Telemedicine growing in use in Germany
Nearly 2000 patients with chronic heart problems and 200 with diabetes are now being monitored through a BKK Taunus telemedicine system at home, in the German state of Hessen. The devices are personal healthcare telemedicine services (PHTS) and are offered to patients who meet a certain criteria and have relevant health insurance. PHTS has contracts […]
News
OECD countries need ehealth to reform
The vision of eHealth records being accessible in different European Union countries and beyond is now being looked at by many different countries, according to the OECD’s Martine Durand. Speaking at the recent Berlin E-health conference she said "All OECD countries are facing challenges meeting the pressures in their healthcare systems. They are all struggling with questions […]
News
Cameron says NHS heart replaced by “computer”
David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, has accused the Labour government of ripping out the heart of the NHS and replacing it with a computer. Cameron used the controversial multi-billion NHS computer project as a metaphor for his accusation that the government has wasted much of its investment in the health service on “gimmicks” from […]
News
Euroking’s new maternity goes live at Heart of England
Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust has become the first hospital trust to go live with EuroKing Miracle’s E3 third generation Maternity Information System. The foundation trust, which is one of the largest in the UK, went live with the upgrade to the Miracle MIS at its two major sites, Birmingham Heartlands and Solihull Hospitals, […]
News
Virtual reality heart failure pod goes on tour
Doctors in the US are being given the opportunity to walk in the shoes of a patient with congestive heart failure, thanks to a mobile virtual reality unit. The Heart FX Pod, developed by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and marketing firm The RJO Group, invites clinicians to sit in a booth and don a pneumatic […]
News
Europe-wide heart monitoring trial shows promise
The organisers of a recently completed pan-European trial aimed at finding out if telecare can be an effective tool in monitoring patients with chronic heart disease have called the project a success. Eleven centres in three countries, England, Poland and Italy, participated in the Heart Failure in Hospital and Home (HHH) trial, which was supported […]
News
Remote monitoring for heart patients in Newham
Newham University Hospital NHS Trust has officially launched a telemedicine service that allows patients to self-monitor their conditions from their homes. The Service Transformation Redesign and Innovation Project (STRIP) consists of a touch-screen connected to a web server on the NHS site, and allows staff to monitor the vital signs of a patient remotely. The […]
News
Pacemaker sends SMS to warn of heart problems
A Dutch university medical centre has carried out the first patient implant of a pacemaker system that sends out SMS messages or faxes if it detects heart irregularities, and can also upload heart monitoring data to the internet. The Philos II DR-T Dual-Chamber Pacemaker with Home Monitoring (right, top), manufactured by Biotronik, can be configured […]
News
Software can read scans and detect heart disease
A computer program being developed in Finland could help to diagnose heart problems by interpreting images of the heart taken over magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The system, which runs on a normal PC, is able to fragment and process a full MRI scan (around 250 images). It does this by measuring particular parts of the […]
News
Walsall and Orion work on heart failure pathways
Walsall Primary Care Trust and Orion Systems have been chosen to produce a national demonstrator system for the electronic support of care delivery to heart failure patients. The development follows on from previous successful collaborations on IT to support the coronary heart disease national service framework (NSF) pathways for myocardial infarction and stroke rehabilitation. The […]
News