A midwife is responsible for recording the progress of labour on a partograph or partogram. The partograph helps caregivers detect whether labour is progressing normally or not, indicates when augmentation of labour is appropriate and assists in recognising potential problems before they occur. Each title covers one important topic, and has been written by a specialist in that field. The series follows a consistent format and covers issues such as key ethical and legal considerations, relevant legislation, case studies, and practical applications. These concise, accessible texts will be suitable for accreditation when continuing professional development becomes a requirement

This book strips away the misconceptions about medical care for arthritis and reveals a safer and more effective treatment.
If you are one of the millions of people suffering from Arthritis, this could be the most important book you ever own. On the surface, The Laser's Edge appears to be about a new and advanced arthritis treatment, but it goes much deeper than that.
Arthritis is the leading cause of disability in the United States. Two out of three Americans will develop arthritis symptoms and just about all of them will go to their medical doctor first.
This practice increases health care costs and exposes patients to the hidden dangers of today's health care system, unnecessarily. Among the very real dangers is death: 106,000 patients die every year from non-error, adverse effects of prescription drugs and there are 12,000 deaths a year as a result of unnecessary surgeries.
The Laser's Edge will open your eyes to an entirely new way of treating arthritis without the risks of addictive medications, steroid shots or surgery. It provides hope for anyone who has been suffering from pain, and suffering from the experience of going to specialist after specialist without relief. The revolutionary treatment outlined in this book has helped countless patients avoid risky surgery and eliminate the need to take dangerous drugs.
This book has the potential to change, maybe even save, your life.

Most current applications of biomaterials involve structural functions, even in those organs and systems that are not primarily structural in their nature, or very simple chemical or electrical functions. Complex chemical functions, such as those of the liver, and complex electrical or electrochemical functions, such as those of the brain and sense organs, cannot be carried out by biomaterials at this time. With these basic concepts in mind, Biomaterials: Principles and Practices focuses on biomaterials consisting of different materials such as metallic, ceramic, polymeric, and composite. It highlights the impact of recent advances in the area of nano- and microtechnology on biomaterial design. Discusses the biocompatibility of metallic implants and corrosion in an in vivo environment Provides a general overview of the relatively bioinert, bioactive or surface-reactive ceramics, and biodegradable or resorbable bioceramics Reviews the basic chemical and physical properties of synthetic polymers, the sterilization of the polymeric biomaterials, the importance of the surface treatment for improving biocompatibility, and the application of the chemogradient surface for the study on cell-to-polymer interactions Covers the fundamentals of composite materials and their applications in biomaterials Highlights commercially significant and successful biomedical biodegradable polymers Examines failure modes of different types of implants based on material, location, and function in the body The book discusses the role of biomaterials as governed by the interaction between the material and the body, specifically, the effect of the body environment on the material and the effect of the material on the body.

The book collects the contributions to the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Speech Recognition and Understanding: Recent Advances, Trends and Applications", held in Cetraro, Italy, during the first two weeks of July 1990. This Institute focused on three topics that are considered of particular interest and rich of i'p.novation by researchers in the fields of speech recognition and understanding: Advances in Hidden Markov modeling, connectionist approaches to speech and language modeling, and linguistic processing including language and dialogue modeling. The purpose of any ASI is that of encouraging scientific communications between researchers of NATO countries through advanced tutorials and presentations: excellent tutorials were offered by invited speakers that present in this book 15 papers which sum marize or detail the topics covered in their lectures. The lectures were complemented by discussions, panel sections and by the presentation of related works carried on by some of the attending researchers: these presentations have been collected in 42 short contributions to the Proceedings. This volume, that the reader can find useful for an overview, although incomplete, of the state of the art in speech understanding, is divided into 6 Parts.

This book comprehensively covers a broad range of therapeutic and diagnostic applications of nanotechnology and explains these fields in such a way as to keep the reader 's interest with descriptions of cutting-edge discoveries along with historical perspectives. The text is devoted to the basic principles of nanotechnology, focusing on nanomaterials and nanoparticles, as with respect to the whole of nanoscience, these sectors hold the most promise for the future of medicine. The book progresses rapidly to focus on nanomedicine as it applies to current and future society.

Boron has made a significant impact in our lives through its quiet use in fertilizers, fungicides, soaps, detergents, and heat-resistant glassware. Boron Science: New Technologies and Applications addresses the applications of boron in chemistry, industry, medicine, and pharmacology by explaining its role in problems such as catalysis and hydroboration as well as its use in superconductors, materials, magnetic/nonmagnetic nanoparticles, and medical applications including cancer therapy. Illustrating the practical versatility of boron, the 29 chapters are divided into seven major sections: Boron for Living: Medicine Boron for Living: Health and Nutrition Boron for Living: Radioisotope Boron for Living: Boron Neutron Capture Therapy Boron for Electronics: Optoelectronics Boron for Energy: Energy Storage, Space, and Other Applications Boron for Chemistry and Catalysis: Catalysis and Organic Transformations More than just an updated compilation of progress in the applied science of boron, this book is a tribute to the legions of workers who have spent years conducting groundbreaking studies. The book celebrates these scientists and their proteges, who together transformed boron science into the exciting and growing area it is today.

