This unifying volume offers a clear theoretical framework for the research shaping the emerging direction of informatics in health care. Contributors ground the reader in the basics of informatics methodology and design, including creating salient research questions, and explore the human dimensions of informatics in studies detailing how patients perceive, respond to, and use health data. Real-world examples bridge the theoretical and the practical as knowledge management-based solutions are applied to pervasive issues in information technologies and service delivery. Together, these articles illustrate the scope of health possibilities for informatics, from patient care management to hospital administration, from improving patient satisfaction to expanding the parameters of practice. Highlights of the coverage:* Design science research opportunities in health care * IS/IT governance in health care: an integrative model * Persuasive technologies and behavior modification through technology: design of a mobile application for behavior change * The development of a hospital secure messaging and communication platform: a conceptualization * The development of intelligent patient-centric systems for health care * An investigation on integrating Eastern and Western medicine with informatics Interest in Theories to Inform Superior Health Informatics Research and Practice cuts across academia and the healthcare industry. Its audience includes healthcare professionals, physicians and other clinicians, practicing informaticians, hospital administrators, IT departments, managers, and management consultants, as well as scholars, researchers, and students in health informatics and public health.

This book is specifically designed to serve the community of postgraduates and researchers in the fields of epidemiology, health GIS, medical geography, and health management. It starts with the basic concepts and role of remote sensing, GIS in Kala-azar diseases. The book gives an exhaustive coverage of Satellite data, GPS, GIS, spatial and attribute data modeling, and geospatial analysis of Kala-azar diseases. It also presents the modern trends of remote sensing and GIS in health risk assessment with an illustrated discussion on its numerous applications.

This book provides a pioneering approach to modeling the human diabetic patient using a software agent. It is based on two MASc (Master of Applied Science) theses: one looking at the evolution of the patient agent in time, and another looking the interaction of the patient agent with the healthcare system. It shows that the software agent evolves in a manner analogous to the human patient and exhibits typical attributes of the illness such as reacting to food consumption, medications, and activity. This agent model can be used in a number of different ways, including as a prototype for a specific human patient with the purpose of helping to identify when that patient's condition deviates from normal variations. The software agent can also be used to study the interaction between the human patient and the health care system. This book is of interest to anyone involved in the management of diabetic patients or in societal research into the management of diabetes. The diabetic patient agent was developed using the Ackerman model for diabetes, but this model can be easily adapted for any other model subject with the necessary physiological data to support that model.

A thought-provoking series that chronicles the discussions, disputes, and debates that have divided scientists and advanced science through the ages. The origins of humanity? The causes of homosexuality? Experimentation on humans and animals? In both theory and practice, science is riven by controversy. Always has been, always will be. Controversies in Science reveals the history of humanity's disputatious pursuit of truth-the passions, the polemics, and the partisanship. ABC-CLIO's Controversies in Science series examines some of the greatest debates in the history of science's quest for truth. Edited by top scientists, philosophers, and historians, the titles explore fields as diverse as cosmology, genetics, evolution, psychiatry, and the fascinating and speculative study of extraterrestrial biology. Who are we? Where do we come from? And what limits should we place on the pursuit of answers to these questions? The truth is out there. But what routes have we taken? What routes should we take? Controversies in Science offers a road map.

This book presents the theoretical foundations of Systems Biology, as well as its application in studies on human hosts, pathogens and associated diseases. This book presents several chapters written by renowned experts in the field. Some topics discussed in depth in this book include: computational modeling of multiresistant bacteria, systems biology of cancer, systems immunology, networks in systems biology.

Medical decision support systems (MDSS) are computer-based programs that analyse data within a patient's healthcare records to provide questions, prompts, or reminders to assist clinicians at the point of care. Inputting a patient's data, symptoms, or current treatment regimens into an MDSS, clinicians are assisted with the identification or elimination of the most likely potential medical causes, which can enable faster discovery of a set of appropriate diagnoses or treatment plans. Explainable AI (XAI) is a "white box" model of artificial intelligence in which the results of the solution can be understood by the users, who can see an estimate of the weighted importance of each feature on the model's predictions, and understand how the different features interact to arrive at a specific decision. This book discusses XAI-based analytics for patient-specific MDSS as well as related security and privacy issues associated with processing patient data. It provides insights into real-world scenarios of the deployment, application, management, and associated benefits of XAI in MDSS. The book outlines the frameworks for MDSS and explores the applicability, prospects, and legal implications of XAI for MDSS. Applications of XAI in MDSS such as XAI for robot-assisted surgeries, medical image segmentation, cancer diagnostics, and diabetes mellitus and heart disease prediction are explored.

Regular developments in technology continue to influence the medical and healthcare fields as they interact with information and computer sciences by methods of acquisition and the storage and retrieval of information. Methods, Models, and Computation for Medical Informatics is a comprehensive collection of research on computational capabilities, prototypes, and algorithms, as well as application in the areas of nursing, clinical care, public health, biomedical research, and much more. This book provides a better understanding of the models and methods used in the field of medicine for researchers, practitioners, and medical professionals alike.

