This timely overview of dose, benefit, and risk in medical imaging explains to readers how to apply this information for informed decision-making that improves patient outcomes. The chapters cover patient and physician perspectives, referral guidelines, appropriateness criteria, and quantifying medical imaging benefits. The authors have included essential discussion about radiologic physics in medical imaging, fundamentals of dose and image quality, risk assessment, and techniques for optimization and dose reduction. The book highlights practical implementation aspects with useful case studies and checklists for treatment planning. Clinicians, students, residents, and professionals in medical physics, biomedical engineering, radiology, oncology, and allied disciplines will find this book an essential resource with the following key features: Discusses risk, benefit, dose optimization, safety, regulation, radiological protection, and shared & informed decision-making. Covers regulatory oversight by government agencies, manufacturers, and societies. Highlights best practices for improving patient safety and outcomes. Gives guidelines on doses associated with specific procedures.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has transformed many aspects of our daily activities. Health and well-being of humans stand as one of the key domains where AI has achieved significant progresses, saving time, costs, and potentially lives, as well as fostering economic resilience, particularly under the COVID-19 pandemic environments. This book is a sequel of the Handbook of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare. The first volume of the Handbook is dedicated to present advances and applications of AI methodologies in several specific areas, i.e., signal, image, and video processing as well as information and data analytics. In this second volume of the Handbook, general practicality challenges and future prospects of AI methodologies pertaining to healthcare and related domains are presented in Part 1 and Part 2, respectively. It is envisaged that the selected studies will provide readers a general perspective on the issues, challenges, and opportunities in designing, developing, and implementing AI-based tools and solutions in the healthcare sector, bringing benefits to transform and advance health and well-being development of humans..

Efficient mobile systems that allow for vital sign monitoring and disease diagnosis at the point of care can help combat issues such as rising healthcare costs, treatment delays in remote and resource-poor areas, and the global shortage of skilled medical personnel. Covering everything from sensors, systems, and software to integration, usability, and regulatory challenges, Mobile Point-of-Care Monitors and Diagnostic Device Design offers valuable insight into state-of-the-art technologies, research, and methods for designing personal diagnostic and ambulatory healthcare devices. Presenting the combined expertise of contributors from various fields, this multidisciplinary text: Gives an overview of the latest mobile health and point-of-care technologies Discusses portable diagnostics devices and sensors, including mobile-phone-based health systems Explores lab-on-chip systems as well as energy-efficient solutions for mobile point-of-care monitors Addresses computer vision and signal processing for real-time diagnostics Considers interface design for lay healthcare providers and home users Mobile Point-of-Care Monitors and Diagnostic Device Design provides important background information about the design process of mobile health and point-of-care devices, using practical examples to illustrate key aspects related to instrumentation, information processing, and implementation.

A significant portion of biomedical applications necessitates the establishment of an interface between the cells of the patient and the components of the device. In many cases, such as in implants and engineered tissues, the interaction of the cells with the biomaterial is one of the main determinants of the success of the system. Cell and Material Interface: Advances in Tissue Engineering, Biosensor, Implant, and Imaging Technologies explores this interaction and its control at length scales ranging from the nano to the macro. Featuring contributions from leading molecular biologists, chemists, and material scientists, this authoritative reference: Presents practical examples of cell and material interface-based applications Reflects the interdisciplinary nature of bioengineering, covering topics such as biosensing, immunology, and controlled delivery Explains the role of the cell and material interface in the context of cardiac and skin tissue engineering, nanoparticles, natural polymers, and more Cell and Material Interface: Advances in Tissue Engineering, Biosensor, Implant, and Imaging Technologies addresses concepts essential to biomaterial production methods and cell and material interactions. The book provides a solid starting point for elucidating and exploiting the different aspects of cellular interactions with materials for biomedical engineering.

This book covers the essentials of drug delivery research and provides a unique forum for scientific experimental methods that are exclusively focused by the in-vitro, ex-vivo, and in-vivo methodologies of drug delivery research and felicitates translational research. The book includes recent and novel approaches in evaluation methods of transdermal, nasal, ocular, oral and intraoral, gastro-retentive, colon-targeted, and brain-targeted drug delivery systems. Providing up to date and comprehensive information, this text is invaluable to students, teachers, scientists, and others employed in the field of drug delivery.

