Hoana Medical Acquires CE Mark to Expand Patient Safety Technology to Europ...(enormous problem thattouches 25 percent ...),Health

In a recent study, four out of five European citizens viewed medical errors as an "important problem in their country (Eurobarometer 241)," with Italy, Poland and Lithuania leading the way. Nearly one in four Europeans has been directly affected by a medical error -- either having the experience themselves or through a family member, with errors in Latvia, Poland and Denmark affecting nearly one in three people. Almost HALF of all preventable adverse events in Europe are caused by medical errors.

Hoana's technology transforms any hospital bed into a LifeBed, which invisibly tracks a patient's basic vital signs without any connection to the patient whatsoever. However, if the patient begins to deteriorate, the LifeBed immediately notifies the hospital nursing staff -- all invisible to the patient. It essentially provides "another set of eyes" to look after the patient. Changes in a patient's condition due to medications, changes in physiologic conditions, or other treatments are identified early by the LifeBed, which results in early interventions and positively impacts patient outcome. The LifeBed has also helped reduce falls in partner hospitals by as much as 90 percent, a costly and dangerous problem facing many hospitals today.

The LifeBed has experience on more than 15,000 acute-care medical-surgical patients around the U.S., or more than 1.5 million patient hours, and has shown that errors and accidents don't discriminate between social or economic classes; it can happen to anybody, anywhere.

Research has shown that rapid response teams (RRT) are not effective if the patient is found too late -- many times patients are found in critical condition, or even deceased, also referred to as a 'dead in bed.' The U.S.'s Joint Commission (hospital accreditation authority) released new patient safety goals for 2009 that highlight the fact that me
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