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Showing results for tags 'Medical device / equipment'.
Found 217 results
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Content Article
Needlestick injuries – making the point for safety
Becky T posted an article in Staff safety
An article outlining the significance of needlestick injuries - their risks to healthcare workers, their cost, and the importance of prevention. -
Content ArticleMedical device and drug safety recalls are on the up. But is there a way to predict which products will be recalled in the future?
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Content ArticleThis article in BMC Health Services Research looks at a range of macro, meso and micro factors influencing eHealth innovation in the English NHS. eHealth is a broad term which encompasses e-health, m-health, telemedicine and telecare, public health surveillance, personalised medicine/patient engagement, health and medical platforms, self-tracking, medical imaging, healthcare information systems, mobile connectivity, social networking, sensors and wearables, gamification, electronic health records, big data, health information technology, health analytics, digitised health systems, robotics and active assistive living. The study found that the fragmentation of the NHS is the most significant factor limiting the adoption of eHealth innovations, arguing that national policy has intensified the digital divide. It states that the NHS Long Term Plan places great emphasis on the role of digital transformation in aiding communication and enabling people to access care quickly and easily, highlighting significant implications for effectiveness, efficiency and equity.
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Content Article
The bleeding edge (2018)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Medical devices (new)
This documentary takes a look at the fast-growing medical device industry and reveals how the rush to innovate can lead to devastating consequences for patients. -
Content ArticleWhen the pandemic began, many nations’ emergency stockpiles came into the spotlight—and were found wanting. Twenty months later, Jane Feinmann asks what happened, and if procurement has got any better.
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Content ArticleIn this episode of BBC Panorama, Reporter Deborah Cohen investigates how medical devices can cause harm to patients, and the lack of support and redress available when things go wrong.
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Content Article'Kicking the Hornet’s Nest' is a documentary that looks at power morcellation, a popular gynaecologic procedure used to perform hysterectomies. The documentary demonstrates how the practice has been inadvertently spreading cancer in patients for decades. It includes first-person testimonies and archival footage and follows two married, Harvard-affiliated whistle-blowers who have been personally impacted by the procedure, as they campaign to expose the controversial practice and prevent future needless deaths.
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Content ArticleThis article explores the use of infrared thermometers to screen for fever to detect Covid-19, and how they are not accurate enough alone to support a medical diagnosis.
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Content ArticleThis article looks at a safety issue around the initiation of humidified oxygen treatment. It examines an incident which resulted in a patient's death when they did not receive oxygen.
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Content ArticleThis report looks at an incident where a neonate suffered an oesophageal perforation following endotracheal and nasogastric tube insertion.
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Content ArticleThis article looks at the issue of oxygen hoses becoming disconnected from transport ventilators when patients are moved between hospitals, which led to a patient death. Following the incident, the National Patient Safety team worked with national partners involved in transfer of patients to ensure a ‘tug test’ is incorporated into local practice.
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Content Article
NHS England: Variation in use of cardiac telemetry
Becky T posted an article in Medical devices (existing)
This article discusses the use of wireless heart monitoring in hospitals - telemetry - and the safety standards that need to be met. -
Content ArticleWhen was the last time your board discussed procurement and its role in your strategy for improving health outcomes? It’s been four months since Heather Tierney-Moore took over as interim chair of NHS Supply Chain and in this blog she reflects on the world of NHS procurement, where it has come from and where it might be going.