Cybernics plays a significant role in coping with an aging society using state-of-the-art technologies from engineering, clinical medicine and humanities. This new interdisciplinary field studies technologies that enhance, strengthen, and support physical and cognitive functions of human beings, based on the fusion of human, machine, and information systems. The design of a seamless interface for interaction between the interior and exterior of the human body is described in this book from diverse aspects such as the physical, neurophysiological, and cognitive levels. It is the first book to cover the many aspects of cybernics, allowing readers to understand the life support robotics technology for the elderly, including remote, in-home, hospital, institutional, community medical welfare, and vital-sensing systems. Serving as a valuable resource, this volume will interest not only graduate students, scientists, and engineers but also newcomers to the field of cybernics.

Arguably medicine is either an arts-based science or a science-based art. In medieval times, clinical decisions were based on simple measures, such as the temperature of the body, the rhythm of the pulse, the consistency of the stool and the colour of the urine. Nowadays, thanks partly to modern technology, medical science has improved in many ways, as has healthcare. In particular, approaches which have their origins in Artificial Intelligence and Operational Research have a significant contribution to make in terms of improving not only diagnosis and treatment of patients, but also providing ways of managing patients in a more effective, more efficient, and more patient-friendly manner. This book focuses on the use of such Intelligent Patient Management to the benefit of clinicians, other healthcare and community practitioners and managers, patients and carers.

In the fast-developing field of nanomedicine, a broad variety of materials have been used for the development of advanced delivery systems for drugs, genes, and diagnostic agents. With the recent breakthroughs in the field, we are witnessing a new age of disease management, which is governed by precise regulation of dosage and delivery. This book presents the advances in the use of lipid-based and inorganic nanomaterials for medical imaging, diagnosis, theranostics, and drug delivery. The materials discussed include liposome-scaffold systems, elastic liposomes, targeted liposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles, lipoproteins, exosomes, porous inorganic nanomaterials, silica nanoparticles, and inorganic nanohybrids. The book provides all available information about them and describes in detail their advantages and disadvantages and the areas where they could be utilized successfully.

Olumwullah examines disease, biomedicine, and processes of social change among the AbaNyole of Western Kenya and analyzes the introduction and use of biomedicine as a cultural tool of domination by British colonizers and the AbaNyole's reaction to this therapeutic tradition and its technologies. He argues that biomedicine is a tool that the colonizers used to think about the colonized. Through an examination of ideas about order and disorder in Nyole cosmology, Nyole experiences with new diseases and biomedical practices that were brought to bear on these diseases; and how these experiences and the meanings they produced transformed metaphors of disease, illness, and healing, this study argues that, just as colonialism was more than a quest for the construction of exploitative political and economic institutions, so was biomedicine more than a mere matter of scientific interest based on benevolent neutrality.

By setting the terms of discourse between the West and the African culural environment, and by insinuating itself at the center of contestation over knowledge between a British science and African ways of knowing, colonial biomedical science turned the African body into a site of colonizing power and of contestation between the colonized and the colonizer. Narratives about the incidence of diseases like the plague were in themselves experiences of suffering that opened a window to how local knowledge about disease etiology and disease causation was produced among the AbaNyole. Instead of being passive victims of capitalistic forces of domination and exploitation, the Nyole confronted biomedicine as its assemblage of practices inhabited, passed through, transformed, conserved, or escaped the terrain sketched by a pre-European Nyole worldview. Conventioanl expectations about disease as misfortune were altered as colonialism came to be seen and experienced as a form of social death the AbaNyole had never before encountered.

