You are looking for

This year’s World Cancer Day campaign focuses on Target 5 of the World Cancer Declaration: Dispel damaging myths and misconceptions about cancer, under the tagline “Cancer – Did you know?” World Cancer Day is a chance to raise our collective voices in the name of improving general knowledge on cancer and dismissing misconceptions about the disease.

Only a few days ago, I heard those words for the first time. Me? Writing a blog? Hmmm, ok, there could be an opportunity here… And now I am looking at a blinking cursor inviting me to put down a few thoughts and ideas.
Well, why don’t I start by answering a few questions “Why now? Why not 3-4 months ago, Serge? How often can we expect to read your posts? And what will you be talking about?”

If there is one thing that the medical devices industry agrees on it is that the new proposals for medical devices and IVD regulations are welcome and necessary evolution of regulation. What the industry also agrees on is that although it generally supports the new proposals, it is not certain at all that the proposed scrutiny procedure will achieve the intended goals.

As an activist for maternal health rights in Romania and the Head of the White Cross Foundation for Maternity Healthcare Services, increasing health literacy and access to healthcare for as many Romanian mothers as possible is extremely instrumental to me. It is important that they understand the role and significance of prenatal tests. Though we [my organisation] had already been directing women to Lab Tests Online as part of an effort to help them better understand the role and importance of these tests, we relied on the languages that were available – English, French or German (as most educated women in Romanian are fluent in at least one of these languages), Hungarian (as Romania has quite a large Hungarian-speaking minority), Italian and Spanish (spoken by many low-income Romanian women who engaged in seasonal work in Spain and Italy). Unfortunately, the great service Lab Tests Online sites provide was not available in Romanian, or at least so was the case until the launch of the country’s own site in November 2012 through the noteworthy efforts of the Romanian Association of Medical Products Providers.

Advances in in vitro HIV/AIDS diagnostics, combined with the development of highly effective antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, have significantly reduced the transmission of HIV from mother to baby and greatly improved health outcomes for mothers living with HIV.  Simple and inexpensive tests screen for HIV within minutes, and point of care CD4 testing enables doctors to closely monitor a patient’s immune system to prescribe an effective combination of ARVs to keep mothers healthy during and after their pregnancy and their babies HIV-free.  As a result, new pediatric HIV infections have nearly halved in the last eight years and the number of deaths each year attributed to AIDS-related causes dropped 24% since the peak in 2005, to approximately 1.7 million in 2011.

First off, let’s start with some background. The first question that comes to mind would be: “What is the EUnetHTA Joint Action 2?” Briefly put, EUnetHTA, the European Network of Health Technology Assessment, is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the relevant agencies in the Member States, aiming to strengthen cross-border HTA collaboration.

In vitro diagnostic (IVD) tests are likely to be a part of everyone’s life, in many cases, more than once. Yet most people do not know what these tests are or what they do.

When we speak about healthcare in Europe, the word ‘sustainability’ is used often. From the outset of the economic crisis in 2008, policymakers, ministries of health, customers and payers all have focused on sustainable financial systems and sustainable healthcare systems – often as separate paths to achieve results. As budgets are shrinking, innovative ways to maintain current social and healthcare systems for the long term must be employed. At CleanMed Europe, a conference that brings environmental and healthcare issues together on the same agenda, I was pleased to see that a broader alternative discussion is emerging—one that marries financial and systemic sustainability in healthcare.

Let’s face it – ostomy care is not something most people are keen to talk about. But that’s all the more reason we support World Ostomy Day on the 6th of October. Through our work, we often meet people who have had life-saving ostomy surgery. What never ceases to amaze us is the profound impact an ostomy can have on people’s lives. Yes, they’ve lost continence but they can also lose confidence – the confidence to work and to socialise.