"We will invest substantially in research and development in 2008 in order to extend our position as a technology and innovation leader". This statement was made by Stefan Dräger, Chairman of the Executive Board of Drägerwerk AG. Better use will also be made of synergies between the two divisions, Medical and Safety. 
The broadband-based video system heralds the next generation of telecare provision and is already disrupting older architectures, according to the Mediagrids company. CareMATE Online, previously known as "broadcare" advances the telecare industry beyond panic buttons and voice-only call centres to enable hospitals and care centres to provide intelligent and discreet visual monitoring of individuals in their own environments. Mediagrids demonstrated its "Convergence" statement by showcasing Third Party peripherals with its CareMATE Online system at the National Telecare and Telehealth Conference in Cardiff on 6-8th November. The compatibility news is very significant in a market crowded with many care devices only connecting to their own base station. 
A broad alliance of leading technology and wireless companies joined forces to announce the development of Android, the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. Google Inc., T-Mobile, HTC, Qualcomm, Motorola and others have collaborated on the development of Android through the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance of technology and mobile industry leaders. 
The St. Lucas Andreas Hospital in Amsterdam-West is to start monitoring more than a hundred chronic heart failure patients at home using the Philips Motiva system. This will not only improve these patients' quality of life, but could also prevent many hospital admissions. The St. Lucas Andreas Hospital is the first hospital in The Netherlands to introduce a remote monitoring system for cardiac patients into its daily operations. 
The MS-HUG Healthcare Innovation Awards, now in its eleventh year, is an opportunity to showcase how your organization and your customer's organization, is using technology to enhance and transform the quality of patient care, reduce costs, streamline clinical and business processes, drive interoperability, improve productivity and workflow, and enable informed decisions. 
Anoto Digital Pen & Paper technology has helped reduce waiting lists for breast cancer screening in France by significantly shortening the time it takes to analyse mammograms. Normal turnaround times of up to three hours were reduced to less than 30 minutes. This means that breast cancer screening centres using the digital pen will be ready for the second stage of France's national 'Plan Cancer' programme, set to start early in 2008.