EUROPEAN HOSPITAL NOVEMBER 2004 SPECIAL ISSUE: MEDICAL, TECHNICAL, PHARMACEUTICAL, INDUSTRIAL NEWS & MUCH MORE Mobile phones andering around MEDICA 2004 with your mobile phone pressed to your ear? These devices have swiftly become vital auxiliaries in our working days as well as private lives. But is there any truth in the Wbeliefs that their use could harm our health? According to newly published research, yes. Exposure to radiofrequency when using a mobile phone for ten or more A new standard of years could double the risk of developing an acoustic neuroma tumour (a flexibility in benign growth in the head), concluded the authors of a new Swedish study tracheostomy tubes. published in the journal Epidemiology (Lönn S, Ahlbom A, Hall P, Feycht- ing M, 15. 653 - 659. 2004. please see page 11 PubMed). However, the res- earchers pointed out that their findings do not indicate an increased risk of acoustic neuro- ma related to short-term mobile phone use. ‘We were surprised by the results, but the outcome is continued on page 2 Long-term 45 years Dedication to use doubles manufacturing medical tumour risk X-ray Systems, please see page 4 PHOTO: BRENDA MARSH What’s the difference between Aquasonic® 100 and those other gels? Clarity, reliability, and economy. Aquasonic 100 Ultrasound Transmission Gel The clarity that sonographers have counted on for over 40 years. Parker Laboratories, Inc. 286 Eldridge Road, Fairfield, NJ 07004 973.276.9500 • Fax: 973.276.9510 www.parkerlabs.com ISO 13485:1996 Certified Visit us at Medica 2004 • Hall 9 • Stand D 41 COMPANYnews NEWS By Christian Pruszinsky, reporting from Austria peakers at the recent Vienna Health Talks (Wiener Gesundheitsgespråche), Swhich focused on The nurs- ing crisis - Professional training in healthcare for nursing and social care, expressed extreme concern that Austrian society appears to be indifferent to the dire need to secure sufficiently well-trained and well-motivated nurses for nursing care. Among the participants, Pro- fessor Klaus Zapotoczky, direc- tor of the Institute for Nursing Sci- ence at the Johannes Kepler Uni- said the researchers, trans- phone use and the frequency of versity in Linz, Austria, identified lates into double the risk of tumours was found by four main concerns: developing acoustic neuroma. researchers at Copenhagen’s ● Austrian healthcare favours hos- See us at It was also noted that all the the Institute of Cancer Epi- pitals. In no other country are so MEDICA 2004 additional cases occurred on demiology, but they had found many people hospitalised (see the same side of the head to that, when tumours did occur illustration). This implies that the Hall 14 Booth A 34-8 which patients normally held the average size was signifi- hospital sector binds the majority their phones. cantly larger for regular of nurses and, to a great extent, This was a relatively small mobile phone users than nurses’ professional perspectives study, and the effect will have nonusers. are limited to hospitals. Conse- to be confirmed using larger In Denmark, fewer people quently, the non-hospital sector, groups, however, it is consid- took part in this study than in and above all preventive care, suf- ered the first to show clear Sweden - 106 acoustic neuroma evidence that mobile phone patients and 212 healthy con- use could increase the risk of trols were involved - but Jör- developing that type of gen H. Olsen, head of the Dan- tumour. ish institute, has confirmed the Nurse Long-term use doubles tumour risk Sweden is one of the 13 Karolinska results are convinc- countries taking part in the ing. They both used the same continued from page 1 In their population-based Interphone Project, being co- methods but, he added, differ- quite clear. We are convinced case-control study the team ordinated by the World Health ences in results might be shortages of the quite strong risk due to focused on all cases diagnosed Organization’s International explained by the bigger sample the use of mobile phones, and with acoustic neuroma in 1999 Agency for Research on Cancer size. He also queried one are waiting for confirmation to 2002 in certain areas of (IARC) in Lyon, France. Set up aspect of the Swedish research from the other research Sweden. The patients’ ages in 1998 - to investigate - the fact that when asked are global groups,’ says Anders Ahlbom, ranged from 20-69 years. Con- whether exposure to the which side of the head they an epidemiologist at the trols were randomly selected radiofrequency electromagnet- usually held their phones, Karolinska Institute and mem- from the study base, and strat- ic fields from mobile phones tumour patients’ responses ber of the research group. ified on age, sex, and residen- could produce adverse effects might have been influenced by The team studied the inci- tial area. In total, 148 acoustic on health - the final results are the presence of their tumours. dence of acoustic neuroma, a neuroma patients and 604 expected to be released early Prospective studies - follow- tumour that grows on the nerve healthy controls participated. next year. ing 250,000 