This text focuses on various factors associated with orphan diseases and the influence and role of health information technologies. Orphan diseases have not been adopted by the pharmaceutical industry because they provide little financial incentive to treat or prevent it. It is estimated that 6,000-7,000 orphan diseases exist today; as medical knowledge continues to expand, this number is likely to become much greater. The book highlights the opportunities and challenges in this increasingly important area. The book explores new avenues which are opened by information technologies and Health 2.0, and highlights also economic opportunities of orphan disease medicine. The editors of this new book have international experience and competencies in the key areas of patient empowerment, healthcare and clinical knowledge management, healthcare inequalities and disparities, rare diseases and patient advocacy.

Recent achievements in hardware and software developments have enabled the introduction of a revolutionary technology: in-memory data management. This technology supports the flexible and extremely fast analysis of massive amounts of data, such as diagnoses, therapies, and human genome data. This book shares the latest research results of applying in-memory data management to personalized medicine, changing it from computational possibility to clinical reality. The authors provide details on innovative approaches to enabling the processing, combination, and analysis of relevant data in real-time. The book bridges the gap between medical experts, such as physicians, clinicians, and biological researchers, and technology experts, such as software developers, database specialists, and statisticians. Topics covered in this book include - amongst others - modeling of genome data processing and analysis pipelines, high-throughput data processing, exchange of sensitive data and protection of intellectual property. Beyond that, it shares insights on research prototypes for the analysis of patient cohorts, topology analysis of biological pathways, and combined search in structured and unstructured medical data, and outlines completely new processes that have now become possible due to interactive data analyses. 

The two volume set LNCS 9043 and 9044 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering, IWBBIO 2015, held in Granada, Spain, in April 2015. The 135 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 268 submissions. The scope of the conference spans the following areas: bioinformatics for healthcare and diseases, biomedical engineering, biomedical image analysis, biomedical signal analysis, computational genomics, computational proteomics, computational systems for modelling biological processes, e Health, next generation sequencing and sequence analysis, quantitative and systems pharmacology, Hidden Markov Model (HMM) for biological sequence modeling, advances in computational intelligence for bioinformatics and biomedicine, tools for next generation sequencing data analysis, dynamics networks in system medicine, interdisciplinary puzzles of measurements in biological systems, biological networks, high performance computing in bioinformatics, computational biology and computational chemistry, advances in drug discovery and ambient intelligence for bio emotional computing.

The two volume set LNCS 9043 and 9044 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering, IWBBIO 2015, held in Granada, Spain in April 2015. The 134 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 268 submissions. The scope of the conference spans the following areas: bioinformatics for healthcare and diseases, biomedical engineering, biomedical image analysis, biomedical signal analysis, computational genomics, computational proteomics, computational systems for modelling biological processes, eHealth, next generation sequencing and sequence analysis, quantitative and systems pharmacology, Hidden Markov Model (HMM) for biological sequence modeling, advances in computational intelligence for bioinformatics and biomedicine, tools for next generation sequencing data analysis, dynamics networks in system medicine, interdisciplinary puzzles of measurements in biological systems, biological networks, high performance computing in bioinformatics, computational biology and computational chemistry, advances in drug discovery and ambient intelligence for bio emotional computing.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Computer Assisted and Robotic Endoscopy, CARE 2015, held in conjunction with MICCAI 2015, in Munich, Germany, in October 2015. The 15 revised full papers were carefully selected out of 20 initial submissions and focus on recent technical advances associated with computer vision; graphics; robotics and medical imaging; external tracking systems; medical device control systems; information processing techniques; endoscopy; planning and simulation.

This unique collection of chapters from world experts on person-centered outcome (PCO) measures addresses the following critical questions: Can individual experiences be represented in measurements that do not reduce unique differences to meaningless uniformity? How person-centric are PCO measures? Are PCO measurements capable of delivering the kind of quality assured quantification required for high-stakes decision making? Are PCO measures likely to support improved health care delivery? Have pivotal clinical studies failed to deliver treatments for diseases because of shortcomings in the PCO measures used? Are these shortcomings primarily matters of precision and meaningfulness? Or is the lack of common languages for communicating outcomes also debilitating to quality improvement, research, and the health care economy? Three key issues form an urgent basis for further investigation. First, the numbers generated by PCO measures are increasingly used as the central dependent variables upon which high stakes decisions are made. The rising profile of PCO measures places new demands for higher quality information from scale and test construction, evaluation, selection, and interpretation. Second, PCO measurement science has well-established lessons to be learned from those who have built and established the science over many decades. Finally, the goal in making a PCO measurement is to inform outcome management. As such, it is vitally important that key stakeholders understand that, over the last half century, developments in psychometrics have refocused measurement on illuminating clinically important individual differences in the context of widely reproduced patterns of variation in health and functioning, comparable scale values for quality improvement, and practical explanatory models. This book's audience includes anyone interested in person-centered care, including healthcare researchers and practitioners, policy makers, pharmaceutical industry representatives, clinicians, patient advocates, and metrologists. This is an open access book.