The application of nanotechnology within the medical sphere has had a significant influence on how diseases and conditions are treated and diagnosed. While many strides have been made, there is still continuous research on nanotechnology being performed in the field. Advancing Medicine through Nanotechnology and Nanomechanics Applications highlights emergent trends and empirical research on technological innovations in medicine and healthcare. Investigating the impact of nanotechnology and nanomechanics on the treatment of diseases, regenerative medicine, and drug delivery systems, this publication is a vital reference source for professionals, researchers, medical students, and engineering students.

Wound Healing Biomaterials: Volume Two, Functional Biomaterials discusses the types of wounds associated with trauma, illness, or surgery that can sometimes be extremely complex and difficult to heal. Consequently, there is a prominent drive for scientists and clinicians to find methods to heal wounds opening up a new area of research in biomaterials and the ways they can be applied to the challenges associated with wound care. Much research is now concerned with new therapies, regeneration methods, and the use of biomaterials that can assist in wound healing and alter healing responses. This book provides readers with a thorough review of the functional biomaterials used for wound healing, with chapters discussing the fundamentals of wound healing biomaterials, films for wound healing applications, polymer-based dressing for wound healing applications, and functional dressings for wound care.

Wound Healing Biomaterials: Volume One, Therapies and Regeneration discusses the types of wounds associated with trauma, illness, or surgery that can sometimes be extremely complex and difficult to heal. Consequently, there is a prominent drive for scientists and clinicians to find methods to heal these types of wounds, with science increasingly turning towards biomaterials to address these challenges. Much research is now concerned with new therapies, regeneration methods, and biomaterials to assist in wound healing and healing response. This book provides readers with a comprehensive review of the fundamentals and advances in the field of wound healing with regard to therapies and tissue regeneration. Chapters in Part One discuss fundamentals and strategies of wound healing, while Part Two reviews gene, stem cell, and drug delivery therapies for wound healing. Final chapters look at tissue regeneration strategies, making this an all-encompassing book on the topic of wound care and biomaterials.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of different biomedical data types, including both clinical and genomic data. Thorough explanations enable readers to explore key topics ranging from electrocardiograms to Big Data health mining and EEG analysis techniques. Each chapter offers a summary of the field and a sample analysis. Also covered are telehealth infrastructure, healthcare information association rules, methods for mass spectrometry imaging, environmental biodiversity, and the global nonlinear fitness function for protein structures. Diseases are addressed in chapters on functional annotation of lncRNAs in human disease, metabolomics characterization of human diseases, disease risk factors using SNP data and Bayesian methods, and imaging informatics for diagnostic imaging marker selection. With the exploding accumulation of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), there is an urgent need for computer-aided analysis of heterogeneous biomedical datasets. Biomedical data is notorious for its diversified scales, dimensions, and volumes, and requires interdisciplinary technologies for visual illustration and digital characterization. Various computer programs and servers have been developed for these purposes by both theoreticians and engineers. This book is an essential reference for investigating the tools available for analyzing heterogeneous biomedical data. It is designed for professionals, researchers, and practitioners in biomedical engineering, diagnostics, medical electronics, and related industries.

This definitive source provides practicing professionals and students in the occupational, environmental, and public health and safety fields with the functional basics of biological monitoring. The author examines how environmental exposures to particular chemicals are related to concentrations of markers in body tissues and fluids. Biological Monitoring integrates the applied sciences of industrial/environmental hygiene, epidemiology, public health, occupational medicine, toxicology, biochemistry, and analytical chemistry with the basic sciences to interpret the connections between exposures and lifestyle/environmental influences, and their effects on humans. This comprehensive introduction provides dependable, detailed coverage of:

• monitoring for harmful substances in the workplace
• the benefits and limitations of testing for critical levels of toxic materials in bodily tissues and fluids
• state-of-the-art developments in biological monitoring
• a wide variety of toxic chemicals and selected physical agents
• immunoassays
• monitoring for HIV and AIDS
• importance of exposure routes
• the most up-to-date methods of health and medical surveillance
• the interpretation of adduct concentrations
• biological exposure indices
• biological monitoring of pesticides
• biological monitoring in the home and around hazardous waste sites
• and much more

This book documents the state of the art in the field of ambient assisted living (AAL), highlighting the impressive potential of novel methodologies and technologies to enhance well-being and promote active ageing. The coverage is wide ranging, with sections on assistive devices, elderly people monitoring, home rehabilitation, ICT solutions for AAL, living with chronic conditions, robotic assistance for the elderly, sensing technologies for AAL, and smart housing. The book comprises a selection of the best papers presented at the 7th Italian Forum on Ambient Assisted Living (ForitAAL 2016), which was held in Pisa, Italy, in June 2016 and brought together end users, technology teams, and policy makers to develop a consensus on how to improve provision for elderly and impaired people. Readers will find that the expert contributions offer clear insights into the ways in which the most recent exciti ng advances may be expected to assist in addressing the needs of the elderly and those with chronic conditions.

