has become popular in the last two decades. The rise in the use of these treatments has been driven by the increasing use of traditional medicine by the poor in developing economies as well as from the expansion of the use of alternative medicine to complement convention medicine in developed e...

ECR Congress Preview

The 27th European Congress of Radiology 2015 opens in Vienna on 4 March, with over 20,000 delegates from 101 countries expected. This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the European Society of Radiology (ESR). New for 2015 Many of the educational format sessions are organised according to the different levels of the European Training Curriculum for Radiology, providing a well-structured teachin...

HIMSS Congress Preview

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ECCMID Congress Preview

From April 25 to April 28, the 25th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases will be held in Copenhagen, Denmark. ECCMID is t he global m eeting place for microbiologists, infectious disease specialists and related fields. This year’s Congress will offer diverse and clinically focused insight on topics through a series of keynote lectures, symposia, educational workshops and...

Geriatrics In Turkey

In 2013 the elderly population in Turkey was 7.7% of the total. Population projections predict a rise to 10.2% in 2023, 20.8% in 2050 and 27.7% in 2075. As at 2013 Turkey already had one of the highest proportion of elderly according to the United Nation’s definition of 60+ (TUIK 2014). In addition, the elderly population has the highest level of growth compared to other age groups. Although the tota...

Professor Lorenzo Bonomo, ESR President

1. What are your key areas of interest and research? The chest was my first professional passion and continues to be so. My early research focused on the possibilities of the chest x-ray in the evaluation of changes in the pulmonary circulation in various lung and heart pathological conditions. CT allowed me to further develop my interest in thoracic radiology, focusing on imaging of lung tumors, and dee...

Professor Bernd Hamm, ECR President

1. What are your key areas of interest and research? Supporting and promoting radiology at a European level, including defining the changing role of radiology and shaping its position in the interaction of the different clinical specialties. My key scientific interests are abdominal and genitourinary imaging, in particular the detection and characterisation of liver tumour, the diagnosis of malignant ute...

Shirley Cramer, CEO IHM

1. What are your key areas of interest and research? Finding innovative ways to improve the public’s health by building the capacity and capability of the wider workforce and measuring the impact of community-based preventative work so that the best practice can be easily disseminated. 2. What are the major challenges in your field? a) getting prevention to the the top of the healthcare policy...