We live in a "metric culture" where data, algorithms, and numbers play an unmistakably powerful role in defining, shaping and ruling the world we inhabit. Increasingly, governments across the globe are turning towards metric technologies to find solutions for managing various social domains such as healthcare and education. While private corporations are becoming more and more interested in the collection and analysis of data and metrics for profit generation and service optimisation. What is striking about this metric culture is that not only are governments and private companies the only actors interested in using metrics and data to control and manage individuals and populations, but individuals themselves are now choosing to voluntarily quantify themselves and their lives more than ever before, happily sharing the resulting data with others and actively turning themselves into projects of (self-) governance and surveillance. Metric Culture is also not only about data and numbers alone but links to issues of power and control, to questions of value and agency, and to expressions of self and identity. This book provides a critical investigation into these issues examining what is driving the agenda of metric culture and how it is manifested in the different spheres of everyday life through self-tracking practices. Authors engage with a broad range of topics, examples, geographical contexts, and sites of analysis in order to account for the diversity and hybridity of metric culture and explore its various social, political and ethical implications.

In these hard times of global financial peril and growing social inequality, injuries to dignity are pervasive. "Indignity has many faces," one man told Nora Jacobson as she conducted interviews for this book. Its expressions range from rudeness, indifference, and condescension to objectification, discrimination, and exploitation. Yet dignity can also be promoted. Another man described it as "common respect," suggesting dignity's ordinariness, and the ways we can create and share it through practices like courtesy, leveling, and contribution.

"Dignity and Health" examines the processes and structures of dignity violation and promotion, traces their consequences for individual and collective health, and uses the model developed to imagine how we might reform our systems of health and social care.

With its focus on the dignity experiences of those often excluded from the mainstream--people who are poor, or homeless, or dealing with mental health problems--as well as on vulnerabilities like age or sickness or unemployment that threaten to make us all feel "less than," "Dignity and Health" recognizes dignity as a moral matter embedded in the choices we make every day.

Medical errors kill 98,000 patients per year in the United States. But you, the patient, can play a crucial role in preventing these mistakes by fully educating yourself about your own health. According to author and medical doctor Sheldon Cohen, the best way to secure this information is to get a comprehensive medical examination. "The Patient's Guide to the Complete Medical Examination and the Prevention of Medical Errors" is the perfect tool to help you take charge of your health as you attempt to navigate through the United States' overburdened health-care system. Filled with essential information on what an examination should entail, Cohen reveals several key points you need to discuss with your doctor. These include your complete medical history, the functioning of each organ system, and laboratory data. Once armed with your personal health information, you will be in a position to reduce your risk for medical error and live a longer, healthier life.

During emergency situations, society relies upon the efficient response time and effective services of emergency facilities that include fire departments, law enforcement, search and rescue, and emergency medical services (EMS). As such, it is imperative that emergency crews are outfitted with technologies that can cut response time and can also predict where such events may occur and prevent them from happening. The safety of first responders is also of paramount concern. New tools can be implemented to map areas of vulnerability for emergency responders, and new strategies can be devised in their training to ensure that they are conditioned to respond efficiently to an emergency and also conscious of best safety protocols. Improving the Safety and Efficiency of Emergency Services: Emerging Tools and Technologies for First Responders addresses the latest tools that can support first responders in their ultimate goal: delivering their patients to safety. It also explores how new techniques and devices can support first responders in their work by addressing their safety, alerting them to accidents in real time, connecting them with medical experts to improve the chances of survival of critical patients, predicting criminal and terrorist activity, locating missing persons, and allocating resources. Highlighting a range of topics such as crisis management, medical/fire emergency warning systems, and predictive policing technologies, this publication is an ideal reference source for law enforcement, emergency professionals, medical professionals, EMTs, fire departments, government officials, policymakers, IT consultants, technology developers, academicians, researchers, and students.

This unique book covers the latest developments in coupling and decoupling of biomolecules containing functionalized carbohydrate components, being one of the first collections in this important area of applied medicinal chemistry. Connecting molecules, often referred as bio-conjugation, has become one of the most often performed procedures in modern medicinal chemistry. Sometimes, when the connected molecules are not useful anymore, they must be disconnected. The molecules that must be connected (coupled) may belong to both small and large molecules and include such constructs as glycoproteins, glycopeptides and glycans. In this work, more than 15 experts address a comprehensive range of potential and current uses of in vitro and in vivo bio-conjugation methodologies, leading to a variety of glycoconjugates. The analytical aspects of bio-conjugation are also here discussed. Medicinal and organic chemists from graduate level onwards will understand the appeal of this important book.

