Representatives from more than 50 European governments met Wednesday at the opening of a World Health Organization meeting aimed at addressing health worker shortages in developing countries, AFP/Independent Online reports. According to WHO, there is a global shortage of more than 4.

Microfluidics is a core technology enabling significant reductions in sample volume, reagent consumption and overall device size coupled with extremely fast mixing, rapid heating and cooling and significantly reduced reaction times. This lab-on-a-chip approach is a particularly exciting development for medical device manufacturers that want to deploy their technologies in portable or hand-held formats for point-of-care diagnostics. In order to facilitate application of this microfluidic technology to in vitro diagnostic and bio-analytical instrumentation, Intertech Engineering Associates has formed a non-exclusive collaborative partnership with Dolomite Microfluidics. The Intertech / Dolomite team will work together to provide instrument and reagent manufacturers with microfluidic “engines” to automate sample testing. Microfluidic engines are sub-systems comprised of chips, valves, pumps, detectors and electronics, designed as a compact package to integrate into analytical systems according to customers' unique specifications. Device manufacturers that design these microfluidic engines into their devices can reduce time to market, with engines developed in compliance with the FDA design control regulations. This partnership will offer a low risk and rapid development path for medical device manufacturers who have been eager to realize the benefits of microfluidics in their new products, but have been uncertain of how to incorporate the technology and achieve the required regulatory approvals. Dolomite provides complete design and fabrication services for microfluidic chips, components, modules and systems, and provides rapid turnaround custom designs of microfluidic chips in glass, quartz, polymer and hybrid materials with available reaction surface modification and functionalization. Dolomite also has a product line of off-the-shelf products including fluidic interfaces, flow cells, pumps, valves, and detectors for short proof-of-principle and prototyping cycles using components that will lead directly to commercialization. Intertech provides engineering services to the medical and life science industries in software, electronics, and verification and validation engineering. Intertech's 25 years of experience in the medical device industry will be applied to collaborative projects to accelerate the development of software driven electromechanical microfluidic subsystems. Intertech's expertise in device regulatory issues will be leveraged to minimize the regulatory hurdles manufacturers face in verification / validation, or in managing and documenting a controlled design process. Dolomite represents the first of several technology solutions that Intertech plans to bring to the medical device industry.

The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday in a 5-2 ruling reinstated a law permitting midwives to work in the state without fear of potential criminal charges, the

Women who receive an early diagnosis for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) have an opportunity to take preventative measures to reduce their risk for the condition. Once a woman is diagnosed, she should be informed of all treatment options so she can choose the care plan that makes her most comfortable, fits her lifestyle and improves her quality of life. In a two-part article in the June 2008 issue of Urologic Nursing, Lianne F.

AARP, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) are convening a summit of multi- stakeholder groups to identify solutions to the nurse faculty shortage that is forcing nursing schools to turn away thousands of qualified nursing candidates each year.