people in five of connecting ear to brain. Gener- 14 of the neuroma patients had The first results for the the countries participating in ally, the chance of developing regularly used mobile phones Interphone study were report- the Interphone Project - are this kind of tumour is 1 in for over ten years, compared ed last January, from Den- now planned, to confirm any 100,000. with 29 of the controls. This, mark, In this, no link between effects of mobile phone use. ICN investigation indicates threat to care quality ™ oximetry unplugged Switzerland - Initial results of The International Council of Nurs- es’ (ICN) investigation of the glob- al nursing workforce confirm that the supply of nurses in many coun- tries, both low-income and high- income, is failing to keep pace with increasing demand, threatening improvements in care outcomes. ‘Nursing shortages are not just a ‘problem for nursing,’ said ICN president Christine Hancock. ‘They are a health system problem, which undermines health system effectiveness and requires health eliminate the wire and experience the freedom system solutions. Without effective and sustained interventions, global ® ® nursing shortages will persist, The Avant 4000 System with Bluetooth Wireless Technology undermining attempts to improve – imagine oximetry without the constraints of cables. A wearable care outcomes and the health of pulse oximeter that connects wirelessly to a tabletop display. nations.’ The report is the first result of Nonin – opening new horizons in connectivity. ICN’s programme to examine the crucial issue of global nursing shortages. It will be complemented by a series of issue-based papers examining specific global and regional aspects of the nursing workforce in more detail. Togeth- er, these will inform a high level 9Where People Make the Difference meeting addressing solutions to www.nonin.com the challenges ahead. sensor & Hall 11 Stand D42 signal technology +1.763.553.9968 The ICN is a federation of 125 national nurses’ associations repre- senting the millions of nurses 2 companyNEWS news ● For nursing professionals, Independent evaluation is needed increasing pressure - in terms of to ensure high-quality care on all Nursing care crisis quality and quantity - and the levels. inability of current healthcare sys- The professor also highlighted tems to tackle the problems, create two further potential problems: fers not only from a shortage of families are decreasingly able to resignation and burn-out, and many ? A trend towards ‘Americanisa- nurses, but also poor training take on nursing tasks themselves. quit the profession altogether. If we tion’ of healthcare, which will make structures and concepts. Therefore, families should be effec- want nurses to identify with their it increasingly expensive and simul- ● The non-hospital sector, partic- tively strengthened and supported. profession and to receive more taneously inefficient. ularly co-operation between physi- New partnership principles and financial and social recognition so ? A further segmentation of the cians in private practice and the new, specialised training courses as to remain in this field, health system linked to greater bureau- nurses, must be re-designed and need to be developed that are based politicians, and the competent play- cracy in the nursing sector. optimised. Moreover, management on a qualitative and quantitative ers in healthcare, must act swiftly Bureaucracy can indeed provide of the interface between hospital analysis of the status quo as well as and responsibly. In the interest of more detail and render a system and non-hospital sectors needs to future demand. Private initiatives of the weakest area of the care chain - more precise, he said, but the sys- improve. In most countries the and with foreign nurses - mainly the patient (and we are all potential tem, as a whole, must never com- introduction of academic profes- from the Czech Republic and Slova- patients) - the entire healthcare promise its humane and patient- sional training has strengthened kia - are only an interim solution. Klaus Zapotoczky system needs to be redesigned. centred mission. the image of the nursing profes- sions. In Austria, Vienna’s univer- sity offers a degree course and an MA programme in nursing science. However, currently there is no graduate degree programme for www.draeger-medical.com nursing science that leads to a doctoral title. Consequently, the alumni - mostly female - of these programmes are faced with a fac- tual and very unfortunate devalua- tion of their academic studies. ● Care services for elderly and old people already need to employ more qualified nurses, because worldwide. Established in 1899, the council works to ensure quality care and sound international health policies. The new global analysis, to be published in Eng- lish, French and Spanish (www.icn.ch/global/shortage.pdf) aims to identify policy and practice issues and solutions that is aimed at consideration by governments, international agencies, employers and professional associations when addressing the supply and utilisa- tion of nurses.