Until the age of four, Irene Snow lived happily with her mother and gentle, doting grandparents. The return of her father, a rough and tough soldier, at the close of World War II set the stage for rebellion and dissention in her young life. He was a strict disciplinarian, and she resented his authority from the outset. What's more his arrival introduced her to the baser emotions of jealousy and hatred, which were previously beyond her ken as the reigning princess in Grandma's house.

As she grew older, her life became a search to regain the pedestal she lost, no matter what it took. As a young woman, she fell in love with a married German and had his child out of wedlock. Aware of her father's deep and abiding enmity for "the enemy," she reveled in his displeasure; he in turn vowed to disown his grandchild. Irene's seven-year love affair ended with her marriage to a Canadian widower, but her wedding was closely followed by a tragedy that ignited her darker emotions and eventually brought her to a nervous breakdown, psychosis, and utter darkness.

She turned to the field of psychology in the hope it might shed light on her self-defeating behavior. While her studies provided many answers, they did not lead to peace. Finally, she embarked upon a spiritual journey that led her to "A Course in Miracles." Once she began to reach out with love, her life changed dramatically.

Early in 2008, doing ordinary, mundane things like tying his shoes and walking up steps literally took author Jim Uhrig's breath away. He had trouble breathing, and it seemed as though he could never catch his breath. That was the beginning of a long journey for Uhrig, who shares his story in Partners 4 Life. In this memoir, he narrates the path his life took after being diagnosed with the incurable idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and undergoing a subsequent lung transplant in April of 2009. Uhrig not only discusses his diagnosis and treatment, but also places special emphasis on the partners-from his personal life, his business, and his sports activities-who provided him with inspiration and help and played an integral role in his survival. He includes his partners in medicine, the donor and her family, caregivers, and special angels. Uhrig's story relates how he tackled his lung disease and transplant with the same fervor he lived life. Partners 4 Life communicates the saving grace of an organ transplant as well as the power of positive thinking.

Health Professionals' Education in the Age of Clinical Information Systems, Mobile Computing and Social Networks addresses the challenges posed by information and communication technology to health professionals' education, and the lessons learned from field experiences and research. This book is divided in three parts: "the changing landscape of information and communication technology in health care", in which it discusses how information and communication technology is transforming health care and the implications of these changes for health professions education; "experiences from the field", with real-life examples of health professionals' education in and for the digital era; and "evaluation of students and programs", addressing the use of technology to assess learners as well as the complexity of evaluating programs to enhance competence in an information technology-rich health care world Written by leading researchers from different parts of the world, the book is a valuable source for educators and professionals who are active or wish to be part of the health informatics field.

Modern meta-analyses do more than combine the effect sizes of a series of similar studies. Meta-analyses are currently increasingly applied for any analysis beyond the primary analysis of studies, and for the analysis of big data. This 26-chapter book was written for nonmathematical professionals of medical and health care, in the first place, but, in addition, for anyone involved in any field involving scientific research. The authors have published over twenty innovative meta-analyses from the turn of the century till now. This edition will review the current state of the art, and will use for that purpose the methodological aspects of the authors' own publications, in addition to other relevant methodological issues from the literature. Are there alternative works in the field? Yes, there are, particularly in the field of psychology. Psychologists have invented meta-analyses in 1970, and have continuously updated methodologies. Although very interesting, their work, just like the whole discipline of psychology, is rather explorative in nature, and so is their focus to meta-analysis. Then, there is the field of epidemiologists. Many of them are from the school of angry young men, who publish shocking news all the time, and JAMA and other publishers are happy to publish it. The reality is, of course, that things are usually not as bad as they seem. Finally, some textbooks, written by professional statisticians, tend to use software programs with miserable menu programs and requiring lots of syntax to be learnt. This is prohibitive to clinical and other health professionals. The current edition is the first textbook in the field of meta-analysis entirely written by two clinical scientists, and it consists of many data examples and step by step analyses, mostly from the authors' own clinical research.

Traces the establishment of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow as a licensing body to its eminence as a centre of teaching in the 18th century. The text then covers the subsequent decline of the college in the 19th century with an account of how, in conjunction with Glasgow University, it re-established itself as the guarantor of high medical standards of learning and practice.

Traces the establishment of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow as a licensing body to its eminence as a centre of teaching in the 18th century. The text then covers the subsequent decline of the college in the 19th century with an account of how, in conjunction with Glasgow University, it re-established itself as the guarantor of high medical standards of learning and practice.