Medical "zero mercury" is imperative

On April 8th, the “Green Medical Only For Tomorrow” sponsored by the China Health Promotion Foundation was held in Beijing. The launch ceremony of the medical electronization and zero-water banking initiative and the Baijia Hospital Initiative Conference were held in Beijing. Dr. Bai Shuzhong, chairman of the China Health Promotion Foundation, hypertension medical experts and 35 hospital representatives attended the launch ceremony.

The China Health Promotion Foundation initiated the launch of the Medical Electronic Zero Water Banking Campaign to 100 National Hospitals in order to respond to the World Health Organization's “Hydrenic Minamata Health Care Plan by 2020” in cooperation with the “Mining Convention on Mercury” and advocate more Hospitals participate in mercury-free medical operations. Participants also discussed the necessity and practical significance of the gradual replacement of existing mercury-containing sphygmomanometers by domestic hospitals with digital blood pressure monitors and zero mercury treatment. Omron Health Care donated 3,000 medical electronic blood pressure monitors in support of the medical electronization of zero-water banking. Some of these donated to hospitals participating in action initiatives, and some will be donated to hospitals that will respond to actions to help more hospitals achieve Electronic zero mercury.

Zero mercury, future medical trends
According to a statement by the chairman of the China Health Promotion Foundation, Bai Shuzhong, mercury is currently listed as a global pollutant by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). In October 2013, representatives of 92 countries and regions, including China, signed the “Minamata Convention on Mercury” at the Diplomatic Plenipotentiary Conference on the Minamata Convention on Mercury sponsored by the UN Environment Programme. After 2020, production and import and export of mercury-containing products such as mercury sphygmomanometers and thermometers will be banned. At the same time, in order to comply with this convention, WHO has jointly launched the "Hygiene-Free Health Care Plan by 2020" in collaboration with the "Harmless Health Organization" and called for the phase-out of mercury-containing thermometers and mercury-containing blood pressure measuring instruments by 2020. To achieve this goal, the production, import and export of these devices will be stopped, supporting the use of accurate, affordable and safer mercury-free alternatives.

As the world's largest consumer of mercury, China's mercury consumption is about 1,000 tons per year, accounting for about 50% of the world total, of which mercury consumption for the production of mercury-containing thermometers and sphygmomanometers is more than 230 tons. As one of the signatories to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, my Government has demonstrated its determination to fully control mercury pollution. It seems that phasing out mercury-containing products, especially mercury-containing medical products, replacing them with electronic products and creating a green and healthy medical environment is an inevitable trend in medical development.

Therefore, the medical electronization and zero water bank advocated by the China Health Promotion Foundation is in keeping with the times. It not only accords with international trends, but also conforms to the environmental situation in China. It also guides the general direction of medical treatment and will inevitably be understood and supported by many hospitals and medical personnel. .

Accuracy, highlight professional standards

What the clinician cares most about is how accurate the electronic sphygmomanometer is and whether it will affect the professional judgment of the doctor. As Professor Hu Dayi, a hypertension prevention expert, said, electronic sphygmomanometers have been updated for three generations as an emerging medical alternative. Currently, electronic sphygmomanometers have been widely used in foreign medical institutions and are internationally recognized as tools for accurately measuring blood pressure. Accuracy has been clinically confirmed by several studies. The validation standards currently recognized in China are the electronic sphygmomanometer products passed by the three institutions of the British Hypertension Society (BHS), the American Medical Device Testing Association (AAMI), and the European Hypertension Society (ESH).

In fact, because there are some subjective human factors in traditional mercury-containing sphygmomanometers, it is inevitable that there will be some differences in the measured values. For example, the effects of environmental noise, excessive deflation, and reading preferences will cause errors in blood pressure values. The advantage of electronic sphygmomanometer is that it can accurately measure the instantaneous change of blood pressure. It adopts automatic inflation, automatic deflation, automatic recording, and uniform speed. It uses liquid crystal display results and is more intuitive, so that medical personnel can get rid of tedious labor. According to Zhao Xingshan, deputy dean of Beijing Jishuitan Hospital, which has realized the realization of medical electronics and zero mercury, the electronic sphygmomanometer is not only indistinguishable from the mercury-containing sphygmomanometer in terms of accuracy, but also its fully humanized design makes the electronic sphygmomanometer comfortable and convenient to use. Faster and faster.

Electronic, information age requirements

Professor Wu Liuxin, a professor of cardiovascular diseases, pointed out at the meeting that from the perspective of the world’s medical situation, in some developed countries, the use rate of electronic sphygmomanometers in medical institutions is as high as 2/3, but the use rate of electronic sphygmomanometers in medical institutions in China is still less than 1 %. Advanced developed countries widely use electronic sphygmomanometers certified by international standards. This is both an environmental protection requirement and an inevitable development of modern medical treatment, and it also adapts to the trend of international medical electronic informationization.

At present, the era of comprehensive information has come. The construction of hospital information is moving toward improving service efficiency, reducing medical errors, controlling medical costs, and improving medical experience. This is a sign of a modern hospital. Mercury medical instruments represented by traditional sphygmomanometers are relatively mechanical and still remain at the level of manual operation, which cannot meet the needs of modern hospital information construction.

The electronic sphygmomanometer is suitable for the development of medical informatization and is continuously refined to meet the needs of medical informatization, which is more conducive to the realization of informatized medical treatment. The use of mercury-free medical equipment represented by electronic sphygmomanometers is more in line with the hospital's international JCI certification standards and is conducive to the integration of Chinese hospitals with international management standards and international standards.

Professor Wang Jiguang believes that it is based on the foundation of medical electronic informationization. In the near future, there will be no "distance" between home and hospital. For example, the “blood diagnostics service platform” for blood pressure analysis service platform used by medical and nursing organizations is a technology platform with advanced mobile communication functions, which is the link connecting home and medical sites. The patient uploads the measured data to the platform, and the professional doctor at the other end of the Chih-Tsing Consultation provides treatment advice based on these data.

The Wisdom Clinic not only brings convenience to patients, but also benefits doctors. On the one hand, doctors do not need to face so many patients every day, the quiet environment and the time saved can allow doctors to think more and study the condition and better solve the actual problems of the patients. On the other hand, Chih-Tsung can convert the patient's blood pressure into a chart at the first time, making the data to be observed at a glance clear. Through this system, doctors not only can understand the patient's blood pressure status at any time, but also can control and manage the patient's blood pressure more effectively. Since the medical record can be kept, subsequent doctors can also refer to the patient's data. Even the data stored in the Wisdom Clinic can be generated as CSV data, which can be used flexibly in clinical practice to help emergency rescue.