This textbook provides a detailed resource introducing the subdiscipline of mental health informatics. It systematically reviews the methods, paradigms, tools and knowledge base in both clinical and bioinformatics and across the spectrum from research to clinical care. Key foundational technologies, such as terminologies, ontologies and data exchange standards are presented and given context within the complex landscape of mental health conditions, research and care. The learning health system model is utilized to emphasize the bi-directional nature of the translational science associated with mental health processes. Descriptions of the data, technologies, paradigms and products that are generated by and used in each process and their limitations are discussed. Mental Health Informatics: Enabling a Learning Mental Healthcare System is a comprehensive introductory resource for students, educators and researchers in mental health informatics and related behavioral sciences. It is an ideal resource for use in a survey course for both pre- and post-doctoral training programs, as well as for healthcare administrators, funding entities, vendors and product developers working to make mental healthcare more evidence-based.

A difficult and recalcitrant phenomenon, medical error causes pervasive and expensive problems in terms of patient injury, ineffective treatment, and rising healthcare costs. Simple heightened awareness can help, but it requires organized, effective remedies and countermeasures that are reasonable, acceptable, and adaptable to see a truly significant drop in the intolerable rate of medical mistakes. Only with better understanding, knowledge, and directed techniques can there be rapid and marked improvement in medical error management discipline. Since medical error is situation specific and involves diverse variables in equipment, environment, and human performance, the correct choice of preventive and corrective techniques is critical. Providing a wealth of useful ideas, concepts, and techniques, Medical Error and Patient Safety: Human Factors in Medicine uses abroad perspective to present more than 500 remedies that can be applied and tailored to your unique circumstances. This detailed review of so many measures enables you to correctly identify needs and undertake appropriate actions to achieve a success that can be measured in avoided injuries, improved healthcare, and reduced cost. Thought provoking and useful, this book considers the potential for error and the possibility for improvement in every aspect of healthcare. After an introduction to general concepts and approaches, it examines vulnerabilities in medical services, including emergency services, healthcare facilities, and infection control. It covers risks in medical devices and product design; human factors such as fatigue and stress; management errors; errors in communication at all levels of the healthcare hierarchy; as well as mistakes in drug delivery including faulty labels and warnings. The authors also compare and contrast several analytical methods, their interpretation, and their translation into a plan of action.

The Handbook of Electrogastrography is the first textbook dedicated to reviewing the physiology of gastric myelectrical activity and the measurement of this electrical activity with electrodes placed on the abdominal surface - the electrogastrogram. The Handbook is divided into three major sections. The first section (Chapters 1-3) focuses on the history of electrogastrography, electrical activity of the interstitial cells of Cajal, the cells from which gastric electrical rhythmicity emanates. The cellular level of gastric electrical rhythmicity provides an understanding of the physiological basis of the electrogastrogram signal.

The second major section of the book (Chapters 4-6) incorporates the practical aspects of recording a high quality electrogastrogram and approaches to the analysis of the electrogastrogram using visual inspection and computer techniques. This section focuses on the authors' combined experience of examining EGG recordings for more than sixty years. From this rich research and clinical experience, the clinical application of EGG recordings in an approach to patients with unexplained nausea and vomiting is described. Neuromuscular disorders of the stomach involving gastric dysrhythmias are reviewed.

The third major section of the book (Chapters 7-9) comprises many examples of gastric dysrythmias ranging from bradygastrias to tachygastrias and mixed dysrythmias. Current understanding of the mechanisms of gastric dysrhythmias is reviewed. Artifacts in the EGG signal, which may be confused with gastric dysrhythmias, are also presented.

The Handbook of Electrogastrography will be a valuable reference for physicians interested in recording gastric electrical activity in clinical practices or in clinical research. Gastroenterologists, internists, psychologists and others with an interest in gastric myoelectrical events will also find extensive and relevant information for recording and interpreting EGGs in the Handbook.