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EventIt is now clear that hormone pregnancy test Primodos, the epilepsy drug sodium valproate, and that pelvic mesh causes avoidable harm to many thousands of women and children. Yet recognising these potential harms took many years, and it is still the case that the service does not know the identities of all those affected or potentially affected. The main reason is lack of data. Knowing which patients have received which medicines and devices where, and quickly connecting longer-term outcomes, has traditionally been somewhere between impossible and extremely slow and difficult. Unnecessary harm has often been the result. So how can the NHS solve this issue? What do we know about the traditional challenges with traceability in healthcare and the shortcomings of current data collection techniques? How can it be ensured that the right products are being used for the right patient? What approaches and technologies might solve these challenges, ensuring that the right products are being used for the right patient? How could this fit into wider digital transformation work, and resulting data best be used to improve patient safety and outcomes? This HSJ webinar, run in association with GS1 UK, will bring together a small panel to consider the answers to these important questions. Register
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EventuntilThis conference from the Westminster Health Forum will focus on the future for diagnostics and medical devices in England - looking at developments and next steps for strategy and regulation. The discussion takes place in the context of the upcoming MedTech strategy from DHSC, and will be an opportunity to examine priorities for improving flexibility and transparency in MedTech supply and procurement, securing value for money, and supporting the adoption of innovation in healthcare settings. Delegates will discuss implementation of the MHRA update to the regulation of medical devices, as well as priorities for safety, assessment and contribution to better patient outcomes. Overall, areas for discussion include: Regulation and evaluation: transition to the new medical device regulations and the updated evaluation process - implementation of the new MHRA medical device regulation proportionate regulation and support for businesses - addressing capacity constraints of authorisation of Approved Bodies patient access: establishing new device frameworks for supporting adoption of innovative medical technology - supporting patient access to devices currently on the market the supply chain: flexibility, transparency and responsiveness in the procurement and supply of medical technology collaboration between healthcare providers and suppliers - engaging healthcare professionals in procurement. Supporting the NHS: workforce efficiency and earlier diagnosis - innovation in diagnostic pathways to address backlogs and wait times - improving patient outcomes and the speed of recovery the role of the new community diagnostic centres - encouraging adoption of new diagnostic methods in the centres and across the NHS. Register
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Content Article
This blog from Matthew Bacon, CEO of TCC-CASEMIX Ltd, looks at why a multi-factorial dataset is needed to create holistic understanding of medical device performance and is the only effective means for determining the multi-factorial causes of failure. -
Content ArticleThe extent to which postintensive care unit (ICU) clinics may improve patient safety for those discharged after receiving intensive care remains unclear. This observational cohort study from Karlick et al., conducted at an academic, tertiary care medical centre, used qualitative survey data analysed via conventional content analysis to describe patient safety threats encountered in the post-ICU clinic. For 83 included patients, safety threats were identified for 60 patients resulting in 96 separate safety threats. These were categorised into 7 themes: medication errors (27%); inadequate medical follow-up (25%); inadequate patient support (16%); high-risk behaviours (5%); medical complications (5%); equipment/supplies failures (4%); and other (18%). Of the 96 safety threats, 41% were preventable, 27% ameliorable, and 32% were neither preventable nor ameliorable. Nearly 3 out of 4 patients within a post-ICU clinic had an identifiable safety threat. Medication errors and delayed medical follow-up were the most common safety threats identified; most were either preventable or ameliorable.
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Content ArticlePostpartum haemorrhage is a leading cause of maternal deaths. Now a new study points to a surprisingly simple and inexpensive solution. If the woman lies on a plastic sheet with a small transparent pouch at the other end to collect the blood, the medical team has an immediate sense of how much danger she's in and can take swift action. Read the full article, published by NPR, via the link below.
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Content ArticleThis article highlights three questions tabled in the House of Commons relating to the Yellow Card Scheme, the system for recording adverse incidents with medicines and medical devices in the UK.
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Content ArticleMedical equipment, supplies, and devices (ESD) serve a critical function in healthcare delivery and how they function can have an impact on patient safety. ESD-related safety issues include malfunctions, physically missing ESDs, sterilisation and usability. Describing ESD-related safety issues from a human factors perspective that focuses on user interactions with ESDs can provide additional insights to address these issues. This article in the journal Patient Safety reviewed ESD patient safety event reports submitted to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System to identify ESD-related safety issues.
