Latest news with #Czechia
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Czechia Putting Olympic Pieces In Place At National Team Camp
Czechia's national team gathered this week in Prague to begin the selection process for their 2026 women's hockey Olympic roster. 46 players participated as the nation looks to win their first ever medal in women's ice hockey at the Olympics after winning their first two bronze medals at the World Championship during this Olympic cycle.
Belfast Telegraph
2 days ago
- Sport
- Belfast Telegraph
Ireland fightback to defeat Czechia in Portugal: ‘We made life difficult for ourselves'
Having trailed 3-1, an impressive third quarter display saw Ireland take control of the game, with Johnny McKee, Matthew Nelson and a Lee Cole brace giving Ireland a lead that they saw out to secure the win. Ireland dominated possession in the opening minutes, with Matthew Nelson's early effort deflected over the bar by the Czech defenders. McKee earned Ireland the first penalty corner of the match after Louis Rowe did well to release his Banbridge teammate on the break. Cole's effort from the corner was well saved. Czechia, however, drew first blood, breaking the deadlock just before the end of the first quarter, a deft touch in the circle from a crash ball beating Jaime Carr in the Irish net. Czechia added a second to their tally halfway through quarter 2, but Ireland pulled a goal back just before half-time thanks to some individual brilliance from Daragh Walsh. He cut inside from the right-hand side and beat two players before finding McKee on the penalty spot to strike into the back of the net. Czechia's pace on the break continued to cause Ireland problems in the second half, as they won a penalty corner after two minutes, which Ireland did well to defend initially. However, Czechia eventually found the net from the follow-up. Ireland responded immediately, McKee getting his second and a great pass from Matthew Nelson to fire in on his reverse from a tight angle. With the momentum now in their favour, Ireland launched another attack, McKee yet again getting involved with his effort at goal blocked on the line by a Czech body to win Ireland a penalty stroke, which Cole dispatched to draw Ireland level at 3-3. Sean Murray and Matthew Nelson combined to put Ireland ahead for the first time in the game, Murray weaving his way along the baseline and calmly flicking towards goal for Nelson to touch into the net. Ireland pressed immediately from the restart, with Cole eventually winning ball on the edge of the Czech circle and drawing a heavy foul to win a second penalty stroke, which he again dispatched to extend Ireland's lead to 5-3 and that was enough for victory. Speaking after the game, Ireland Head Coach Mark Tumilty said: 'We made that difficult for ourselves today. Any time they got into our circle they looked dangerous. We have enough experience in this competition to know how difficult it can be, but we need to manage those challenging patches better.' Discussing Ireland's comeback, Tumilty added: 'The positive was quarter three where we played better hockey, were more aggressive in the press, and scored some good goals.' Ireland will face Italy in their next game of Pool A on Tuesday, July 29 at 3.15pm.
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Kemi is right. We must clip the BMA's wings
Kemi Badenoch's announcement that the Conservatives would ban strikes by doctors represents a clear break with the consensus of the recent past. It is a determined response both to the Government's slow progress with NHS reform and to the Employment Rights Bill, which will make it much easier for unions to call damaging public sector strikes. At present the 'right to strike' – formally an immunity, dating from 1906, from being sued for breach of contract – is almost universal amongst UK employees. The only significant exceptions are the Armed Forces, the police and prison officers. The military are banned from industrial action in every country in the world, and police strikes have been banned here since 1919. Prison officers have at various times had the freedom to strike, but since the 2008 Criminal Justice and Immigration Act, brought in by the last Labour government as it happens, that right has been removed. Many countries have wider restrictions on strikes. Civil servants, university staff and many teachers are banned from striking in Germany, for example. Air traffic controllers, fire and rescue workers can't withdraw labour in Czechia. No federal employee can strike in the US, or even belong to a union which asserts the right to strike. We know that the current Government has made a fetish of international human rights legislation, but the International Labor Organization – to which we are signed up – specifically permits strike bans in 'those services whose interruption would endanger the life, personal safety or