- Provides an analysis of machine learning algorithms and their properties useful to our readership. - Provides a state-of-the-art review of the clinical applications of big data in radiation oncology - Offers promising insights into present and future prospects of machine learning in radiation oncology

In this book, physics in its many aspects (thermodynamics, mechanics, electricity, fluid dynamics) is the guiding light on a fascinating journey through biological systems, providing ideas, examples and stimulating reflections for undergraduate physics, chemistry and life-science students, as well as for anyone interested in the frontiers between physics and biology. Rather than introducing a lot of new information, it encourages young students to use their recently acquired knowledge to start seeing the physics behind the biology. As an undergraduate textbook in introductory biophysics, it includes the necessary background and tools, including exercises and appendices, to form a progressive course. In this case, the chapters can be used in the order proposed, possibly split between two semesters. The book is also an absorbing read for researchers in the life sciences who wish to refresh or go deeper into the physics concepts gleaned in their early years of scientific training. Less physics-oriented readers might want to skip the first chapter, as well as all the "gray boxes" containing the more formal developments, and create their own a-la-carte menu of chapters.

Environmental stress caused by water continuously exposes buildings to microbial colonization. This is highly evident when both minor dampness and mass flooding occur. The text describes how microbiological corrosion of buildings and the structures and substances derived from these hazards are responsible for adverse health effects on people exposed to these contaminated environments. Microbiological Corrosion of Buildings: A Guide to Detection, Health Hazards, and Mitigation describes the key elements and methods for neutralising and removing microbiological contamination, and the operating algorithm for checking the effectiveness of preventative solutions. Ideal for construction engineers, microbiologists and professionals in the field. Features: Latest methods for detection of indoor microbial hazards Identifies the tools needed for natural, non-destructive and non-invasive methods of bio-corrosion removal Describes the social and health problems associated with exposure to microbiological hazards Provides case studies and examples of microorganisms responsible for microbial corrosion. 'Climate change and the associated adverse effects, such as floods and whirlwinds, make the problem of microbiological corrosion of buildings that generates health risks and economic losses on a global scale, the focus of science and technology. The monograph presents a complex problem of building bio-corrosion, that requires knowledge of the distant fields of microbiology and building technology, for the use of both scientists and practitioners. This pioneering work of an interdisciplinary nature harmoniously combines knowledge on specific microbiological issues relating to the process of bio-corrosion and the associated health risks with detailed issues of construction technology concerning the prevention of bio-corrosion and its removal. The authors succeeded in combining a very high scientific level in the monograph with an accessible and understandable presentation of complex problems. The extensive references, ranging from "classical" items from many years ago to the most recent articles presenting the state of the art in this field, are worth emphasising.' -Prof. Jacek Dutkiewicz, Ph.D., D.Sc., Institute of Rural Health in Lublin

The field of thermal therapy has been growing tenaciously in the last few decades. The application of heat to living tissues, from mild hyperthermia to high-temperature thermal ablation, has produced a host of well-documented genetic, cellular, and physiological responses that are being researched intensely for medical applications, particularly for treatment of solid cancerous tumors using image guidance. The controlled application of thermal energy to living tissues has proven a great challenge, requiring expertise from multiple disciplines, thereby leading to the development of many sophisticated pre-clinical and clinical devices and treatment techniques. Physics of Thermal Therapy: Fundamentals and Clinical Applications captures the breadth and depth of this highly multidisciplinary field. Focusing on applications in cancer treatment, this book covers basic principles, practical aspects, and clinical applications of thermal therapy. An overview of the fundamentals shows how use of controlled heat in medicine and biology involves electromagnetics, acoustics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, and imaging sciences. The book discusses challenges in the use of thermal energy on living tissues and explores the genetic, cellular, and physiological responses that can be employed in the fight against cancer from the physics and engineering perspectives. It also highlights recent advances, including the treatment of solid tumors using image-guided thermal therapy, microbubbles, nanoparticles, and other cutting-edge techniques.

