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Shouldn’t we be rewarded for healthy behaviour rather than repeatedly punished for being ‘bad’? Fat tax and sugar tax, duty on cigarettes and vodka – everyone can think of a ‘sin tax’ they pay from time to time. These are the penalties we pay for making unhealthy choices. The idea of sin taxes has been […]

Professor Kevin Warwick is pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence and cyborg technologies How can artificial intelligence (AI ) improve healthcare? AI can be used to learn what is going on in different parts of the body and to predict problems. This gives us the power to prevent problems before they arise or to counteract […]

This April 7th marks World Health Day (WHD). The first World Health Assembly, held by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948, declared that WHD would be celebrated on this date from 1950 onwards. I am pleased to see that for the first time ever, WHO has chosen diabetes as its theme for WHD in […]

MedTech is transforming the world in which we live; we are healthier and more able than ever before. However, there are still a number of fundamental challenges that we face both locally and globally. The launch of the Longitude Prize 2014, with it’s £10 million prize fund, is seeking solutions to some of these fundamental scientific challenges. Antibiotics resistance, paralysis and dementia are on the shortlist of issues that could reap a £10m research windfall. The MedTech community has a vital and integral role to play, harnessing its power to innovate and accelerate towards the winning solutions!

Access to quality healthcare and medical technologies has risen to the top of the international health agenda. In this regard, diabetes is a particular challenge as good management relies on continuous access to both medicines and medical devices. In its latest study, IDF Europe found that hundreds of thousands of people living with diabetes in Europe do not have access to the treatment they need, putting their health at risk.

In my article in the newsletter of last August, I told you about the standard rehabilitation support I receive as outpatient of spinal cord injury (SCI), and how I have had to work for access to more personalised treatment, which has brought to where I am today. However, be that as it may, my current state of rehabilitation remains insufficient and my search for better alternatives continues. 

As the 2013 World Salt Awareness Week calls for “Less Salt, Please”, it may be time for Europeans to seriously consider the implications of their seasoning habits on their health, notably their heart health. Heart failure (HF) is characterised by the inability of the heart to respond to the blood flow demands of the body, a condition that is becoming increasingly common, with more than 20 million directly affected worldwide.

Having been involved with the medical devices industry for many years, I’ve seen how the industry has evolved using innovative solutions and has constantly embraced technological developments. Recently however I had a friend on the receiving end of this technology and I hope you find his ‘patient case report’ below of interest – do note he also works in the medtech industry hence his knowledge on this subject…