Foreword

Socially responsible, efficient healthcare

Corporate Social Responsibility and Private Hospitals

Socially responsible behaviour across the value chain of private hospitals ensures that their role as legitimate healthcare providers is accepted...

Healthcare Management

In the Passionate Pursuit of Healthcare Excellence

It's time for healthcare organisations to adopt drastic changes in their existing systems in order to reduce medical errors and deliver quality healthcare.

Leadership and Strategy in Hospitals

Hospital leaders should formulate and communicate vision for the institution. They should also continuously keep evolving the vision and motivate the followers to accomplish the mission.

Healthcare in New Zealand

Learning from complaints

Quality improvement measures made across the health sector as a result of complaints made to the Health and Disability Commissioner are evidence that investigating systemic failures in care, and recommending improvements, is making a positive difference in New Zealand.

Safe and Reliable Healthcare

Supporting strategy and structure

Effective leaders translate their strategic goals into a few simple statements that everyone working in the organisation can understand and to which they can align their behaviour.

Medical Sciences

Stem Cell Therapy

The good, the bad and the confusing

Stem cell therapies offer great potential for treating diseases. However, a lot of questions remain to be answered before this potential can be realised.

New Drugs in Anaesthesia

A review

New drugs are being developed in anaesthesia, so as to reduce the number of side-effects and to improve patient outcome.

Cancer Nanomedicine

Emerging Opportunities

Nanotechnology has many advantages when applied to medicine. However, continued research into disease processes at the molecular level is essential for its development.

Surgical Speciality

Quality Assurance for Surgical Specialities in Asia

How and why in Asia

It is inevitable that the concept of quality assurance in surgery will expand worldwide and encompass other surgical disciplines; the process will be driven by patients, professionals and healthcare providers alike.

Advances in Cardiac Surgery

The combination of new intra-cardiac imaging technology and tool-tracking systems with the dexterity and stability of robotic instruments will enable safe and reliable off-pump intra-cardiac repair, including Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) closure and the repair of mitral valve insufficiency.

Diagnostics

Vibration Response Imaging

A new methodology for measurement of lung vibrations

In what appears to be the first step towards a radiation-free, non-invasive technology, Vibration Response Imaging (VRI) has arrived. VRITM, an innovative technology developed by the Israel-based company, Deep Breeze Ltd, can create images of the lungs based on the sound of air moving in and out of the passageways of the lungs, thereby preventing exposure to radiation in diagnosis.

Oral-based Diagnostics

Oral diseases and beyond

With modern proteomic and genomic techniques it is possible to fine-tune diagnostics of oral diseases and monitor other diseases by oral diagnostics.

Point-of-care Diagnostics

Tapping the potential

Point-of-care diagnostics are a potentially profitable growth area for the healthcare industry. However, there are several issues to be overcome before any point-of-care instrumentation can be successfully commercialised.

Technology, Equipment & Devices

CyberKnife Radiosurgery

An emerging surgical revolution

The constellation of technologies that make up a modern CyberKnife system enable radiosurgery to be delivered with sub-millimeter accuracy to static lesions and better than 2 mm accuracy to targets that move with respiration.

Fiber Optic Plethysmography for Non-invasive Cardiac Monitoring

Fibre optic plethysmography for cardiac monitoring is a significant advance on previous designs.

Networking Implanted Medical Devices

Ensuring effectiveness and security

Implanted medical devices present different security issues than traditional information systems, and require different security risk analysis and mitigation techniques.

China’s Medical Device Industry

Expansion time

Domestic medical device manufacturers' extensive push to raise capital is indicative of their intention to expand. It would only be a matter of time before they start competing outside their home turf.

Facilities & Operations

Hospital of Tomorrow

The design perspective

The speciality of the Hospital of Tomorrow will be a combination of features for the well-being of not only the patients and their relatives, but the doctors, nurses and all the staff of the hospital as well.

Information Technology

Information Technology in Healthcare

Creating a stronger healthcare system

While improving computer systems would not eliminate all medical errors, researchers believe it will reduce the errors dramatically. Now is the time to share progress, challenges and best practices to enable interoperability and link the ecosystem in the delivery of better quality care.

Building a e-Hospital

Lessons from Taiwan

The application of information technology has improved the quality and lowered the cost of medical services in Taiwan.