This book explores the role of cancer stem cells in the diagnosis, treatment, and cure of cancers. This book also tackles novel methodology for cancer stem cell marker identification, cancer stem cell respiration and metabolism, genetic and epigenetic mechanisms including DNA methylation, and mi-RNA assemble. It also emphasizes the role of Bioinformatics techniques, which provide a novel methodology for modeling cancer outcomes. The authors investigate the difference between cancer stem cells and normal stem cells, along with the concept of targeted cancer stem cell therapy. Although the theoretical explanations of cancer stem cell involvement in leukemia and solid cancers are controversial, there is now little doubt that cancer stem cells exist within otherwise heterogeneous cancer cell population. The brief examines the two leading theories, hierarchical and the stochastic/cancer stem cell model. Researchers, professors and advanced-level students focused on bioengineering and computer science will find this book to be a valuable resource. It is a very good source of critical references for understanding of this problem, and a useful tool for professionals in related fields.

This book focuses on the innovative and more critical management approach adopted in the PA (Public Administration) in order to identify and describe the main models and instruments to economically evaluate the decision making process in accordance to the specific conditions such as efficiency, effectiveness, cost and equity. The manuscript pays special attention to this sector by identifying, investigating and applying the main evaluation models (logic and methods) of the decision making process, in particular in terms of investment decisions. In the recent decades, with reference to PA, several managerial approaches have been developed from a business management perspective. These managerial approaches differ in terms of variables analyzed, such as the role of governance or the specific logics and mechanisms applied, but all of them have a common goal, which is the improvement of efficiency, effectiveness, economic and equitable decision making and operations in the PA. This book investigates the different mentioned frameworks adopting a wider and integrated analysis perspective on the evaluation of investments in the health care system.

'Clinical epidemiology' is now widely promoted and taught as a 'basic science' of Evidence-Based Medicine, of clinical EBM to be specific. This book, however, is mostly about that which Miettinen takes to be the necessary substitute for this now-so-fashionable subject - namely, Theory of Clinical Medicine together with its subordinate Theory of Clinical Research. The leit motif in all of this is Miettinen's perception of the need, and opportunity, to bring major improvements into clinical medicine in this Information Age, now that theoretical progress has made feasible the development of practice-guiding Expert Systems for it. Parts of this text constitute essential reading for whoever is expected, or otherwise inclined, to study - or teach - 'clinical epidemiology,' and the same is true of those who set policy for the education of future clinicians; but practically all of it is essential reading for future - and current - academics in the various disciplines of clinical medicine. After all, the text is the result of a concentrated effort, over a half-century no less, to really understand both clinical and community medicine and the research to advance the knowledge-base of these. Research epidemiologists, too, will find this text interesting and instructive.

More than one in six men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime. In recent years there has been an explosion of information regarding PSA screening and biomarkers for the disease. In Prostate Cancer Screening, Second Edition, the world's leading experts on prostate cancer detection update the first edition with the latest findings. The book incorporates a series of thoughtful and cutting-edge works from the world's experts in prostate cancer screening, ranging from the current status quo of prostate cancer screening across the globe to consensus on optimal utilization of the traditional PSA and DRE tests, to cutting-edge research in new biomarkers, biomeasures, and extended risk algorithms for prostate cancer. An additional chapter covers family-based linkage analysis as well as possible pitfalls in prostate cancer biomarker evaluation studies. Timely and authoritative, Prostate Cancer Screening, Second Edition, is an essential text for urologists, oncologists and family physicians, as well as researchers in the biomarker industry who seek methods to better develop and support markers and measures of prostate cancer.

Valuation is a hot topic among life sciences professionals. There is no clear understanding on how to use the different valuation approaches and how to determine input parameters. Some do not value at all, arguing that it is not possible to get realistic and objective numbers out of it. Some claim it to be an art. In the following chapters we will provide the user with a concise val- tion manual, providing transparency and practical insight for all dealing with valuation in life sciences: project and portfolio managers, licensing executives, business developers, technology transfer managers, entrep- neurs, investors, and analysts. The purpose of the book is to explain how to apply discounted cash flow and real options valuation to life sciences p- jects, i.e. to license contracts, patents, and firms. We explain the fun- mentals and the pitfalls with case studies so that the reader is capable of performing the valuations on his own and repeat the theory in the exercises and case studies. The book is structured in five parts: In the first part, the introduction, we discuss the role of the players in the life sciences industry and their p- ticular interests. We describe why valuation is important to them, where they need it, and the current problems to it. The second part deals with the input parameters required for valuation in life sciences, i.e. success rates, costs, peak sales, and timelines.