This completely updated study guide textbook is written to support the formal training required to become certified in clinical informatics. The content has been extensively overhauled to introduce and define key concepts using examples drawn from real-world experiences in order to impress upon the reader the core content from the field of clinical informatics. The book groups chapters based on the major foci of the core content: health care delivery and policy; clinical decision-making; information science and systems; data management and analytics; leadership and managing teams; and professionalism. The chapters do not need to be read or taught in order, although the suggested order is consistent with how the editors have structured their curricula over the years. Clinical Informatics Study Guide: Text and Review serves as a reference for those seeking to study for a certifying examination independently or periodically reference while in practice. This includes physicians studying for board examination in clinical informatics as well as the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) health informatics certification. This new edition further refines its place as a roadmap for faculty who wish to go deeper in courses designed for physician fellows or graduate students in a variety of clinically oriented informatics disciplines, such as nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, radiology, health administration and public health.

The updated edition of the first of three volumes on Medical Physics focuses even more on body systems related to physical principles such as body mechanics, energy balance, and action potentials. Thanks to numerous newly incorporated didactic features, the introductory text into the broad fi eld of medical physics is easy to understand and supports self-study. New: highlighted boxes emphasize special topics; math boxes explain more advanced mathematical issues; each chapter concludes with a summary of the key concepts, questions, a self-assessment of the acquired competence, and exercises. The appendix contains answers to questions and solutions to exercises.

The updated edition of the second of three volumes on Medical Physics presents modern physical methods for medical diagnostics. It provides a solid background on imaging techniques that use non-ionizing probes (ultrasound, endoscopy including CLE and OCT, MRI) and imaging techniques that use ionizing radiation (X-ray radiography, CT, SPECT, PET). Radiation sources, interactions of radiation with matter and radiation protection for x-rays, -rays, protons and neutrons are presented. Some of these topics are also relevant to the therapeutic applications presented in Volume 3. NEW: highlighted boxes emphasize specifi c topics; math boxes explain more advanced mathematical issues; each chapter concludes with a summary of the key concepts, questions, a self-assessment of the acquired competence and exercises. The appendix provides answers to questions and solutions to exercises.

Bioengineering is the application of physical sciences and mathematics to the study of living organisms and structures. This book introduces the student to the physical processes and engineering aspects of a systems performance both under normal and abnormal conditions, and helps them to design, develop and use diagnostic or artificial devices to measure, improve, safeguard or replace life functions.

The mechanical properties of cells can be used to distinguish pathological from normal cells and tissues in many diseases. This book will outline the physics behind cell and tissue mechanics, describe the methods which can be used to determine their mechanical properties, and present various diseases in which a mechanical fingerprint could be established. The book is designed to not require a background in either Physics or Life Sciences.

This new book explores the rapidly expanding applications of spatial analysis, GIS and remote sensing in the health sciences, and medical geography.

This volume thoroughly describes the fundamentals of a new multidisciplinary field of study that aims to deepen our understanding of the human body by combining medical image processing, mathematical analysis, and artificial intelligence. Multidisciplinary Computational Anatomy (MCA) offers an advanced diagnosis and therapeutic navigation system to help detect or predict human health problems from the micro-level to macro-level using a four-dimensional, dynamic approach to human anatomy: space, time, function, and pathology. Applying this dynamic and "living" approach in the clinical setting will promote better planning for - and more accurate, effective, and safe implementation of - medical management. Multidisciplinary Computational Anatomy will appeal not only to clinicians but also to a wide readership in various scientific fields such as basic science, engineering, image processing, and biomedical engineering. All chapters were written by respected specialists and feature abundant color illustrations. Moreover, the findings presented here share new insights into unresolved issues in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, and into the healthy human body.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Biomimetic and Biohybrid Systems, Living Machines 2022, held as virtual event, in July 19-22, 2022. The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 crisis. The 30 full papers and 8 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 48 submissions. They deal with research on novel life-like technologies inspired by the scientific investigation of biological systems; biomimetics; and research that seeks to interface biological and artificial systems to create biohybrid systems.

Design Engineering and Science teaches the theory and practice of axiomatic design (AD). It explains the basics of how to conceive and deliver solutions to a variety of design problems. The text shows how a logical framework and scientific basis for design can generate creative solutions in many fields, including engineering, materials, organizations, and a variety of large systems. Learning to apply the systematic methods advocated by AD, a student can construct designs that lead to better environmental sustainability and to increased quality of life for the end-user at the same time reducing the overall cost of the product development process. Examples of previous innovations that take advantage of AD methods include: * on-line electric vehicle design for electric buses with wireless power supply; * mobile harbors that allow unloading of large ships in shallow waters; * microcellular plastics with enhanced toughness and lower weight; and * organizational changes in companies and universities resulting in more efficient and competitive ways of working. The book is divided into two parts. Part I provides detailed and thorough instruction in the fundamentals of design, discussing why design is so important. It explains the relationship between and the selection of functional requirements, design parameters and process variables, and the representation of design outputs. Part II presents multiple applications of AD, including examples from manufacturing, healthcare, and materials processing. Following a course based on this text students learn to create new products and design bespoke manufacturing systems. They will gain insight into how to create imaginative design solutions that satisfy customer needs and learn to avoid introducing undue complexity into their designs. This informative text provides practical and academic insight for engineering design students and will help instructors teach the subject in a novel and more rigorous fashion. Their knowledge of AD will stand former students in good stead in the workplace as these methods are both taught and used in many leading industrial concerns.

