Tag: covid19

Learning from the Pandemic

Radiology – the ‘gatekeeper’ specialty to unlocking the potential of digital health

Can radiology become the most important medical specialty in the field of digital health?

This was one of the questions posed as part of Fujifilm’s Healthcare’s Digital European Tour, a series of virtual events designed to highlight the contribution radiology has been making during – and after – the pandemic.

The event saw clinicians from across Europe share their experience of Covid-19, and the vital role radiologist have and can play in the fight. 

And according to Professor Thomas Vogl, Director of the Institute for Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology at Frankfurt University Hospital, radiology services will be vital to the future of healthcare. Citing the example of a network of hospitals across Germany sharing lung CT scans to help diagnose Covid, Prof Vogl believes the opportunities are enormous. He described how the potential of artificial intelligence when combined with innovations in radiology, could transform the way we approach diagnostics across a number of illness areas.

The central role of radiology in the evolving use of diagnostics was a recurring theme of the whole event, which heard reports from speakers based across Europe. 

And while advances in technology can never replace physicians – a point made by Ing. Giovanni Delgrossi, Director of Information Systems ASST Vimercate in Italy – it can transform the speed and effectiveness of our physicians; and radiographers could be the ‘gatekeepers’ to unlocking this potential. 

It is a development that Ing. Delgrossi believes could help move healthcare from being reactive, (even passive) to being proactive – to finding and treating more health problems, more quickly. This belief is fed by his experiences during the pandemic. 

In Vemercate, they were able to use artificial intelligence to scan an average of 80-90 chest x-rays per day and separate the Covid positive from the Covid negative; helping them to identify over 900 Covid patients. However, the importance of radiology doesn’t simply fit within the confinement of the height of the pandemic. 
(Read the full case of Vimercate Hospital downloading Take Away 17 here: synapse.fujifilm.eu/fujifilm-takeaway/ )

The problems of care and diagnosis backlogs threatens health systems across Europe. In Italy for example, 521,000 (12%) fewer new diagnoses were made, and the number of patients starting a new treatment fell by 277,000 (10%). This is a picture that speakers from across Europe shared; In Germany, half of surgeries have been postponed; In France, new diagnoses of cancer were down 23%, and 2.2m operations were canceled; and in the UK, 1.7m people were waiting more than 18 weeks to start a new treatment. This combines to create a Europe-wide tidal wave of patients waiting to be diagnosed and treated. 

The role of innovative radiological solutions in helping to work through these backlogs was highlighted as being potentially crucial. Fiona Thow, formerly of NHS Improvement in England talked about how Fujifilm’s Xair, a portable x-ray unit, was transforming the way in which care could be delivered. She described how, by taking care out to community diagnostic hubs nearer the patients, they could identify and triage patients more quickly, and help keep patients away from acute centres, allowing them to focus on the patients that require acute care. 

And in France, radiologists are collaborating across Europe to share data on breast imaging to help identify how big a backlog they are likely to face so that they can continue to identify as many cases of breast cancer as early as possible, giving patients the best possible outcomes. 

While there is much to be concerned about – the impact of Covid is profound and will be long term – there is enormous pride that radiologists can, and are, playing such a key role in helping to deal with the pandemic’s effects. For us at Fujifilm, there is a tremendous affirmation in that; what we do really matters. That by never stopping innovating, and producing new technologies, we have helped our health services across Europe cope with the pandemic. And that by continuing to produce the technologies that we do, we are helping to equip not just our radiologists, but the entire multi-disciplinary care team – with the tools they need to minimise the impact of the pandemic on patients and maximise the effectiveness of their care.

If we can collectively achieve that, then perhaps we will be able to say that radiology really is the gatekeeper specialty to unlocking the potential of digital health.

World Book and Copyright Day – Fujifilm colouring books lighten phases of lockdown for kids and parents

Today marks World Book and Copyright Day, launched by UNESCO to celebrate the importance of reading with children all around the world.

At Fujifilm, we know the value of education and the power of print. Which is why, in response to the pandemic and the disruption to education felt by so many students around the world, we created our very own Fujifilm colouring books to support young students, teachers, parents and carers adapt to this sudden change of routine.

The colouring books, aimed at 5-8 year olds, help to explain real-world, everyday applications of science and innovation in a fun and exciting way, learning through the power of colouring. Children in the UK and Turkey so far have been learning along with Peter Pigment, Phoebe Photon, Victor Virus and Charlotte Cho as they explain the science that power Fujifilm technologies, from taking a photography to manufacturing a vaccine.