In den letzten Jahren hat sich der Workshop "Bildverarbeitung fur die Medizin" durch erfolgreiche Veranstaltungen etabliert. Ziel ist auch 2015 wieder die Darstellung aktueller Forschungsergebnisse und die Vertiefung der Gesprache zwischen Wissenschaftlern, Industrie und Anwendern. Die Beitrage dieses Bandes - einige davon in englischer Sprache - umfassen alle Bereiche der medizinischen Bildverarbeitung, insbesondere Bildgebung und -akquisition, Molekulare Bildgebung, Visualisierung und Animation, Bildsegmentierung und - fusion,Sichtbares Licht, Endoskopie, Mikroskoopie, Zeitreihenanalysen, Biomechanische Modellierung, Klinische Anwendung computerunterstutzter Systeme, Validierung und Qualitatssicherung, Virtual / Augmented Reality, Bildgestutzte Roboter, Chirurgische Simulatoren u.v.m.

This book focuses on contemporary technologies and research in computational intelligence that has reached the practical level and is now accessible in preclinical and clinical settings. This book's principal objective is to thoroughly understand significant technological breakthroughs and research results in predictive modeling in healthcare imaging and data analysis. Machine learning and deep learning could be used to fully automate the diagnosis and prognosis of patients in medical fields. The healthcare industry's emphasis has evolved from a clinical-centric to a patient-centric model. However, it is still facing several technical, computational, and ethical challenges. Big data analytics in health care is becoming a revolution in technical as well as societal well-being viewpoints. Moreover, in this age of big data, there is increased access to massive amounts of regularly gathered data from the healthcare industry that has necessitated the development of predictive models and automated solutions for the early identification of critical and chronic illnesses. The book contains high-quality, original work that will assist readers in realizing novel applications and contexts for deep learning architectures and algorithms, making it an indispensable reference guide for academic researchers, professionals, industrial software engineers, and innovative model developers in healthcare industry.

Despite all the jokes about the poor quality of physician handwriting, physician adoption of computerized provider order entry (CPOE) in hospitals still lags behind other industries' use of technology. As of the end of 2010, less than 22% of hospitals had deployed CPOE. Yet experts claim that this technology reduces over 80% of medication errors and could prevent an estimated 522,000 serious medication errors annually in the US. Even though the federal government has offered $20 billion dollars in incentives to hospitals and health systems through the 2009 stimulus (the ARRA HITECH section of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), many organizations are struggling to implement advanced clinical information systems including CPOE. In addition, industry experts estimate that the healthcare industry is lacking as many as 40,000 persons with expertise in clinical informatics necessary to make it all happen by the 2016 deadline for these incentives. While the scientific literature contains numerous studies and stories about CPOE, no one has written a comprehensive, practical guide like Making CPOE Work. While early adopters of CPOE were mainly academic hospitals, community hospitals are now proceeding with CPOE projects and need a comprehensive guide. Making CPOE Work is a book that will provide a concise guide to help both new and experienced health informatics teams successfully plan and implement CPOE. The book, in a narrative style, draws on the author's decade-long experiences of implementing CPOE at a variety of academic, pediatric and community hospitals across the United States.

Concepts and Trends in Healthcare Information Systems covers the latest research topics in the field from leading researchers and practitioners. This book offers theory-driven research that explores the role of Information Systems in the delivery of healthcare in its diverse organizational and regulatory settings. In addition to the embedded role of Information Technology (IT) in clinical and diagnostics equipment, Information Systems are uniquely positioned to capture, store, process, and communicate timely information to decision makers for better coordination of healthcare at both the individual and population levels. For example, data mining and decision support capabilities can identify potential adverse events for an individual patient while also contributing to the population s health by providing insights into the causes of disease complications.Information systems have great potential to reduce healthcare costs and improve outcomes. The healthcare delivery systems share similar characteristics with most service and productive organizations, but also exhibit specific characteristics, which are related to the complexity and diversity of healthcare production, including the dissimilar ways healthcare professionals discharge their clinical tasks. New requirements and technological advances occurring in healthcare, information systems, and information technology have influenced the evolving role of healthcare information systems and related technology, and this book will help bring the field up to date."

