Clinimetrics


Book Description




Communimetrics


Book Description

Measurement in human services means one thing: how well the effort serves clients. But the data doesn’t exist in a vacuum and must be communicated clearly between provider and client, provider and management, and across systems. During the past decade, innovative communimetric measures have helped more than 50,000 professionals worldwide in health care, justice, and business settings deliver findings that enhance communication on all sides. Now, the theory and methods behind this fast-paced innovation are available in this informative volume. Communimetrics presents information in an accessible style, and its model of measurement as communication bolsters transparency and ease of interpretation without sacrificing validity or reliability. It conveys a deep appreciation for the unique position of service delivery systems at the intersection between science and management (and between quality and quantity), and shows readers how to create measures that can be used immediately to translate findings into practical action. This must-have volume offers readers the tools for understanding—and applying—this cutting-edge innovation by providing: The theoretical base for communimetrics. Practical illustrations comparing communimetrics with traditional methods. Guidelines for designing communimetric measures and evaluating their reliability and validity. Detailed examples of three widely used communimetric measures—the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS), the INTERMED, and the Entrepreneurial League System Assessment as well as detailed explanations for how they are used and why they work. Applications used in a range of settings, including children’s services, adult mental health, services for the aging, and business and organizational development. Communimetrics provides a wealth of real-world uses to a wide professional audience, including program evaluators, quality management professionals, enterprise managers, teachers of field research methods, and professionals involved in measurement and management design. It also makes an exceptionally useful text for program evaluation courses.




Leading-edge Psychological Tests and Testing Research


Book Description

Psychological testing has grown exponentially as technological advances have permitted it to and societal complexities have necessitated its growth. Psychological testing or psychological assessment is a field characterised by the use of samples of behaviour in order to infer generalisations about a given individual. By samples of behaviour, one means observations over time of an individual performing tasks that have usually been prescribed beforehand. These responses are often compiled into statistical tables that allow the evaluator to compare the behaviour of the individual being tested to the responses of a norm group. The broad categories of psychological evaluation tests include: Norm-referenced, IQ/achievement tests, Neuropsychological tests, Personality tests, Objective tests (Rating scale), Direct observation tests, Psychological evaluations using data mining. New and important research is presented in this book.




Quality


Book Description

Quality, as exemplified by Quality-of-life (QoL) assessment, is frequently discussed among health care professionals and often invoked as a goal for improvement, but somehow rarely defined, even as it is regularly assessed. It is understood that some medical patients have a better QoL than others, but should the QoL achieved be compared to an ideal state, or is it too personal and subjective to gauge? Can a better understanding of the concept help health care systems deliver services more effectively? Is QoL worth measuring at all? Integrating concepts from psychology, philosophy, neurocognition, and linguistics, this book attempts to answer these complex questions. It also breaks down the cognitive-linguistic components that comprise the judgment of quality, including description, evaluation, and valuations, and applies them to issues specific to individuals with chronic medical illness. In this context, quality/QoL assessment becomes an essential contributor to ethical practice, a critical step towards improving the nature of social interactions. The author considers linear, non-linear, and complexity-based models in analyzing key methodology and content issues in health-related QoL assessment. This book is certain to stimulate debate in the research and scientific communities. Its forward-looking perspective takes great strides toward promoting a common cognitive-linguistic model of how the judgment of quality occurs, thereby contributing important conceptual and empirical tools to its varied applications, including QoL assessment.




Medical Biostatistics


Book Description

Encyclopedic in breadth, yet practical and concise, Medical Biostatistics, Fourth Edition focuses on the statistical aspects ofmedicine with a medical perspective, showing the utility of biostatistics as a tool to manage many medical uncertainties. This edition includes more topics in order to fill gaps in the previous edition. Various topics have been enlarged and modified as per the new understanding of the subject.