health' of the population. This would certainly seem to include our militant resident doctors. In practice complete bans on striking by doctors – not always and everywhere the most militant of unionists, to be fair – are confined to authoritarian countries such as Saudi Arabia and China. But many more liberal jurisdictions place considerable constraints on the right to strike. In some US states – including New York, Florida and Texas – doctors in public hospitals cannot strike. The same applies in several Australian states, while any industrial action in other states must go through complicated Fair Work Commission procedures. Where doctors' strikes are permitted there are usually requirements for notice and for minimum service levels – the latter is being abolished here by the Employment Rights Bill. In Canada, doctors in some provinces may be obliged to submit to binding arbitration. Mrs Badenoch justifies her headline-grabbing proposal by pointing to the frequency of resident doctors' strikes and their intransigence in demanding another extraordinary pay settlement despite the government stuffing their mouths with gold last time round. 'The BMA is out of control' she claims. That may also be true of some other militant unions – the RMT is gearing up for more action on our newly-nationalised railways, for example – but they do not generally threaten lives. I rather doubt that a new Conservative government would completely ban doctors' strikes, an action which would prompt massive opposition from the trade union movement as a whole and no doubt provoke the now-inevitable explosion of lawfare. But it would certainly be possible to clip the BMA's wings by tightening ballot requirements and reintroducing the power to impose binding arbitration, something which British governments used in the past. More important, however, would be reform to break up the monolithic structure of the NHS. This would have the side-effect of introducing a genuine market for the services of doctors rather than the current bilateral monopoly. Of course, the prospect of a Conservative government in the near future seems as likely as snow in August. Nevertheless Kemi Badenoch has performed a useful service in opening up debate about the future conduct of industrial relations in the health service, while putting Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting firmly on the spot. Reform should join in the action: we have yet to hear anything of significance about their position on the doctors' strike. Labour needs to abandon its ineffectual bleating about the moral responsibilities of doctors and get tough with these strikers, who do not have massive public backing: nobody is bashing pans outside their doors these days. Another capitulation to the demands of the BMA will only produce knock-on demands from other NHS workers, threatening both the prospects for genuine health reforms and the country's dire fiscal position.
Medscape
6 days ago
- Health
- Medscape
Everyone Deserves a Shot at the American Dream: Sinus Rhythm
A recent randomized trial in Czechia tested the premise that lifestyle modification and use of antiarrhythmic drugs was as effective as catheter ablation (CA) to treat atrial fibrillation (AF). The bottom line: Ablation alone was better than the combination of the two noninvasive approaches in tandem at keeping these patients free from AF after a year. But some electrophysiologists say the trial results should not mean clinicians should default to one approach vs the other but rather that they help validate a combination of ablation plus lifestyle modification to optimize outcomes for patients with AF. A 'Hybrid Approach' The PRAGUE-25 trial randomized 212 patients with AF to CA alone or lifestyle modification plus medication to control their arrhythmias. The primary endpoint was freedom from AF at 12 months, achieved by 73% of patients in the ablation-only group and 34.6% of those who had lifestyle modification plus medication therapy. At 24 months, that outcome had shifted to 55.6% of the former and 24.7% of the latter. 'I personally think that ultimately what's important is a hybrid approach,' Sana Al-Khatib, MD, MHS, an electrophysiologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, told Medscape Medical News . 