Foreword

Healthcare Governance

Time for a revamp

Natural products-based drug discovery is gaining prominence once again.

Patient Safety & Quality

Role of governance

Transparency in today's globalised healthcare world has impressed governance with the necessity of becoming increasingly accountable for patient safety by introducing quality standards and methods in order to retain a competitive edge and attract market share.

Healthcare Management

Transparency in Healthcare

Seeing is believing

The growing demand for transparency in healthcare is lifting the veil on this notoriously murky industry, but achieving transparency is a problematic journey that requires unprecedented collaboration across sectors within the health industries and adherence to world-class standards.

McHealthcare

Delivering consumer-driven healthcare

McDonald's consumer focus offers some important lessons for the healthcare providers to ponder as they are forced to transform into more consumer-driven organisations.

What can the Operating Room Learn from the Cockpit?

Though there are fundamental differences between flying an airliner and operating on the esophagus, simple airline lessons have a lot to offer.

Communication

Challenges and Opportunities during Handoffs

Variations in communication during patient handoffs cause a significant number of errors and "near misses" to occur, leading to adverse outcomes and sub-optimal care. The research interest in this area has been growing steadily.

NICE

Making the best use of healthcare resources

Several challenges lie ahead for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in providing national guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention and treatment of ill health.

Medical Sciences

Treating Lung Cancer

Immunotherapeutic strategies

New treatment modalities such as immunotherapeutic strategies may help improve the currently poor prognosis and outcome of patients suffering from lung cancer. However, thus far, lung cancer has not been considered an immune-sensitive malignancy. Now, there is an increasing evidence that specific humeral and cellular anti-tumour immune responses can be evoked.

Truth in Ethics, Truth in Science - Different?

The notion of truth is same in ethics and science. However, the data in science and ethics are different. In science we rely on observation, in ethics we rely on considered moral intuitions. There is little agreement about when we should trust our ethical intuitions. It is remarkable, however, that neuroscience and psychology has recently shed new light on how our moral intuitions arise.

Surgical Speciality

Surgical Response to Mass Casualty Incidents

The Israeli experience

When a Mass Casuality Incident occurs, the establishment of a defined system with central control is critical for the orderly evacuation and transfer of patients through a cascade of treatment from resuscitation and damage control to definitive care and eventually to rehabilitation.

Surgical Skills Simulation

Effect on quality and safety

There is an increasing evidence emerging that simulation in surgical training is effective. However, the problem remains that if all patients had completely error-free technical aspects to their admission approximately 97% of medical errors and bad outcomes would still occur.

Site Surgical PACS

Design and implementation

The OR and image-based interventional suites are the most cost-intensive sectors in the hospital, therefore, the optimisation of workflow processes has become of particular concern to healthcare providers. The understanding and management of workflows should become an integral part in the planning and implementation of complex digital infrastructure supporting diagnostic and interventional procedures.

Diagnostics

Digital Radiography

Efficiency with automated system movements

The introduction of a flat panel system in a filmless computerised radiology unit allows the productivity of a radiology department to be noticeably increased, while providing ergonomic comfort and ease of use. It is particularly suitable for the field of paediatric radiology.

Advances in Breast Imaging

Impact in Asia Pacific

hile the technology is relatively new, digital mammography and CAD have already entered. A large part of this growth has come from the rising level of awareness and education on the importance of breast screening. The continuous efforts in organising breast cancer awareness programmes as well as promoting breast health screening, where patients enjoy subsidies in mammogram screening, has created a demand for better and faster mammogram services.

Technology, Equipment & Devices

Small is Beautiful

Nanotechnology for medical devices

Medical devices and their components are currently being scaled down to molecular levels and successfully applied in diagnostics and clinical therapies.

Facilities & Operations

Healthcare Design

The need for consumer-driven research

The pivotal role of healthcare design in the improvement of healthcare delivery has become widely accepted under the rubric of evidence-based design. However, there is a need for consumer-driven, comprehensive programming methodology applicable to healthcare design projects in Asia and the United States.

Desperately Seeking Safety

Creating integrated surgical/imaging environments that do less harm

The need for healthcare facilities designed for safety and the convergence of surgery and imaging are resulting in new types of space where medical technology is complex and where safe environments are essential.

Information Technology

Commoditising Healthcare IT

The next wave

With the costs of healthcare rapidly increasing, the monolithic model of HIT is no longer sustainable. HIT commodity capability that provides a new level of convenience and serviceability to the healthcare environment while being cost-effective.

Applying Path Innovation

Seeking revolutionary HIT

Healthcare requires a revolution in the way we deliver care by utilising IT in new and innovative ways. Path innovation allows experts to work together in the development of workflows that best leverage HIT.

Broadband Medical Network in Asia Pacific

The Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) can transmit high-quality moving images over broadband Internet lines. This network system is being extended to the entire Asia-Pacific region to promote the exchange of medical knowledge and standardisation.

EMR in a Large Healthcare Organisation

Development and implementation

The YUHS planned a new EMR system that integrated pre-existing systems within the new system. The philosophical objective was to achieve first class medical services with safety, reliability and convenience through IT.

RFID in Healthcare

Enabling patient safety

With the size and costs of RFID tags decreasing, their incorporation in surgical sponges, endoscopic capsules and endotracheal tubes is creating potential benefits in patient safety and diagnostics.

RFID in Healthcare

RFID is helping hundreds of healthcare facilities across UK, US and Germany to improve overall safety and operational efficiency because it operates without line-of-sight while providing read / write capabilities for dynamic item tracking.