[caption id="attachment_3811" align="alignleft" width="100"] Cristen Bolan, Executive Editor, Applied Radiology[/caption] Guest post by Cristen Bolan, executive editor, Applied Radiology. For those of you who follow the Chinese calendar, you know that 2013 is the year of the snake, which according to ancient Chinese wisdom, a snake in

[caption id="attachment_3811" align="alignleft" width="100"] Cristen Bolan, Executive Editor, Applied Radiology[/caption] Guest post by Cristen Bolan, executive editor, Applied Radiology. There is no such thing as a free lunch—in the end someone has to foot the bill. So, here’s my question: Who got pushed off the fiscal cliff?      A.

David Magboulé

David Magboulé, Marketing Manager, Carestream Health Spain and Portugal

Despite the current economic problems affecting the healthcare market in Spain, everyone involved in the decision making process agrees on the need to invest in innovation to take us in the right direction. In this particular case, new technologies will play a crucial role in speeding up and improving the work of medical teams. In turn this will have a direct impact on improving diagnostics and will help lead to a better quality of life for patients and better patient care.

To tackle these challenges, a new concept has recently been introduced at national level. Derived from the application of the use of new technologies in the health system,  La Evaluación En Red (Network Evaluation) is an agency network set up to evaluate healthcare technologies and disseminate information to simplify the decision making process in the Spanish National Health System .

In Spain, the average life of diagnostic equipment in hospitals, such as CT scans or MRIs, is approximately 10 years.  For radiology rooms it is 8 or 9 years. Often medical equipment continues to be used past this timeframe as many hospitals do not have the financial resources to buy new equipment. For that reason it is a priority to get the message across that the implementation of new technology is a mid-long term investment and not a cost, and one that will have a direct impact on the improvement of the service, diagnostics and the quality of patient care. In that sense, our country is an international leader in the implementation of information technology in the healthcare sector, ahead of countries like Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Singapore or the United States. Our country is focused on how to make it easier to share patient information between organizations, which will then have a positive impact in preventing medical errors, reducing healthcare costs and reducing paperwork.

Of course there is a long way to go when it comes to the use and application of new technologies in the healthcare sector. One example that we can take as a reference point in Spain is the Agency for the Evaluation of Healthcare Technology in Andalucía, whose principal task is to provide quality information to help citizens to get involved in the decision making processes and promote an evaluative culture among healthcare professionals. At a European level there is also a global evaluation network run under the auspices of the Health Technology Assessment International association (HTAI), which over the last few years has become a benchmarking tool for healthcare managers and helps in the prioritization of healthcare resources and the adoption of new technologies.

It is truly necessary to create a culture of evaluation throughout Spain, using comparative models to raise awareness and to enable an appropriate response to global needs without losing the local perspective. This balance is essential, especially when it comes to evaluating technologies. The creation of a national agency will help with the decision to renew technology in hospitals and drive technology standards in all healthcare centres at a national level. The Evaluation Agency will also allow healthcare providers to make decisions on matters of healthcare technology that will help to optimize resources and improve the quality of patient care.

This long term investment in innovation should be the strategic vision of a healthcare model that goes beyond companies and public bodies to position the country as a reference at an international level.

A Spanish version of this post is available. 

[caption id="attachment_3018" align="alignleft" width="100"] Sean P. Reilly, Publisher, Imaging Technology News and Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology[/caption] Editor's Note: This is a guest-post by Sean P. Reilly of Imaging Technology News and Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology.  It has been interesting to monitor news outlets and social media since

Boris Alvarez

Boris Alvarez, project consultant, Medical Technology School, Universidad San Sebastián

Editor’s Note:  Boris Alvarez, project consultant for Medical Technology School, Universidad San Sebastián , in Santiago Chile, shared his thoughts with us on the difference between public and private healthcare, digital x-ray technology and the importance of continuing education and networking.

Q: Having lived in both the United States and Chile, can you give us a snapshot of the differences you see in planned healthcare reforms?

In my opinion, healthcare reforms in both countries address the need to achieve better access to care, especially for those more vulnerable citizens.

On one hand, the USA has been the most important country in the development of technologies for the whole world. This is increasing healthcare costs by transferring research costs to American patients. The US government expects to use strategies that reduce healthcare prices for the population with fewer alternatives to pay for it.

In contrast, the Chilean government is addressing healthcare access through a framework that allows public and private investment to give access to better technology to the people who can not afford it.

I think the biggest challenges for healthcare institutions are in their capacity to adapt to the new scenario. In the American case, institutions must be able to fit their cost structure in order to be more competitive. In the Chilean case, institutions must follow the technologic vanguard, in spite of the limitations in budget of the Chilean market.