'You, of course, control the patient's risk factors and also consider them for catheter ablation because we know it's superior for rhythm control vs medication, but for the results of the catheter ablation to be optimized, and in my view to ensure the durability of the effect of catheter ablation, I think controlling risk factors like lifestyle modification is very important.' Kenneth Ellenbogen, MD 'The results of trial suggest to no surprise that catheter ablation is a very, very powerful treatment, far more effective than risk factor modification,' said Kenneth Ellenbogen, MD, former president of the Heart Rhythm Society and an electrophysiologist at the Pauley Heart Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, Virginia. Although Ellenbogen said he considers PRAGUE-25 'an important trial, the take-home message for cardiologists should be that everyone can have risk factor modification — and catheter ablation. The patients who do both are going to do better than the patients who do one or the other,' he said. A study comparing patients who had ablation plus risk factor modification compared with ablation alone 'would've been interesting,' he added. The Importance of Sinus Rhythm The PRAGUE 25 researchers based their premise on the 2015 LEGACY trial, a study that followed patients with overweight on weight management over 5 years that found an association between sustained weight loss and a sharp reduction in AF burden and maintenance of sinus rhythm (SR). The importance of maintaining SR received an endorsement last year with an analysis of patients in the CABANA trial (CA vs Antiarrhythmic Drug Therapy for AF). The analysis of 883 patients with AF found those in SR were 43% less likely to meet the primary endpoint — death, disabling stroke, serious bleeding, or cardiac arrest — than those who did not have SR, regardless of whether they had received ablation or were taking therapy. Patients in normal rhythm had a 41% lower risk for all-cause death. Eric Prystowsky, MD The evidence supporting the benefit of prioritizing SR over rate control has evolved steadily over the past three decades, said Eric Prystowsky, MD, director of Cardiac Arrhythmia Service at Ascension St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, and a consulting professor at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina. Rate control became the preferred strategy after the AFFIRM trial in 2002 and found rhythm control offered no survival advantage compared with rate control, with the latter having potential advantages, such as fewer adverse drug reactions and lower risk for death. Within a few years, more data tipped the scales in favor of rhythm control. In 2009 the CAFÉ-II study, although small (61 patients), found restoring SR in patients with AF and heart failure improved quality of life and left ventricular function better than rate control. By 2018, Prystowsky was calling SR 'a bridge to the future' in patients with AF. 'The bridge to the future concept is to understand that, if I as a physician don't do anything, you'll be in Afib [AF] for the rest of your life and that can have debilitating consequences for the future,' Prystowsky told Medscape Medical News . That same year, the CASTLE-AF study concluded ablation was more effective at maintaining SR and reducing the risk of worsening heart failure than medical therapy. In a 2022 commentary in the journal Circulation , Prystowsky asked if the debate of rate vs rhythm control had been settled. Clinicians should discuss the benefits of SR with patients when AF is first diagnosed, he wrote, with rhythm control the preferred option in patients with heart failure and those aged 70 years and younger. Sana Al-Khatib, MD, MHS In an editorial last year in Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, Al-Khatib pointed out guidance from the American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology/Heart Rhythm Society between 2014 and 2019 recommended rhythm control in patients who had symptoms despite adequate rate control, making rhythm control subordinate to rate control. In 2023, the three groups updated their statement to recommend early rhythm control and focusing on maintaining SR and minimizing the burden of AF burden for management of the condition. Maintaining SR 'can be useful' to reduce hospitalization, stroke, death and AF progression in patients who had been diagnosed with AF in the past year, the groups stated. The tide had turned in favor of SR compared with rate control. 'In the past it was difficult to keep everyone in sinus rhythm, but we have newer methods now that are much more effective and it's not quite the struggle,' Prystowsky said. 'But it does require patience. It requires you to know a lot about antiarrhythmic drugs because ablation is not the only option. And it requires that you know what techniques are best for which patient. It's not an easy process.' 'Atrial fibrillation,' he added, 'is easy to diagnose and frankly hard to treat.' Getting to Sinus The first step, experts said, is convincing patients that rhythm control is essential. 'It's important to keep this in mind when we see these patients to counsel them to make sure that they understand that unless you do something about the atrial fibrillation to try to keep them in sinus rhythm, in many patients atrial fibrillation gets worse over time,' Al-Khatib said. Ablation isn't for everyone with AF, Prystowsky said. 'Patients in their mid-to-late 80s that are comfortable in Afib may not be appropriate,' he said. 