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News Article
Scots mum considered ending her life due to mesh hell after suffering hernia
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
A mum says her life has been destroyed following a hernia repaired with a mesh implant – with pain so severe she considered ending her life. Roseanna Clarkin, 38, has suffered excruciating pain since medics used mesh products to repair the issue. Now she wants the use of mesh in hernia operations to be suspended, as it has for vaginal mesh following years of suffering by thousands of women. Revealing her own hell, Roseanna told how she was in so much pain last month she asked for guidance about how to legally end her own life. She added: "When I was going to the doctor's after my op, I wasn't believed. They told me it was all in my head and even told my husband Brendan 'Don't get roped into this'". Roseanna said: "I suspect the mesh has moved. But even the other week one of the GPs at my practice was suggesting it was in my head." Roseanna launched a petition calling for the suspension of mesh in hernia ops. It is going through the public petitions committee at Holyrood. To date, more than 70 patients or their families have written to the committee about their experiences with hernia mesh implants. Labour's health spokeswoman, Jackie Baillie, who campaigned for vaginal mesh ops to be suspended, called for an urgent review of the uses of mesh for other procedures. She said: "It has taken years for the serious problems caused for women who had transvaginal mesh used in their surgical treatment to be resolved but it appears to be affecting other conditions too." She warned: "We can't repeat the mistakes of the past." Read full story Source: Daily Record, 31 January 2022 -
News Article
HeartWare gadget was a ticking time bomb for our daughter
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
At the age of 36, Nola Borcherds could hardly walk ten steps without gasping for breath. A viral infection years earlier had weakened her heart and left her with a constant wheezy chest. Her heart was failing and she needed a new one. No transplant was available, but the next best thing was an implant called HeartWare. Unlike pacemakers, which send an electrical pulse to keep it beating regularly, the device would attach to Nola’s heart and keep her alive by taking over its function, continuously pumping blood around the body. Brochures promised the gadget could be life changing. It was smaller, safer and more effective than others, and designed to last up to ten years, raising her chance of a transplant. When Nola’s pump was implanted in December 2018 it made a tremendous difference. “Two to three months after she had it fitted, she could virtually run up the stairs,” her mother, Jenny Kiddie said. But on 21 May 2021, two and a half years after the device went in, it stopped working. Doctors at Harefield Hospital in Hillingdon, west London, were carrying out maintenance when it failed to turn back on, cutting the supply of blood to her brain. “The hospital called and said, ‘Nola’s become very unwell. How quickly can you get here?’” her mother said. “By the time we arrived, she was already in the morgue.” What her family believe Nola did not know, and what the UK regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), failed to react to, was that HeartWare pumps had already been linked to hundreds of deaths globally. As early as 2011 some doctors switched to alternatives. Yet the UK regulator allowed them to stay on the market — and they continued to be implanted on the NHS until last year. Some patients are still living with the pieces of equipment, because surgery to remove them is so risky. Families, medical experts and lawyers want to know why the MHRA failed to take firm action despite repeated warnings about the devices, which they believe could have contributed to patients dying. By Nola’s death last year, the health regulator had passed on at least 16 safety alerts to doctors warning of problems identified by the manufacturer. Read full story Source: The Sunday Times, 23 January 2022 -
News ArticleThe Irish Cabinet has approved general indemnity cover and product liability cover for claims to two public sector bodies relating to transvaginal mesh products and the Gardasil HPV vaccine. The Health Minister Stephen Donnelly brought forward a proposal to Cabinet Wednesday for the provision of this cover to the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) and the Mental Health Commission (MHC) for claims relating to the mesh products or Gardasil. Gardasil is a type of vaccine used to protect against HPV. Vaginal mesh devices have been used in operations to treat stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse; two conditions that can impact women after natural childbirth or in their later years. Including the bodies in the State’s general indemnity scheme for these claims will eliminate the requirement for them to carry private insurance. The State Claims Agency was consulted and indicated that it supports the inclusion of both bodies under the scheme. The clinical indemnity scheme indemnifies hospitals but is confined to clinical acts and/or omissions and doesn’t cover product liability matters. Current legal cases around transvaginal mesh products involve allegations in relation to the product itself and allegations of clinical negligence. It has now been proposed to delegate the product liability claims for mesh products to the State Claims Agency to ensure hospitals aren’t exposed to uninsured liability. Thousands of women across the world have suffered complications after having a vaginal mesh device implanted. These complications include chronic pain and recurrent urinary tract infections and have been life-changing in many cases. Read full story Source: thejournal.ie, 19 January 2022
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News Article
Cardiac arrest: Thousands of defibrillators unknown to 999 service
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Tens of thousands of defibrillators across the UK risk being unusable because 999 call handlers do not know about them. When someone has a cardiac arrest, ambulance staff can only direct bystanders to the nearest defibrillator if it is on a central register. "That could be the difference between life and death," said Adam Fletcher, head of British Heart Foundation Cymru. A campaign to register defibrillators on The Circuit has now been launched. Survival rates are low in the more than 30,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year in the UK, according to the British Heart Foundation (BHF) - with fewer than one in 10 people surviving. BHF said early CPR and defibrillation could double the chances of surviving and it was often down to 999 call handlers being aware that a defibrillator was nearby. "If we don't know a defibrillator is there, we can't send somebody to get it, to potentially save somebody's life," said Carl Powell, the clinical support lead for cardiac care with the Welsh Ambulance Service. Read full story Source: BBC News, 22 October 2021 -
News ArticleIn a Letter to the Editor published in The Times yesterday, the All Party Parliamentary Group on First Do No Harm Co-Chair Baroness Julia Cumberlege argues in favour of the work of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety (IMMDS) Review and its report 'First Do No Harm'. "Inquiries are only as good as the change for the better that results from their work." Read full letter (paywalled) Source: The Times, 5 January 2021
