Foreword

Patient-Centred Healthcare

Moving beyond ailment

An involved patient is a blessing for healthcare organisations.

Cover Story

The Big Shift—Patient-Centred Healthcare

Shifting to patient-centred care implies a re-think of every aspect of the patient's journey through an episode of care from the patient's perspective.

Meeting Diverse Needs—Patient-Centred Healthcare

Patient-centred care means sensitivity and responsiveness to the cultural health beliefs and communication needs of patients.

The New Challenge—Patient-Centred Healthcare

The challenges presented by this shift in focus can be overcome with strong leadership, clarity of purpose and a shared vision.

Listen to the Patient

Assuring quality care

In striving for excellence in patient care via scientific means, clinicians may be omitting a potent source of relevant information-the patients themselves.

Patient-Centric Modalities

Strategies for better implementation

Care providers must consider some key factors they need to balance for effective implementation of patient-centric modalities.

Healthcare Management

Global Health Landscape

Healthcare “beyond borders”

At a time when the global citizen is transforming how healthcare is delivered worldwide, there’s a need for a vision for delivering coordinated, high-quality and affordable care “beyond borders.”

Chronic Diseases

Prevention is better than cure

Regular physical exercise, healthier food and greater contact with the environment reduce the risks of chronic diseases and promote sustainable development.

Vision Care

The next step in comprehensive disease management Vision care plays an important role in the early detection and prevention of disease. The collaboration of evidence-based eye care with healthcare will have a positive impact on patient care and healthcare savings.

Six Sigma in Healthcare

Effective use of the Tool Box

The integration and coordination of the healthcare system's process improvement tools, utilising Six Sigma concepts, Lean, Management Engineers and Information Services are the key to ensure that processes are first assessed and simplified before introducing anything new.

Lean and Six Sigma

Transforming healthcare

Lean and Six Sigma are powerful tools that help in making the leadership strong.

Medical Sciences

The Changing Face of Cancer

Implications for Anaesthesia

Given the unique skills of anaesthesiologists in pain management and regional anaesthesia, the role of anaesthesiologists is increasing in the care of cancer patients.

Multidisciplinary Collaboration in the ICU

Promoting effective care

Collaboration and communication among all the team members of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where patient activity is high, goes a long way in promoting effective care of critically ill patients.

Targeting the Stress of Diabetes

Preserving vascular longevity

Diabetes Mellitus occurs in more than 165 million individuals worldwide and leads to both acute and long-term cardiovascular complications that can be tied to cellular oxidative stress. Three exciting novel therapeutic strategies offer significant promise to extend vascular longevity.

Embolic Protection During Carotid Stenting

Using FiberNet device

The FiberNet device is the first embolic protection device, which combines features of a filter, and an occlusion device in one system to overcome the complications of carotid angioplasty like distal embolisation of debris.

Safety in Anaesthesia

Promoting sustainable change for the future

The future of safety in anaesthesia lies partly in technological advances in countries that can afford them. The priority, however, is to address the unacceptable deficiencies in anaesthesia services globally.

Telemonitoring in Cardiac Device Therapy

Enabling optimal management of patients

The vastly increased complexity of cardiac rhythm therapy over the past several years, demands commensurate improvements in overall device monitoring and telecommunication technology.

Surgical Speciality

Patient Safety in Surgery

Current ‘key’ issues

Increased vigilance for key patient safety issues will impact quality assurance in the future and help to reduce the incidence of iatrogenic morbidity and mortality after surgery.

Diagnostics

Advanced CT Imaging

Effective diagnosis of coronary disease

The advent of 256 and 320-slice CT scanners will eliminate many of the technical difficulties that affect the temporal resolution of coronary CT angiogram. As technology advances, MDCT imaging of the coronary arteries will become the diagnostic tool of choice for the detection of coronary artery disease.

PACS in Indian Hospitals

Catching up

More and more physicians and radiologists have started preferring the PACS systems to hard copies.

Technology, Equipment & Devices

Devices Containing Membranes

Better membrane, improved outcomes

Devices containing artificial membranes for the treatment of kidney disease lack the ability to replace or augment metabolic and endocrine functions, which are non-selective and biologically reactive.

Facilities & Operations

Art for Health's Sake

An evidence-based approach

step towards “being” better. This makes the role of art very critical in today's healthcare.

Healthcare Facilities Design

A global perspective

The battle to deliver high-quality care at affordable costs will only be won through refinement of process flows and a thorough understanding of long-term operational costs as well as initial capital costs.

Lean Process Program Planning

Guidelines for optimum operations and design

Lessons learnt from the appropriate incorporation of "Lean" considerations during the functional and space programming phases and then the conceptual and preliminary design phases, can positively impact immediate, short-term and long-range operational expenses.

Generative Space

Creating sustainable improvements

The Leading by Design research project is working with 11 case studies in three countries to operationalise 'generative space' as a means to use the environment to make systemic and sustainable improvements in healthcare.

Information Technology

Digital Ward

Hospital of the future

Imagine a future where hospital wards have no paper case notes or files. Information on a Patient's medical condition is automatically captured via intelligent context-aware devices and sent directly to the central computer systems.

Healthcare IT

Innovations for better care

Innovations will move to areas of consumer empowerment by providing greater access to services and information including personal health applications populated with data.

Medical Banking

A new stakeholder

As the management of healthcare data progressively moves to an electronic platform, banks are realising that their technical systems, privacy and security frameworks, identity management engines and marketing channels can be leveraged to fast forward e-Health.