Background: The pressure in out-of-hours primary care is high due to an increasing demand for care and rising health-care costs. During the daytime, substituting general practitioners (GPs) with nurse practitioners (NPs) shows positive results to contribute to these challenges. However, there is a lack …

Abstract Background: Currently, health care and medical decision-making at the end of life for older people are often insufficiently patient-centred. In this trial we study the effects of Advance Care Planning (ACP), a formalised process of timely communication about care preferences at the end of life, …

“By 1993, the European Single Market becomes a reality” (“Historical overview,” 2014). This is stated by the European Commission in its historical overview on the internal market. The question has arisen whether today, 30 years after the signing of the European Single Act, the European Single Market …

Background: No-rinse disposable wash gloves are increasingly implemented in health care to replace traditional soap and water bed baths without proper evaluation of (cost) effectiveness. Objectives: To compare bed baths for effects on skin integrity and resistance against bathing and costs. Design: Cluster …

In 2004 the first adaptive thermal comfort guideline was introduced in the Netherlands. Recently a new, upgraded version of this ISSO 74 (ATG) guideline has been developed. The new requirements are hybrid in nature as the 2014 version of the guideline combines elements of traditional non-adaptive comfort …

The raccoon dog was introduced in Russia and has been moving west ever since. Currently there are populations in: Finland, Poland, Germany and the Baltic countries. There are sightings in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. There is a high possibility that the raccoon dog will settle in the Netherlands. Raccoon …

Twirre is a new architecture for mini-UAV platforms designed for autonomous flight in both GPS-enabled and GPS-deprived applications. The architecture consists of low-cost hardware and software components. High-level control software enables autonomous operation. Exchanging or upgrading hardware …

With a market demand for low cost, easy to produce, flexible and portable applications in healthcare, energy, biomedical or electronics markets, large research programs are initiated to develop new technologies to provide this demand with new innovative ideas. One of these fast developing technologies …

In the Netherlands, like in many other developed countries, the care sector is facing challenges in a dynamic environment. Regulation is increasing, patients are becoming more critical, budget responsibility will be transferred from country- to municipality level in association with cuts in funding, …

Background: Because of an expected shrinking supply of medical doctors for hospitalist posts, an increased emphasis on efficiency and continuity of care, and the standardization of many medical procedures, the role of hospitalist is increasingly allocated to physician assistants (PAs). PAs are nonphysician …