66 results
Posted on 14.11.2014
Diabetes. Learning all sides of the story.
Today is World Diabetes Day. From diagnosis to treatment, check out what’s to know about diabetes and the contributions of medtech in understanding patients and their needs.
Posted on 06.11.2014
Europe’s wound care gap: are member states actually paying attention to what the EU is saying?
When the European Commission published its secondary report on patient safety, it made me wonder why advanced wound care is not higher on the patient safety agenda at EU and national levels? Not that it’s a competition, but the incidence of wounds in the EU is approximately 4 million (!), which is on par with cancer (3,9 mill), cerebrovascular disease (3,9 mill), and diabetes (2 mill.).
The wound care debated has progressed for sure, but there’s much more do to be done to make sure than wound care in Europe gets the attention it deserves.
The EU’s on the right track, but…
Posted on 04.11.2014
Should policymakers care about dialysis? Yes.
Throughout the EU, Member States are looking for ways to provide patient-centred care to maximize clinical outcomes and improve cost-effectiveness for healthcare systems. For many countries, this means re-organisation of how care is delivered and in some cases general cost-cutting to sustain the system. So, when policymakers are faced with difficult decisions about how to maintain quality of care within a resource constrained system why is it that they should care about dialysis?
Posted on 17.10.2014
Orange Healthcare’s take on how the consumerisation of care has an impact on the medtech industry
Mobile health solutions for collecting patient data via communicating medical devices are opening new possibilities for remote monitoring and management of individuals suffering from chronic illnesses. At the same time, the ‘quantified self’ has gained increasing mass market appeal through the availability of personal, connected devices that can track human physical activity. These are resulting […]
Posted on 09.10.2014
If medtech wants to start attaching things to my body outside of the clinic, we better talk
The practice of medicine is meant to keep people well or help them get well so they can live a full, productive life. Technology provides tools toward that goal. It can help relieve pain and suffering or prevent it. But too often we get so excited about technology we lose sight of what’s really important, helping human beings live better. And when it comes to the millions of people living with chronic conditions, and now “chronic cancers”, we need to really understand their lives with an illness to know how technology can help.
Posted on 10.09.2014
The Sanofi stance: Diabetes management – taking an integrated diabetes care approach
In their latest study, “Access to Quality Medicines and Medical Devices for Diabetes Care in Europe”, the International Diabetes Federation Europe conducted a survey on the challenges people with diabetes are facing when seeking access to diabetes treatment.
The IDF Europe outlined several of these challenges in the blog post “Improving access to medical technologies for diabetes care in Europe”, including limited access to information and education used for managing the disease. We would like to thank MedTech Europe for giving us this opportunity to share our insights and our approach on the accessibility of medical technology.
Posted on 28.08.2014
The narrow view of medtech as a cost driver refuted… again
The prevailing thought still today is that medtech is driving rising healthcare expenditure. More and more research and publications are finding this not to be the case. The medtech industry is happy to have a fair and balanced discussion on the value of its products, but to do so, everyone must look beyond tomorrow, beyond […]
Posted on 09.07.2014
What a group of cyclists taught us about interoperability and diabetes
In September 2013 I went for a truly inspirational bike trip across 5 countries, covering over 2100 km from Brussels to Barcelona. Many of my fellow cyclists were Type 1 diabetics and the trip was organized to give insight into how issues of interoperability can be resolved.
The fundamental problem facing people with diabetes (PWD) is keeping their Blood Glucose (BG) levels within a normal range. To do this PWD use devices to monitor their BG levels. These devices provide a reading that is then used to make therapeutic decisions such as taking insulin or treating a low reading by eating.
Posted on 06.06.2014
Medtronic Responds to IDF Europe – Closing the Gaps in Diabetes care
We recently read the blog post “Improving access to medical technologies for diabetes care in Europe” from the International Diabetes Federation Europe assessing issues in terms of access to medical technologies for people with diabetes. As a producer of technologies and devices for people with diabetes, we keep learning and, when necessary, adapting our practices to fill in the gaps highlighted by IDF Europe.