Marie Pascal writes about the positive impact the introduction of electronic advance care plans has in improving end-of-life care for the elderly. She explores how patient portals have given patients the ability to access their personal medical records and thus, changed the power balance around healthcare, looking specifically at Vitro's work with the Hunter Alliance.

Day case procedures are increasing. As well as reduced costs to the hospitals, patients benefit by being able to recover at home. In 2012 in Ireland 69% of elective surgery was treated on a day case basis. Sinead Kane who has a background in both nursing and health informatics talks about the advantages of Integrated Care Pathways (ICPs) and how tailored EMR's such as Vitro can benefit ICPs. She also looks at the next steps to move from paper to an EMR in day surgery...

Andrea Rangel looks at Brazil's political & economic landscape today in 2016 and describes a challenging or even stark situation, she digs deeper into healthcare and the realities of how this impacts patients. Andrea says that while reducing costs and finding new financial resources in healthcare is the immediate reaction, a more sustainable approach is also needed, Andrea goes on to provide some considerations for healthcare providers including the benefits of technology in increasing focus on patient care and reducing administrative costs...