Recent toxicological studies show that nanoparticles released in technological processes and combustion processes outside industry can be dangerous for humans especially when entering the body through the mouth and nose. In connection with the above, the use of adequately effective respiratory protection equipment is of great importance in prophylactic and preventive activities. The first part of Nanoaerosols, Air Filtering and Respiratory Protection: Science and Practice refers to the general phenomena of filtration described on the basis of the authors' own experience and international reports. The book also includes a description of the respiratory system and principles of its functioning and the accumulation of aerosol particles. It goes on to discuss technological innovations regarding the production of filtering materials for protection against nanoparticles and the latest test methods. Finally, the book contains information about the proper selection and use of respiratory protective devices against airborne nanoparticles in the workplace and everyday life. Special attention is paid to proper fit procedures as well as use and maintenance activities of such devices. The content of the book with rich illustrative material has been presented so that it can be used by health and safety experts, students as well as employers, employees and private users of respiratory protective devices. "Through a comprehensive approach to the subject of the work, the authors present theoretical foundations as well as practical solutions that are used in the research and development of personal respiratory protection. The complementarity of the information contained in the book will allow the reader to become familiar with a wide range of knowledge related to the design and manufacture as well as assessment of properties and procedures for the use of respiratory protection against the adverse effects of aerosols, including air contaminated with nanoparticles and microparticles. In my opinion the book is a valuable part of the series Occupational Safety, Health, and Ergonomics: Theory and Practice, published by Taylor & Francis." -Maciej Bogun, LUKASIEWICZ - The Textile Research Institute, Lodz

Healthcare Technology Management: A Systematic Approach offers a comprehensive description of a method for providing safe and cost effective healthcare technology management (HTM). The approach is directed to enhancing the value (benefit in relation to cost) of the medical equipment assets of healthcare organizations to best support patients, clinicians and other care providers, as well as financial stakeholders. The authors propose a management model based on interlinked strategic and operational quality cycles which, when fully realized, delivers a comprehensive and transparent methodology for implementing a HTM programme throughout a healthcare organization. The approach proposes that HTM extends beyond managing the technology in isolation to include advancing patient care through supporting the application of the technology. The book shows how to cost effectively manage medical equipment through its full life cycle, from acquisition through operational use to disposal, and to advance care, adding value to the medical equipment assets for the benefit of patients and stakeholders. This book will be of interest to practicing clinical engineers and to students and lecturers, and includes self-directed learning questions and case studies. Clinicians, Chief Executive Officers, Directors of Finance and other hospital managers with responsibility for the governance of medical equipment will also find this book of interest and value. For more information about the book, please visit the website.

Conventional computed tomography (CT) techniques employ a narrow array of x-ray detectors and a fan-shaped x-ray beam to rotate around the patient to produce images of thin sections of the patient. Large sections of the body are covered by moving the patient into the rotating x-ray detector and x-ray source gantry. Cone beam CT is an alternative technique using a large area detector and cone-shaped x-ray beam to produce 3D images of a thick section of the body with one full angle (360 degree or 180 degree plus detector coverage) rotation. It finds applications in situations where bulky, conventional CT systems would interfere with clinical procedures or cannot be integrated with the primary treatments or imaging systems. Cone Beam Computed Tomography explores the past, present, and future state of medical x-ray imaging while explaining how cone beam CT, with its superior spatial resolution and compact configuration, is used in clinical applications and animal research. The book: Supplies a detailed introduction to cone beam CT, covering basic principles and applications as well as advanced techniques Explores state-of-the-art research and future developments while examining the fundamental limitations of the technology Addresses issues related to implementation and system characteristics, including image quality, artifacts, radiation dose, and perception Reviews the historical development of medical x-ray imaging, from conventional CT techniques to volumetric 3D imaging Discusses the major components of cone beam CT: image acquisition, reconstruction, processing, and display A reference work for scientists, engineers, students, and imaging professionals, Cone Beam Computed Tomography provides a solid understanding of the theory and implementation of this revolutionary technology.