Medical Biostatistics, Third Edition


Book Description

Encyclopedic in breadth, yet practical and concise, Medical Biostatistics, Third Edition focuses on the statistical aspects of medicine with a medical perspective, showing the utility of biostatistics as a tool to manage many medical uncertainties. The author concludes "Just as results of medical tests, statistical results can be false negative or false positive". This edition provides expanded coverage of topics and includes software illustrations. The author presents step-by-step explanations of statistical methods with the help of numerous real-world examples. Guide charts at the beginning of the book enable quick access to the relevant statistical procedure, and the comprehensive index makes it easier to locate terms of interest.




Anxiety Disorders


Book Description

This book reviews all important aspects of anxiety disorders with the aim of shedding new light on these disorders through combined understanding of traditional and novel paradigms. The book is divided into five sections, the first of which reinterprets anxiety from a network science perspective, examining the altered topological properties of brain networks in anxiety disorders. The second section discusses recent advances in understanding of the neurobiology of anxiety disorders, covering, for example, gene-environmental interactions and the roles of neurotransmitter systems and the oxytocin system. A wide range of diagnostic and clinical issues in anxiety disorders are then addressed, before turning attention to contemporary treatment approaches in the context of novel bio-psychosocial-behavioral models, including bio- and neurofeedback, cognitive behavioral therapy, neurostimulation, virtual reality exposure therapy, pharmacological interventions, psychodynamic therapy, and CAM options. The final section is devoted to precision psychiatry in anxiety disorders, an increasingly important area as we move toward personalized treatment. Anxiety Disorders will be of interest for all researchers and clinicians in the field.




Concise Encyclopedia of Biostatistics for Medical Professionals


Book Description

Concise Encyclopedia of Biostatistics for Medical Professionals focuses on conceptual knowledge and practical advice rather than mathematical details, enhancing its usefulness as a reference for medical professionals. The book defines and describes nearly 1000 commonly and not so commonly used biostatistical terms and methods arranged in alphabetical order. These range from simple terms, such as mean and median to advanced terms such as multilevel models and generalized estimating equations. Synonyms or alternative phrases for each topic covered are listed with a reference to the topic.




Routledge International Handbook of Advanced Quantitative Methods in Nursing Research


Book Description

Designed to support global development of nursing science, the Routledge International Handbook of Advanced Quantitative Methods in Nursing Research provides a new, comprehensive, and authoritative treatment of advanced quantitative methods for nursing research. Incorporating past approaches that have served as the foundation for the science, this cutting edge book also explores emerging approaches that will shape its future. Divided into six parts, it covers: -the domain of nursing science - measurement—classical test theory, IRT, clinimetrics, behavioral observation, biophysical measurement -models for prediction and explanation—SEM, general growth mixture models, hierarchical models, analysis of dynamic systems -intervention research—theory-based interventions, causality, third variables, pilot studies, quasi-experimental design, joint models for longitudinal data and time to event -e-science—DIKW paradigm, big data, data mining, omics, FMRI -special topics—comparative effectiveness and meta-analysis, patient safety, economics research in nursing, mixed methods, global research dissemination Written by a distinguished group of international nursing scientists, scientists from related fields, and methodologists, the Handbook is the ideal reference for everyone involved in nursing science, whether they are graduate students, academics, editors and reviewers, or clinical investigators.




Communication Competence


Book Description

Almost everything that matters to humans is derived from and through communication. Just because people communicate every day, however, does not mean that they are communicating competently. In fact, evidence indicates that there is a substantial need for better interpersonal skills among a significant proportion of the populace. Furthermore, "dark side" experiences in everyday life abound, and features of modern society pose new challenges that make the concept of communication competence increasingly complex. The Handbook of Communication Competence brings together scholars from across the globe to examine these various facets of communication competence, including its history, its essential components, and its applications in interpersonal, group, institutional, and societal contexts. The book provides a state-of-the-art review for scholars and graduate students, as well as practitioners in counseling, developmental, health care, educational, intercultural, and human resource management contexts, illustrating that communication competence is vital to health, relationships, and all collective human endeavors.