Phoebe Photon explains how light is used when taking a photo and the technology found in digital cameras, while Peter Pigment demonstrates how these photos are printed with inks of all colours manufactured at his Ink Factory. Taking a focus on biology, Victor Virus tells readers about how small viruses like him can be used to help sick people get better.

In Bedford, UK – where FUJIFILM UK Ltd. Is headquartered – we worked with the local council to provide physical copies of the colouring books. The books, which were printed on Fujifilm Acuity printers, were delivered to local primary schools as the new school year began in 2020.

In Turkey, we worked together with the KAÇUV Foundation (English: The Hope Foundation for Children with Cancer). We gifted our colouring books to the children of KAÇUV on this year’s Childhood Cancer Day. The books reached the children in KAÇUV’s Family Houses and hospitals, and made them smile. 

In Germany  – Our colleagues shared the printed colouring books with the local community via public bookshelves around our European Headquarters in Düsseldorf. The public bookshelves can be found throughout the city area and are run by Literaturbüro NRW.

Our two colleagues shared the colouring books on a sunny and windy day. They found the public bookshelves in a lot of different areas – in vivid, cosy and quiet neighbourhoods of the town. This way, Peter Pigment and his friends are now waiting for their German readers in the neighbourhood of playgrounds, Düsseldorf’s famous TV Tower, restaurants, police stations and churches. Peter Pigment, Phoebe Photon, Victor Virus and Charlotte Cho feel extremely comfortable in the children’s book section, a lower area within the bookshelves, where they wait for and are easy to be reached by small readers and artists.

Beyond this, all colouring books are free to download and can be printed at home – and with the knowledge that not every child has easy access to a printer, the files can also be loaded into a smartphone or tablet device and accessed digitally.

Download possibilities:

Please find the English colouring books here: https://www.fujifilm.com/de/en/learning-hub

Please find the German colouring books here: https://www.fujifilm.com/de/de/learning-hub

We are proud to support young students and education providers not only with learning through these difficult times but also with a fun activity to complete during lockdown that can be conducted at a distance.

Best practices and innovative ways of breast cancer screening

Today is World Cancer Day and we, at Fujifilm, we are continuing our fighting against cancer even in this critical pandemic situation. During the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries across Europe suspended breast cancer screening programs. In some areas, the number of patients who have had mammograms has decreased by more than two thirds.

Depending on the lockdown periods, which differed from country to country, the European breast units were closed one after another, first in Italy, then in other European countries. However, we know that breast cancer screening can save lives. A number of studies conducted by leading research institutions suggest that stopping screening could result in an increase in the percentage of women who will die from breast cancer in the future.1

There is much to catch up on now. With this in mind, screening units have established new routines, adapting their workflows and their workplaces. Across Europe, women’s health services have reorganised themselves in order to face the challenges of COVID-19, showing an exemplary and effective attitude to change.

To understand this change, we have invited influential voices of the European breast cancer screening landscape to understand and learn about the current situation. We asked them to tell us about how the impact of the pandemic has demanded new models of working and how this changes their relationships to their patients. The report created based on this new input is based on interviews conducted in September and October 2020. In case you are curious, the paper can be found here.

The message that we want to push and spread as much as possible is to take care of yourself, of your health, of your body. Book your screening appointment, breast units across Europe have implemented the best ways of working which help to safely reinstate screening services even in times of COVID.

  1. https://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/covid-19-and-breast-cancer-care
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7652450/

Supporting healthcare workers with instax

Video

Across Europe, our teams have been donating instax cameras and film so that doctors and nurses working on the #Coronavirus can harness the power of instant photography to help share their friendly faces from behind their PPE.

Hiromoto Matsushima, Senior Vice President Photo Imaging, FUJIFILM Europe GmbH commented:

Donating instax cameras and film is just a small way in which Fujifilm is able to help – but to both healthcare workers and patients, we’ve been told that by being able to easily show the friendly face behind the PPE, it can help bring comfort and understanding in the most difficult of situations.

The instax products donated so far have been prioritized to healthcare teams working in intensive care units and critical care on the Coronavirus frontline. To date, approximately 120 instax cameras and 7,500 instax prints have been sent to hospitals in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Turkey, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Russia, France and Denmark.

Each Fujifilm business in Europe has a limited number of these packs available and healthcare teams on the frontline with should contact their local Fujifilm Corporate Communications representative.