The Public Shaping of Medical Research


Book Description

Bringing together an international selection of leading scholars and representatives from patients’ organizations, this comprehensive collection explores the interaction between civil society groups and biomedical science, technology development, and research politics. This volume is an important reference for academics and researchers with an interest in the sociology of health and illness, science and technology studies, the sociology of knowledge or healthcare management and research, as well as medical researchers and those involved with health-related civil society organizations.




Handbook Integrated Care


Book Description

This handbook shares profound insights into the main principles and concepts of integrated care. It offers a multi-disciplinary perspective with a focus on patient orientation, efficiency, and quality by applying widely recognized management approaches to the field of healthcare. The handbook also highlights international best practices and shows how integrated care can work in various health systems. In the majority of health systems around the world, the delivery of healthcare and social care is characterised by fragmentation and complexity. Consequently, much of the recent international discussion in the fields of health policy and health management has focused on the topic of integrated care. “Integrated” acknowledges the complexity of patients’ needs and aims to meet them by taking into account both health and social care aspects. Changing and improving processes in a coordinated way is at the heart of this approach. The second edition offers new chapters on people-centredness, complexity theories and evaluation methods, additional management tools and a wealth of experiences from different countries and localities. It is essential reading both for health policymakers seeking inspiration for legislation and for practitioners involved in the management of public health services who want to learn from good practice.




Public Health and Informatics


Book Description

For several years now, both eHealth applications and digitalization have been seen as fundamental to the new era of health informatics and public health. The current pandemic situation has also highlighted the importance of medical informatics for the scientific process of evidence-based reasoning and decision making at all levels of healthcare. This book presents the accepted full papers, short papers, and poster papers delivered as part of the 31st Medical Informatics in Europe Conference (MIE 2021), held virtually from 29-31 May 2021. MIE 2021 was originally due to be held in Athens, Greece, but due to the continuing pandemic situation, the conference was held as a virtual event. The 261 papers included here are grouped into 7 chapters: biomedical data, tools and methods; supporting care delivery; health and prevention; precision medicine and public health; human factors and citizen centered digital health; ethics, legal and societal aspects; and posters. Providing a state-of-the-art overview of medical informatics from around the world, the book will be of interest to all those working with eHealth applications and digitalization to improve the delivery of healthcare today.







The Knowledgeable Patient


Book Description

Learn how to place communication and participation at the heart of evidence-based healthcare The Knowledgeable Patient: Communication and Participation in Health sits at the forefront of the challenging, changing 21st century landscape. The 'knowledgeable patient' as an individual can take many forms: patient, family carer, consumer advocate, or member of the public interested in health issues. In each of these roles, knowledgeable patients interact with health professionals by asking questions about the evidence for treatment, seeking support, exchanging views, and contributing experiences and new ideas on how to improve the health system. Drawing from several research paradigms, The Knowledgeable Patient is an essential guide to a new era of complex healthcare. Integrating consumer stories and evidence from systematic reviews, it examines key communication and participation issues in a range of contexts, including: surgery safe medicine use chronic disease self management the complexity of multimorbidity notification of rare disease risk. The Knowledgeable Patient is international in scope with researched examples spanning living in the community, health service treatment, governance, and policy making. It provides health professionals with new ideas, concepts, evidence, and practical tools to understand the central role of communication and participation to a well-functioning health system. It is an ideal reference for undergraduate and postgraduate students studying the health sciences. Watch a video about The Knowledgeable Patient: Communication and Participation in Health from the author, Sophie Hill: bit.ly/xNYCqG




Patient Involvement in Health Technology Assessment


Book Description

This is the first book to offer a comprehensive guide to involving patients in health technology assessment (HTA). Defining patient involvement as patient participation in the HTA process and research into patient aspects, this book includes detailed explanations of approaches to participation and research, as well as case studies. Patient Involvement in HTA enables researchers, postgraduate students, HTA professionals and experts in the HTA community to study these complementary ways of taking account of patients’ knowledge, experiences, needs and preferences. Part I includes chapters discussing the ethical rationale, terminology, patient-based evidence, participation and patient input. Part II sets out methodology including: Qualitative Evidence Synthesis, Discrete Choice Experiments, Analytical Hierarchy Processes, Ethnographic Fieldwork, Deliberative Methods, Social Media Analysis, Patient-Reported Outcome Measures, patients as collaborative research partners and evaluation. Part III contains 15 case studies setting out current activities by HTA bodies on five continents, health technology developers and patient organisations. Each part includes discussion chapters from leading experts in patient involvement. A final chapter reflects on the need to clearly define the goals for patient involvement within the context of the HTA to identify the optimal approach. With cohesive contributions from more than 80 authors from a variety of disciplines around the globe, it is hoped this book will serve as a catalyst for collaboration to further develop patient involvement to improve HTA. "If you’re not involving patients, you're not doing HTA!" - Dr. Brian O’Rourke, President and CEO of CADTH, Chair of INAHTA




Advocacy in Neurology


Book Description

Advocacy is a broad term that covers activities aimed at increasing attention, awareness, information, nursing, treatment, and support to improve the outcome of patients. These actions can be focused directly towards patients or indirectly via third parties. Although advocacy is present in all medical specialties, neurology in particular finds itself in need of strong advocacy tools as the diagnosis, treatment, long-term care and associated resource, and social issues have become increasingly complex. While some physicians implicitly or explicitly act as advocates, there is a lack of holistic research in order to clarify the meaning of advocacy along with concrete methods and strategies. Advocacy in Neurology provides an integrated approach to the concept of advocacy in neurology. Structured in five sections, the book begins by explaining the term "advocacy" in general before elaborating on the areas of interest within neurology. The text goes on to offer concrete strategies and tools for clinicians to deploy advocacy in their daily work, and then discusses specific neurological diseases to point out and explain where advocacy is, or could be, beneficial. The book ends with an outlook, presentation of results, and an ending conclusion. Advocacy in Neurology offers a practical perspective on advocacy activities in neurology, aiming to show when and why they are important for neurology.




Obstetric Anesthesia and Uncommon Disorders


Book Description

A thoroughly revised third edition of the acclaimed textbook for caregivers involved in the management of pregnant women with uncommon diseases or an unusual or rare condition. The book offers valuable case reports and experience collated by an international team of editors and contributors who are leading experts in the field. This edition contains five additional chapters covering topics like cardiac and neuraxial point of care ultrasound, substance abuse, rare inherited conditions, and anesthesia for rare fetal and placental conditions. Clear, concise management guidelines and algorithms are provided, and each chapter is written from the viewpoint of the obstetric anesthesiologist. Numerous tables, figures and photographs provide visual aids and each chapter contains valuable clinical insights highlighting the essential facts. Featuring updated figures and references, links to useful websites for further reading and a list of commonly used abbreviations. A valuable resource for obstetric anesthetists, perinatologists and other obstetric care providers.