Featuring 26 chapters by doctors and other researchers, this handbook reviews the basic information and offers specific instructions concerning: informed consent, conscious sedation and monitoring, antibiotic prophylaxis, endoscopic electrosurgery, the benign esophagus, esophageal manometry, pH test

Information Communication Technologies (ICT) have become an increasingly prevalent part of everyday life. Today, there are many cases in which ICT assist the elderly and people with disabilities to complete tasks once thought impossible. Enhancing the Human Experience through Assistive Technologies and E-Accessibility discusses trends in ICT in relation to assistive technologies and their impact on everyday tasks for those with disabilities. This reference work provides different perspectives on upcoming technologies and their impact on e-accessibility and e-inclusion, essential topics for researchers, businesses, and ICT product developers in the field of assistive technologies.

Medical technology is a fast growing field. This new title gives a comprehensive review of modern optical technologies alongside their clinical deployment. It bridges the technology and clinical domains and will be suitable in both technical and clinical environments. It introduces and develops basic physical methods (in optics, photonics, and metrology) and their applications in the design of optical systems for use in medical technology with a special focus on ophthalmology. Medical applications described in detail demonstrate the advantage of utilizing optical-photonic methods. Exercises and solutions for each chapter help understand and apply basic principles and methods. An associated website run by the authors will include slides to facilitate the teaching/training of this material, and typical images collected by the described methods, eg videos of endoscopy or navigation, OCT, etc.

This book introduces a new cyberphysical system that combines clinical and basic neuroscience research with advanced data analysis and medical management tools for developing novel applications for the management of epilepsy. The authors describe the algorithms and architectures needed to provide ambulatory, diagnostic and long-term monitoring services, through multi parametric data collection. Readers will see how to achieve in-hospital quality standards, addressing conventional "routine" clinic-based service purposes, at reduced cost, enhanced capability and increased geographical availability. The cyberphysical system described in this book is flexible, can be optimized for each patient and is demonstrated in several case studies.

From bandage to the bioreactor, this book looks at five different device technologies from inception to healthcare practice, drawing on medical sociology, science and technology studies and political science. It examines "evidence," regulation and governance processes, and diverse stakeholders in innovating the technologies that shape health care.

Phototherapy exemplifies scientific medicine. The major advances have resulted from effective collaborations between basic researchers and clinicians. This book is directed to clinicians and basic researchers who are interested in current and emerging implementations of phototherapy. It can serve as an introductory reference and a textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in medical physics and biomedical engineering. The emphasis is on the science underlying the various phototherapy procedures, which encompasses aspects of classical and molecular photophysics, biological photochemistry, photobiology and biophotonics. Topics that do not usually appear in other general sources include the theory and applications of tissue optics, Monte Carlo simulation, light dosimetry, and analytical modeling of laser surgery. Many illustrative problems with answers are provided to exemplify the more quantitative aspects of each topic.

This book highlights the responsibility of medical device designers and engineers to eliminate sites of failure and to test devices to demonstrate their ultimate safety and efficacy. It also evaluates biomaterials and their properties as related to the design and reliability of medical devices. The principles that are described are readily applicable to the biomaterial scaffolds used for generating tissue-engineered constructs.

The term "muscular dystrophy" (MD) describes a group of primary genetic disorders of muscle that often have a distinctive and recognizable clinical p- notype, accompanied by characteristic, but frequently not pathognomonic, pathological features. Research into the molecular basis of the MDs by a c- bination of positional cloning and candidate gene analysis has provided the basis for a reclassification of these disorders, with genetic and protein data augmenting traditional clinically based nomenclature. These findings have brought insights into the molecular pathogenesis of MD, with an increasing number of potential pathways involved in arriving at a dystrophic phenotype. Some common themes can be recognized, however, including the involvement of five members of the dystrophin-associated complex (dystrophin and four sarcoglycans) in different types of MD, and the involvement of two nuclear envelope proteins in producing an Emery-Dreifuss MD phenotype. Other d- ease-associated genes appear to cause MD in a completely unrelated way, such as the involvement of calpain 3 in a form of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. Section 1 of Muscular Dystrophy: Methods and Protocols reviews tra- tional strategies used to identify MDs. Meantime, techniques developed as a result of the research strategies described previously have become an integral part of the management of many patients with MD and their families, and these techniques are addressed in Sections 2 (DNA-based tests) and 3 (p- tein-based analyses). The continued effort to translate this enhanced und- standing into a molecular cure or treatment for MD is reviewed in Section 4.