Regional anaesthesia is currently undergoing a renaissance in paediatric anaesthetic practice, particularly in day case surgery, for post-operative pain relief and in ex-premature babies. However, most practical textbooks of local anaesthetic technique are not written with small children, and particularly newborn infants, in mind.

This practical manual has been designed to aid both those aiming to refresh their knowledge of the techniques of regional anaesthesia in babies and children, and those learning these methods for the first time. Whilst it is not intended as a substitute for direct trainig by experts, its clear and concise text and simple diagrams make it an ideal companion to 'hands on' training in the operating theatre. Both authors have extensive experience of teaching anaestheitc trainees.

The two introductory chapters of this book describe the relevant pharmacological and biological differences between infants, children and adults, and the general practical aspects of regional anaesthesia. The book is then divided into sections describing the nerve blocks of the major anatomical regions of the body. The descriptions of the different blocks can be read independently and include the relevant anatomy, indications, specific contraindictions, equipment, drugs and dosages, Each description concludes with a step-by-step guide to the block illustrated with photographs and simple diagrams.

Healthcare has recently seen numerous exciting applications of artificial intelligence, industrial engineering, and operations research. This book, designed to be accessible to a diverse audience, provides an overview of interdisciplinary research partnerships that leverage AI, IE, and OR to tackle societal and operational problems in healthcare. The topics are drawn from a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from optimizing the location of AEDs for cardiac arrests to data mining for facilitating patient flow through a hospital. These applications highlight how engineering has contributed to medical knowledge, health system operations, and behavioral health. Chapter authors include medical doctors, policy-makers, social scientists, and engineers. Each chapter begins with a summary of the health care problem and engineering method. In these examples, researchers in public health, medicine, and social science as well as engineers will find a path to start interdisciplinary collaborations in health applications of AI/IE/OR.

This unique book comprehensively reviews how information technology is changing cardiovascular medical practice. Chapters include a wide range of topics from specific technologies and virtual care education to large system implementation. Extensive illustrative material and specific case studies are included throughout to reinforce key concepts and enable the reader to develop an understanding of how information technology is impacting medical practice. Health equity, medicolegal ethics, and regulatory considerations are also covered. Healthcare Information Technology for Cardiovascular Medicine: Telemedicine & Digital Health provides a foundation for better understanding how these technologies impact cardiovascular care delivery. Its comprehensive analysis enables healthcare providers and other stakeholders to enhance clinical practice through digital health implementation.

This book highlights the analytics and optimization issues in healthcare systems, proposes new approaches, and presents applications of innovative approaches in real facilities. In the past few decades, there has been an exponential rise in the application of swarm intelligence techniques for solving complex and intricate problems arising in healthcare. The versatility of these techniques has made them a favorite among scientists and researchers working in diverse areas. The primary objective of this book is to bring forward thorough, in-depth, and well-focused developments of hybrid variants of swarm intelligence algorithms and their applications in healthcare systems.

This book focuses on recent advances and different research areas in multi-modal data fusion under healthcare informatics and seeks out theoretical, methodological, well-established and validated empirical work dealing with these different topics. This book brings together the latest industrial and academic progress, research, and development efforts within the rapidly maturing health informatics ecosystem. Contributions highlight emerging data fusion topics that support prospective healthcare applications. The book also presents various technologies and concerns regarding energy aware and secure sensors and how they can reduce energy consumption in health care applications. It also discusses the life cycle of sensor devices and protocols with the help of energy-aware design, production, and utilization, as well as the Internet of Things technologies such as tags, sensors, sensing networks, and Internet technologies. In a nutshell, this book gives a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art theories and techniques for massive data handling and access in medical data and smart health in IoT, and provides useful guidelines for the design of massive Internet of Medical Things.

This book presents innovative solutions utilising informatics to deal with various issues related to the COVID-19 outbreak. The book offers a collection of contemporary research and development on the management of Covid-19 using health data analytics, information exchange, knowledge sharing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and the Internet of Everything (IoE)-based solutions. The book also analyses the implementation, assessment, adoption, and management of these healthcare informatics solutions to manage the pandemic and future epidemics. The book is relevant to researchers, professors, students, and professionals in informatics and related topics.