Due to the increasing number of digital mammograms and the advent of new kinds of three-dimensional x-ray and other forms of medical imaging, mammography is undergoing a dramatic change. To meet their responsibilities, medical physicists must constantly renew their knowledge of advances in medical imaging or radiation therapy, and must be prepared to function at the intersection of these two fields. Physics of Mammographic Imaging gives an overview on the current role and future potential of new alternatives to mammography in the context of clinical need, complementary approaches, and ongoing research. This book provides comprehensive coverage on the fundamentals of image formation, image interpretation, analysis, and modeling. It discusses the use of mammographic imaging in the detection, diagnosis, treatment planning, and monitoring of breast cancer. Expert authors give a balanced summary of core topics such as digital mammography, contrast-enhanced mammography, stereomammography, breast tomosynthesis, and breast CT. The book highlights the use of mammographic imaging with complementary breast imaging modalities such as ultrasound, MRI, and nuclear medicine techniques. It discusses critical issues such as computer-aided diagnosis, perception, and quality assurance. This is an exciting time in the development of medical imaging, with many new technologies poised to make a substantial impact on breast cancer care. This book will help researchers and students get up to speed on crucial developments and contribute to future advances in the field.

The first text to focus solely on quality and safety in radiotherapy, this work encompasses not only traditional, more technically oriented, quality assurance activities, but also general approaches of quality and safety. It includes contributions from experts both inside and outside the field to present a global view. The task of assuring quality is no longer viewed solely as a technical, equipment-dependent endeavor. Instead, it is now recognized as depending on both the processes and the people delivering the service. Divided into seven broad categories, the text covers: Quality Management and Improvement includes discussions about lean thinking, process control, and access to services. Patient Safety and Managing Error looks at reactive and prospective error management techniques. Methods to Assure and Improve Quality deals broadly with techniques to monitor, assure, and improve quality. People and Quality focuses on human factors, changing roles, staffing, and training. Quality Assurance in Radiotherapy addresses the general issues of quality assurance with descriptions of the key systems used to plan and treat patients and includes specific recommendations on the types and frequencies of certain tests. Quality Control: Equipment and Quality Control: Patient-Specific provides explicit details of quality control relating to equipment and patient-specific issues. Recently, a transformation of quality and safety in radiotherapy has begun to take place. Among the key drivers of this transformation have been new industrial and systems engineering approaches that have come to the forefront in recent years following revelations of system failures. This book provides an approach to quality that is long needed, one that deals with both human and technical aspects that must be the part of any overall quality improvement program.

Man lubricates mostly with oil. Nature lubricates exclusively with water. Pure water is a poor lubricant, but the addition of proteins, especially glycoproteins, can modify surfaces to make them far more lubricating at slow speeds. Understanding how nature does this, and the physical structures involved, is not only important for the understanding of diseases such as osteoarthritis, but also essential for the successful application of articulating implants, such as hips and knees, as well as the development of medical devices such as catheters and contact lenses. A host of important applications of water-based lubrication are already in place in the personal care and food industries, and further industrial applications of water-based lubrication could have a significant positive impact on the environment.This book is the first of its kind. It brings together the latest research in biological and biomimetic, water-based lubrication and is authored by the world's experts in the field.

Book initiates with introductory material to hemodialysis technology and its historical evolution and later on divulging into the field of biomaterials. With this background, the book discusses selection criteria of a suitable biomaterial for synthesis of haemodialysis membranes along with illustration of a complete indigenous, low cost technology for spinning of haemodialysis fibres. Well illustrated description of instruments used for membrane characterization and biomedical engineering is also provided at suitable junctures to effectively present the concept including worked out examples. Present title can be a good textbook as well as a research material for membrane as well as biomedical engineering curricula and provides coverage for appropriate undergraduate and graduate students interested in hemodialysis membranes.