Dr. Myrtle A. Davis has assembled a panel of cutting-edge scientists to describe their best methods for detecting, illuminating, and quantifying apoptotic mechanisms in a way that is useful for the design of toxicology and pharmacology studies. These state-of-the-art techniques include flow cytometric, fluorometric, and laser scanning methods for quantifying and characterizing apoptosis, as well as protocols for the use of DNA microarray technology, high throughput screens, and ELISA. Immunocytochemical methods for measuring biochemical and molecular endpoints in tissue sections will be highly useful for those carrying out studies in whole animal models as opposed to cell culture systems.

Recent years have seen an upsurge of significant interest in cell-based technologies. A range of productive and lively debate have taken place relating to tissue engineering, namely the construction of tissues and whole organs using molecularly-designed resorbable biomaterials to create tissue de novo, the potential use of human embryonic stem cells for transplantation and regenerative medicine, with similar potential for adult-derived stem cells, and gene therapy, in relation to cell transplantation. New findings in biomimetic materials, cell signalling pathways, extracellular matrix receptors and ligands, growth factors, and the human genome project, all present particularly motivating sources for the development of research in the evergrowing biomedical field. The purpose of this book is to stimulate further the work in biomedicine and to make the issues of related scientific disciplines accessible to a wider readership by characterising the current state of research in the biomedical field. The lectures and a selection of the presentations from BlOMED 200- th The 9 International Symposium on Biomedical Science and Technology, held in September 2002 in Turkey- constitute the basis for the volume. Tissue engineering, stem cells, cell and gene therapies were the major topics presented and discussed in the symposium. This book is intended to serve as an up-to-date synopsis of the major developments of our area through the work reflected in BlOMED 2002, though not covering all aspects of the topics, due to the natural restrictions within a volume of this kind.

Gain the medical insurance skills you need to succeed in today's outpatient and inpatient settings! Fordney's Medical Insurance and Billing, 16th Edition helps you master the insurance billing specialist's role and responsibilities in areas such as diagnostic coding, procedural coding, billing, and collection. Using clear, non-technical explanations, this book covers all of the types of insurance coverage commonly encountered in hospitals, physicians' offices, and clinics. Step-by-step guidelines lead you through medical documentation and administrative procedures. Written by coding specialist and educator Linda M. Smith, this market-leading text is a complete guide to becoming an efficient insurance billing specialist. Coverage of medical documentation, diagnostic coding, and procedural coding provides you with the foundation and skills needed to work in a physician's office as well as outpatient and inpatient settings. Coverage of the role and responsibilities of the insurance billing specialist emphasizes advanced job opportunities and certification. Step-by-step procedures detail common responsibilities of the insurance billing specialist and coder. Key terms and abbreviationsare defined and emphasized, reinforcing your understanding of new concepts and terminology. Color-coded icons denote and clarify information, rules, and regulations for each type of payer. Privacy, Security, and HIPAA chapter and Compliance Alerts throughout the book highlight important HIPAA compliance issues and regulations. NEW! Insights From The Field includes short interviews with insurance billing specialists who have experience in the field, providing a snapshot of their career paths and offering advice to the new student. NEW! Scenario boxes help you apply concepts to real-world situations. NEW! Quick Review sections summarize chapter content and also include review questions. NEW! Discussion Points provide the opportunity for students and instructors to participate in interesting and open dialogues related to the chapter's content. NEW! Expanded Health Care Facility Billing chapters are revised to provide the latest information impacting the insurance billing specialist working in a variety of healthcare facility settings. NEW! Insights From The Field includes short interviews with insurance billing specialists who have experience in the field, providing a snapshot of their career paths and offering advice to the new student. NEW! Scenario boxes help you apply concepts to real-world situations. NEW! Quick Review sections summarize chapter content and also include review questions. NEW! Discussion Points provide the opportunity for students and instructors to participate in interesting and open dialogues related to the chapter's content. NEW! Expanded Health Care Facility Billing chapters are revised to provide the latest information impacting the insurance billing specialist working in a variety of healthcare facility settings.

Medical Informatics and biomedical computing have grown in quantum measure over the past decade. An abundance of advances have come to the foreground in this field with the vast amounts of biomedical and genomic data, the Internet, and the wide application of computer use in all aspects of medical, biological, and health care research and practice. MEDICAL INFORMATICS: Knowledge Management and Data Mining in Biomedicine covers the basic foundations of the area while extending the foundational material to include the recent leading-edge research in the field. The newer concepts, techniques, and practices of biomedical knowledge management and data mining are introduced and examined in detail. It is the research and applications in these areas that are raising the technical horizons and expanding the utility of informatics to an increasing number of biomedical professionals and researchers.

The book is divided into three major topical sections.

Section I presents the foundational information and knowledge management material and includes topics such as: bioinformatics challenges and standards, security and privacy, ethical and social issues, and biomedical knowledge mapping.

Section II discusses the topics which are relevant to knowledge representations & access and includes topics such as: representations of medical concepts and relationships, genomic information retrieval, 3D medical informatics, public access to anatomic images, and creating and maintaining biomedical ontologies.