This new edition presents information and knowledge on the field of biomedical devices and surgical tools. The authors look at the interactions between nanotechnology, nanomaterials, design, modeling, and tools for surgical and dental applications, as well as how nanostructured surfaces can be created for the purposes of improving cell adhesion between medical devices and the human body. Each original chapter is revised in this second edition and describes developments in coatings for heart valves, stents, hip and knee joints, cardiovascular devices, orthodontic applications, and regenerative materials such as bone substitutes. There are also 8 new chapters that address: Microvascular anastomoses Inhaler devices used for pulmonary delivery of medical aerosols Surface modification of interference screws Biomechanics of the mandible (a detailed case study) Safety and medical devices The synthesis of nanostructured material Delivery of anticancer molecules using carbon nanotubes Nano and micro coatings for medical devices This book is appropriate for engineers, material scientists, chemists, physicists, biologists, medical and dental professionals with an interest in biomedical devices and tools, and researchers in the same fields.

This book offers examples of how data science, big data, analytics, and cloud technology can be used in healthcare to significantly improve a hospital's IT Energy Efficiency along with information on the best ways to improve energy efficiency for healthcare in a cost effective manner. The book builds on the work done in other sectors (mainly data centers) in effectively measuring and improving IT energy efficiency and includes case studies illustrating power and cooling requirements within Green Healthcare. Making Healthcare Green will appeal to professionals and researchers working in the areas of analytics and energy efficiency within the healthcare fields.

This book presents a comprehensive and up-to-date treatise of a range of methodological and algorithmic issues. It also discusses implementations and case studies, identifies the best design practices, and assesses data analytics business models and practices in industry, health care, administration and business.Data science and big data go hand in hand and constitute a rapidly growing area of research and have attracted the attention of industry and business alike. The area itself has opened up promising new directions of fundamental and applied research and has led to interesting applications, especially those addressing the immediate need to deal with large repositories of data and building tangible, user-centric models of relationships in data. Data is the lifeblood of today's knowledge-driven economy.Numerous data science models are oriented towards end users and along with the regular requirements for accuracy (which are present in any modeling), come the requirements for ability to process huge and varying data sets as well as robustness, interpretability, and simplicity (transparency). Computational intelligence with its underlying methodologies and tools helps address data analytics needs.The book is of interest to those researchers and practitioners involved in data science, Internet engineering, computational intelligence, management, operations research, and knowledge-based systems.

This volume provides an overview of RNA bioinformatics methodologies, including basic strategies to predict secondary and tertiary structures, and novel algorithms based on massive RNA sequencing. Interest in RNA bioinformatics has rapidly increased thanks to the recent high-throughput sequencing technologies allowing scientists to investigate complete transcriptomes at single nucleotide resolution. Adopting advanced computational technics, scientists are now able to conduct more in-depth studies and present them to you in this book. Written in the highly successful Methods of Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and equipment, step-by-step, readily reproducible bioinformatics protocols, and key tips to avoid known pitfalls. Authoritative and practical, RNA Bioinformatics seeks to aid scientists in the further study of bioinformatics and computational biology of RNA.

This clear-sighted volume introduces the concept of "disruptive cooperation"- transformative partnerships between the health and technology sectors to eliminate widespread healthcare problems such as inequities, waste, and inappropriate care. Emphasizing the most pressing issues of a world growing older with long-term chronic illness, it unveils a new framework for personalized, integrative service based in mobile technologies. Coverage analyzes social aspects of illness and health, clinically robust uses of health data, and wireless and wearable applications in intervention, prevention, and health promotion. And case studies from digital health innovators illustrate opportunities for coordinating the service delivery, business, research/science, and policy sectors to promote healthier aging worldwide. Included among the topics: Cooperation in aging services technologies The quantified self, wearables, and the tracking revolution Smart healthy cities: public-private partnerships Beyond silos to data analytics for population health Cooperation for building secure standards for health data Peer-to-peer platforms for physicians in underserved areas: a human rights approach to social media in medicine Disruptive Cooperation in Digital Health will energize digital health and healthcare professionals in both non-profit and for-profit settings. Policymakers and public health professionals with an interest in innovation policy should find it an inspiring ideabook.

Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are expected to promote new applications for the ambulatory health monitoring of chronic patients and elderly population, aiming to improve their quality of life and independence. These networks are composed by wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) used for measuring physiological variables (e.g., glucose level in blood or body temperature) or controlling therapeutic devices (e.g., implanted insulin pumps). These nodes should exhibit a high degree of energy autonomy in order to extend their battery lifetime or even make the node supply to rely on harvesting techniques. Typically, the power budget of WSNs is dominated by the wireless link and, hence, many efforts have been directed during the last years toward the implementation of power efficient transceivers.

Because of the short range (typically no more than a few meters) and low data rate (typically in between 10 kb/s and 1 Mb/s), simple communication protocols can be employed. One of these protocols, specifically tailored for WBAN applications, is the Bluetooth low energy (BLE) standard.

This book describes the challenges and solutions for the design of ultra-low power transceivers for WBANs applications and presents the implementation details of a BLE transceiver prototype. Coverage includes not only the main concepts and architectures for achieving low power consumption, but also the details of the circuit design and its implementation in a standard CMOS technology."