Images from CT, MRI, PET, and other medical instrumentation have become central to the radiotherapy process in the past two decades, thus requiring medical physicists, clinicians, dosimetrists, radiation therapists, and trainees to integrate and segment these images efficiently and accurately in a clinical environment. Image Processing in Radiation Therapy presents an up-to-date, detailed treatment of techniques and algorithms for the registration, segmentation, reconstruction, and evaluation of imaging data. It describes how these tools are used in radiation planning, treatment delivery, and outcomes assessment. The book spans deformable registration, segmentation, and image reconstruction and shows how to incorporate these practices in radiation therapy. The first section explores image processing in adaptive radiotherapy, online monitoring and tracking, dose accumulation, and accuracy assessment. The second section describes the mathematical approach to deformable registration. The book presents similarity metrics used for registration techniques, discussing their effectiveness and applicability in radiation therapy. It also evaluates parametric and nonparametric image registration techniques and their applications in radiation therapy processes. The third section assesses the efficiency, robustness, and breadth of application of image segmentation approaches, including atlas-based, level set, and registration-based techniques. The fourth section focuses on advanced imaging techniques for radiotherapy, such as 3D image reconstruction and image registration using a graphics processor unit. With contributions from an international group of renowned authors, this book provides a comprehensive description of image segmentation and registration, in-room imaging, and advanced reconstruction techniques. Through many practical examples, it illustrates the clinical rationale and implementation of the techniques.

Linear induction accelerators are successfully used as power supplies for numerous devices of relativistic high-frequency electronics. This book addresses ways to solve physical and engineering problems arising in the calculation, design, modeling and operation of linear induction accelerators intended for supplying relativistic microwave devices. It reviews and analyzes both classic and recent studies on the topic of linear induction accelerators (LIA) for generating and amplifying microwave radiation by relativistic devices.

The first book of its kind to highlight the unique capabilities of laser-driven acceleration and its diverse potential, Applications of Laser-Driven Particle Acceleration presents the basic understanding of acceleration concepts and envisioned prospects for selected applications. As the main focus, this new book explores exciting and diverse application possibilities, with emphasis on those uniquely enabled by the laser driver that can also be meaningful and realistic for potential users. It also emphasises distinction, in the accelerator context, between laser-driven accelerated particle sources and the integrated laser-driven particle accelerator system (all-optical and hybrid versions). A key aim of the book is to inform multiple, interdisciplinary research communities of the new possibilities available and to inspire them to engage with laser-driven acceleration, further motivating and advancing this developing field. Material is presented in a thorough yet accessible manner, making it a valuable reference text for general scientific and engineering researchers who are not necessarily subject matter experts. Applications of Laser-Driven Particle Acceleration is edited by Professors Paul R. Bolton, Katia Parodi, and Joerg Schreiber from the Department of Medical Physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen in Munchen, Germany. Features: Reviews the current understanding and state-of-the-art capabilities of laser-driven particle acceleration and associated energetic photon and neutron generation Presents the intrinsically unique features of laser-driven acceleration and particle bunch yields Edited by internationally renowned researchers, with chapter contributions from global experts

The mechanics underlying the form and structure of biological tissues is being increasingly investigated and appreciated, with new results appearing at a fast pace. Cellular Patterns covers the salient elements of this thriving field of research in a textbook style, including both historic landmark results and recent achievements. By building on concepts such as packing, confinement, surface tension, and elastic instabilities, the book explains the structure and the shape of sheet-like and bulk tissues by adapting the mechanics of continuous media to living matter. It reviews experimental results and empirical laws, and wherever possible, it discusses more than a single theoretical interpretation of a given phenomenon. The in-depth treatment of technical details, the many boxes summarizing essential physical and biological ideas, and an extensive set of problems make this book suitable as a complementary textbook for a graduate course in biophysics and as a standalone reference for students and researchers in biophysics, bioengineering, and mathematical biology interested in the mechanics of tissue. Features: Provides an overview of patterns and shapes seen in animal tissues in addition to an interpretation of these structures in terms of physical forces and processes Contains detailed analysis and a critical comparison of mechanical models of cells, tissues, and morphogenetic movements Presents a visually rich style which is accessible to physicists and biologists alike

. Despite their capacity to carry out functions that previously were unobtainable, smart polymers and hydrogels tend to have painfully slow response times. On the other hand biological systems go through phase changes at an extremely fast rate. Reflexive Polymers and Hydrogels examines the natural systems that respond almost instantaneously to environmental stimuli, and thus gives the reader an understanding of the mechanisms that govern these responses. The book includes chapters on approaches and procedures for designing a synthetic ...flash... system based on naturally occurring systems. It also deals with some of the promising potential applications of flash systems in industry.