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th IAPR International Conference on Pattern Recognition in Bioinformatics, PRIB 2014, held in Stockholm, Sweden in August 2014. The 9 revised full papers and 9 revised short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 29 submissions. The focus of the conference was on the latest Research in Pattern Recognition and Computational Intelligence-Based Techniques Applied to Problems in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.

Over the next few years, the Connecting for Health IT programme for the NHS in England is due to implement electronic prescribing systems at all hospitals in England. Furthermore, the other UK countries are likely to follow suit with clinical IT implementation programmes, and these developments will generate interest in electronic prescribing at European and international level. There is therefore likely to be an exponential growth in the significance of electronic prescribing over the next ten years. Principles of Electronic Prescribing discusses the basic principles of design and implementation of secondary care electronic medicines management systems, and how their design and configuration can impact on benefits realization, hospital workflow and clinical practice.

The three-volume set LNCS 8673, 8674, and 8675 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2014, held in Boston, MA, USA, in September 2014. Based on rigorous peer reviews, the program committee carefully selected 253 revised papers from 862 submissions for presentation in three volumes. The 100 papers included in the second volume have been organized in the following topical sections: biophysical modeling and simulation; atlas-based transfer of boundary conditions for biomechanical simulation; temporal and motion modeling; computer-aided diagnosis; pediatric imaging; endoscopy; ultrasound imaging; machine learning; cardiovascular imaging; intervention planning and guidance; and brain.

The three-volume set LNCS 8673, 8674, and 8675 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2014, held in Boston, MA, USA, in September 2014. Based on rigorous peer reviews, the program committee carefully selected 253 revised papers from 862 submissions for presentation in three volumes. The 53 papers included in the third volume have been organized in the following topical sections: shape and population analysis; brain; diffusion MRI; and machine learning.

The three-volume set LNCS 8673, 8674, and 8675 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2014, held in Boston, MA, USA, in September 2014. Based on rigorous peer reviews, the program committee carefully selected 253 revised papers from 862 submissions for presentation in three volumes. The 100 papers included in the first volume have been organized in the following topical sections: microstructure imaging; image reconstruction and enhancement; registration; segmentation; intervention planning and guidance; oncology; and optical imaging.

This book provides a broad overview of the topic Bioinformatics with focus on data, information and knowledge. From data acquisition and storage to visualization, ranging through privacy, regulatory and other practical and theoretical topics, the author touches several fundamental aspects of the innovative interface between Medical and Technology domains that is Biomedical Informatics. Each chapter starts by providing a useful inventory of definitions and commonly used acronyms for each topic and throughout the text, the reader finds several real-world examples, methodologies and ideas that complement the technical and theoretical background. This new edition includes new sections at the end of each chapter, called "future outlook and research avenues," providing pointers to future challenges. At the beginning of each chapter a new section called "key problems", has been added, where the author discusses possible traps and unsolvable or major problems.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-conference proceedings of the Third International Symposium on Foundations of Health Information Engineering and Systems, FHIES 2013, held in Macau, China, in August 2013. The 19 revised full papers presented together with 1 invited talk in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 22 submissions. The papers are organized in following subjects: panel position statements, pathways, generation and certification, interoperability, patient safety, device safety, formal methods and HIV/AIDS and privacy.

The rate at which toxicological data is generated is continually becoming more rapid and the volume of data generated is growing dramatically. This is due in part to advances in software solutions and cheminformatics approaches which increase the availability of open data from chemical, biological and toxicological and high throughput screening resources. However, the amplified pace and capacity of data generation achieved by these novel techniques presents challenges for organising and analysing data output. Big Data in Predictive Toxicology discusses these challenges as well as the opportunities of new techniques encountered in data science. It addresses the nature of toxicological big data, their storage, analysis and interpretation. It also details how these data can be applied in toxicity prediction, modelling and risk assessment. This title is of particular relevance to researchers and postgraduates working and studying in the fields of computational methods, applied and physical chemistry, cheminformatics, biological sciences, predictive toxicology and safety and hazard assessment.

The three-volume set LNCS 8149, 8150, and 8151 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2013, held in Nagoya, Japan, in September 2013. Based on rigorous peer reviews, the program committee carefully selected 262 revised papers from 789 submissions for presentation in three volumes. The 81 papers included in the third volume have been organized in the following topical sections: image reconstruction and motion modeling; machine learning in medical image computing; imaging, reconstruction, and enhancement; segmentation; physiological modeling, simulation, and planning; intraoperative guidance and robotics; microscope, optical imaging, and histology; diffusion MRI; brain segmentation and atlases; and functional MRI and neuroscience applications.