With its headquarters and manufacturing facility located in Boxborough, Massachusetts, and sales and support offices worldwide, SynQor designs and manufactures state of the art AC-DC and DC-DC power converters for medical electronics OEMs. As the pioneer in the use of synchronous rectification and planar magnetics, which revolutionized the 48VDC DC-DC converter market-place in 1997, SynQor now offers comparable performance levels in its ACuQor and InQor (AC-DC and DC-DC respectively) medical grade power supplies. SynQor is certified to both the ISO 9000 and ISO 13485 standards and offers 100% component and unit traceability. ACUQOR AC-DC POWER SUPPLIES Offering microprocessor control, high efficiency and full EN/UL 60601-1 safety compliance for patient contact type BF and type CF applications, SynQor's ACuQor series of AC-DC power converters offers power densities second-to-none in the medical market-place. The current sharing function enables 600W, 800W, 1kW, 900W, 1.2kW or 1.5kW of power while still meeting the type CF patient and earth leakage current levels. Other options include defibrillator proof isolation (5,000V) on the secondary, a non-fan, and a triple output version of 24VDC, 36VDC, or 48VDC primary outputs with 12VDC at 3A and 5VDC at 2A in the same footprint as the single output version. Key product family features and benefits are: 400W steady-state/500W surge in 3in x 5in x 1.4in (metric) package Exceptional efficiency of up to 91% means simplified cooling and high reliability Meets all medical requirements including BF, CF, CFD (defibrillator isolation) Leakage current below medical requirements, input leakage current as low as 62�A, output leakage current as low as 2�A Integral fan with speed control for highly varied installations Worldwide input voltage range of 85VAC to 264VAC, at 50Hz or 60Hz Semi-regulated output for stability and inherent load sharing when paralleled Active PFC meets international requirements (EN61000-3-2) Transient immunity, ESD protection, flicker meets standards (EN61000-4) Conducted EMI qualified to EN55011 and EN55022, FCC part 15 class B ISO 9000:2000 certified factory and CE mark Protection features: over-voltage, over-current, over-temperature Special control features: standby power, fan disable, fault signal, serial bus Multiple mechanical configurations available, see data sheets for more information INQOR - BUCK / BOOST ISOLATED CONVERTERS The InQor series of industrial grade buck / boost isolated converters offers a wide range of products ideal for use in battery powered applications. This series of industrial grade isolated converters provides a number of wide input voltage ranges, with nominal 12VDC, 12VDC / 24VDC, 36VDC, 72VDC, and 110VDC in a wide variety of output power (50W-200W) and voltage (1.8VDC-48VDC) configurations. Its buck / boost topology enables the converters to either step up or step down the output voltage which provides a constant output while battery charge is depleted. Key product family features and benefits are: High power density, smaller size allows more board area and design flexibility High efficiency up to 95% yields lower power dissipation and requires less cooling Offered in 2:1, 4:1, and 8:1 input voltage ratios Reinforced insulation Fully encased ruggedized mechanical package Wide range of outputs from 1.8V to 48V for numerous publication requirements Fixed switching frequency yields predictable EMI filtering HIGH VOLTAGE NIQOR (HVNQ) NON-ISOLATED BUCK / BOOST REGULATORS SynQor's non-isolated HVNQ products are a variable output non-isolated buck / boost regulators. They can be efficiently used to provide a regulated output voltage from a battery source or other variable voltage source. They can also be configured to buck the input voltage down to a lower voltage, or boost the input voltage to a higher output voltage using a single external resistor. Key product family features and benefits are: Buck stage, followed by boost stage Input voltages of 9VDC-20VDC, 9VDC-40VDC, 9VDC-60VDC Digital control Output voltage ranges of 0VDC-20VDC, 0VDC-40VDC, or 0VDC-60VDC Output currents of 5A-40A Output can be set to read the external programming resistor once, or to continuously read the value, so allowing for active trim Current mode / battery charging module available

Nursing and Midwifery Council President Nancy Kirkland has formally tendered her resignation from the role. In an announcement to Council members today, Ms Kirkland said, "With much regret I have tendered my resignation as President of the NMC with effect from Tuesday 12 August 2008."Sarah Thewlis has made arrangements for the election to appoint my successor as President."I will remain on Council as Registrant Nurse Member for Scotland.

Dr Dean Marshall, chairman of the BMA's Scottish General Practitioners Committee said:"This arrangement has not been agreed with Scotland's GPs who employ practice nurses."GPs have already expressed their anger at how the Scottish Government has sought to implement extended hours and this new arrangement for practice nurses will simply fuel that anger further.

American Nurse Today, the official journal of the American Nurses Association, announces the launch of a new e-Edition beginning with the October, 2007 issue. The e-Edition launch comes just one year after the premier of the print edition of the journal, which is the product of a strategic partnership between HealthCom Media and the American Nurses Association.

Every NHS patient should have a guaranteed right to dignified care, according to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). As the NHS prepares to celebrate its sixtieth birthday, the RCN is today calling on the Government to enshrine the right to dignified, compassionate care in an NHS Constitution.