'It's not that everybody needs it, but the discussion and consideration of sinus rhythm is appropriate for every patient.' Lifestyle modification is 'very hard, though,' he said. 'Without an organized program for weight loss, you just can't get people to take off 10% of their body weight and keep it off.' The widening availability of GLP-1 agonists for weight loss could drastically alter how cardiologists and electrophysiologists approach AF in patients who are obese and overweight, Prystowsky said. 'It's not just about losing weight. It might affect the metabolic activity of the pericardial fat and reduce Afib,' he said. One combined approach could involve CA with antiarrhythmic medication afterward, Prystowsky said. 'It's not uncommon to do an ablation and get three quarters of the job done, and the patient is still having episodes,' he said. 'Then you add a drug like dofetilide, and they have nothing. They can go for years feeling great or not need a second ablation.' But, Ellenbogen said, 'very, very, very few' patients would not be candidates for ablation. 'Antiarrhythmic drugs alone are fine, but they're only a short-term solution,' he said. 'In most people who take antiarrhythmic drugs, over time there's progression of disease. Typically, in 2 years 50% who take antiarrhythmic drugs are back in Afib.' When discussing AF with patients, clinicians should focus on the severity and progression of symptoms, not the mere presence of AF, Al-Khatib said. 'If the patient starts with rare episodes of atrial fibrillation, I don't think anyone would do a procedure, but you have to keep an eye on the progression of the Afib,' Al-Khatib said. 'As it gets more frequent and the episodes start lasting longer, then it is important to intervene with rhythm controlling strategies earlier.' In the end, experts said, the best strategy to achieve SR is the one that works. 'The punchline is that for maintenance of sinus rhythm, catheter ablation is the most effective method and more effective than risk factor modification,' Ellenbogen said. 'But it's a false narrative here. We want all our patients to do both, and both together is very, very profoundly effective.' Ellenbogen disclosed honorarium from Medtronic. Al-Khatib and Prystowsky reported no relevant financial relationships.
Yahoo
21-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Filip Zadina Signs Multi-Year Contract Extension In Switzerland
Swiss club HC Davos has signed three of its key forwards to three-year contract extensions – Czech Filip Zadina, 25, Canadian Adam Tambellini, 30, and Swede Simon Ryfors, 27. 'We are delighted that Simon, Filip, and Adam have so clearly committed to HCD and are planning their future with us,' said club sports director Jan Alston. 'All three are hungry for more, and we expect a high level of play from them over the next three years.' It's interesting that Zadina chose to sign long-term in Davos after last summer, when the Czech winger was reportedly close to signing with his hometown club Dynamo Pardubice, but a sticking point was term – the club wanted a multi-year deal but Zadina, then 24, wanted to keep his NHL options available and chose the shorter-term offer from Davos. Presumably, this contract contains an opt-out in case he receives an NHL offer. Last season, Zadina had 43 points in 53 National League regular-season and playoff games. He also had four points in three games in the Spengler Cup, which Davos hosts annually. In addition to Tambellini and Ryfors, Zadina's teammates in Davos this season will include ex-NHLers Joakim Nordström, Brendan Lemieux, Rasmus Asplund and Klas Dahlbeck. Rasmus Asplund Leaves Florida Organization For Switzerland Swedish forward Rasmus Asplund, 27, has signed a two-year contract with HC Davos, the National League club announced on Tuesday. Originally from Pardubice, Czechia, Zadina went overseas at age 17 to play junior hockey for the QMJHL's Halifax Mooseheads. After winning the league's rookie-of-the-year award and making the first all-star team, he was drafted sixth overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. Between 2018 and 2024, Zadina played 262 NHL games for the Wings and San Jose Sharks, recording 91 points and 40 penalty minutes. In 2023-24, his last NHL campaign to date, Zadina hit career highs in games played (72) and goals (13). Internationally, Zadina performed brilliantly for the Czechs at the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship in Buffalo, recording eight points in seven games as the Czechs finished fourth. In his only senior-level World Championship to date in Riga in 2021, Zadina had four points in eight games. Photo © Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images. CONFIRMED: Jesse Puljujärvi Signs Multi-Year Contract in Switzerland Finnish winger Jesse Puljujärvi, 27, has signed a two-year contract with Genève-Servette, the National League club announced on Tuesday.