Section III examines the emerging application research in data mining, biomedical textual mining, and knowledge discovery research and includes topics such as: semantic parsing and analysisfor patient records, biological relationships, gene pathways, and metabolic networks, exploratory genomic data analysis, joint learning using data and text mining, and disease informatics and outbreak detection.

The book is a comprehensive presentation of the foundations and leading application research in medical informatics/biomedicine. These concepts and techniques are illustrated with detailed case studies.

The authors are widely recognized professors and researchers in Schools of Medicine and Information Systems from the University of Arizona, University of Washington, Columbia University, and Oregon Health & Science University. In addition, individual expert contributing authors have been commissioned to write chapters for the book on their respective topical expertise.

Computational Intelligence is comparatively a new field but it has made a tremendous progress in virtually every discipline right from engineering, science, business, m- agement, aviation to healthcare. Computational intelligence already has a solid track-record of applications to healthcare, of which this book is a continuation. We would like to refer the reader to the excellent previous volumes in this series on computational intelligence in heal- care [1-3]. This book is aimed at providing the most recent advances and state of the art in the practical applications of computational intelligence paradigms in healthcare. It - cludes nineteen chapters on using various computational intelligence methods in healthcare such as intelligent agents and case-based reasoning. A number of fielded applications and case studies are presented. Highlighted are in particular novel c- putational approaches to the semantic management of health information such as in the Web 2.0, mobile agents such as in portable devices, learning agents capable of adapting to diverse clinical settings through case-based reasoning, and statistical - proaches in computational intelligence. This book is targeted towards scientists, application engineers, professors, health professionals, professors, and students. Background information on computational intelligence has been provided whenever necessary to facilitate the comprehension of a broad audience including healthcare practitioners.

The promise and prospects for mobile technologies in healthcare service delivery-particularly as experienced by patients and other users-are the focus of this forward-looking volume. Its detailed sociotechnical perspective takes in factors influencing patient and provider adoption of technological advances, in addition to the well-known cost and accessibility advantages. Enlightening reports show mobile health technologies in multiple contexts as an impetus for behavioral change, a means of monitoring health changes, a growing trend in service delivery, and an emerging health frontier worldwide. Together, these chapters point to the continued expansion-and global reach-of mobile technology in the next stage of healthcare services. Included in the coverage: Behavior change techniques used in mobile applications targeting physical activity: a systematic review Mobile health integration in pregnancy Unintended users, uses, and consequences of mobile weight loss apps: using eating disorders as a case study Intention vs. perception: understanding the differences in physicians' attitudes towards mobile health applications HealthGuide: a personalized mobile patient guidance system Adoption of sensors in mobile health Current and Emerging mHealth Technologies is salient reading for researchers interested in mobile health development and implementation as well as technology adoption, and mobile health system developers and managers who are interested in the implications of mobile health use by patients and/or healthcare professionals. It can also be used for courses in technology adoption and health technologies.

In this book, leading authors in the field discuss developments of Ambient Assisted Living. The contributions have been chosen and invited at the 8th AAL Congress, Frankfurt/M. The meeting presents new technological developments which support the autonomy and independence of individuals with special needs. The 8th AAL Congress focusses its attention on technical assistance systems and their applications in homecare, health and care.

The generation of tridimensional tissues, assembled from scaffolding materials populated with biologically functional cells, is the great challenge and hope of tissue bioengineering and regenerative medicine. The generation of biomaterials capable of harnessing the immune system has been particularly successful. This book provides a comprehensive view of how immune cells can be manipulated to suppresses inflammation, deliver vaccines, fight cancer cells, promote tissue regeneration or inhibit blood clotting and bacterial infections by functionally engineered biomaterials. However, long-lived polymers, such as those employed in orthopedic surgery or vascular stents, can often induce an immune reaction to their basic components. As a result, this book is also an important step towards coming to understand how to manipulate biomaterials to optimize their beneficial effects and downplay detrimental immune responses.

Probabilistic Modelling in Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics has been written for researchers and students in statistics, machine learning, and the biological sciences. The first part of this book provides a self-contained introduction to the methodology of Bayesian networks. The following parts demonstrate how these methods are applied in bioinformatics and medical informatics. All three fields - the methodology of probabilistic modeling, bioinformatics, and medical informatics - are evolving very quickly. The text should therefore be seen as an introduction, offering both elementary tutorials as well as more advanced applications and case studies.

This book introduces approaches that have the potential to transform the daily practice of psychiatrists and psychologists. This includes the asynchronous communication between mental health care providers and clients as well as the automation of assessment and therapy.

Speech and language are particularly interesting from the viewpoint of psychological assessment. For instance, depression may change the characteristics of voice in individuals and these changes can be detected by a special form of speech analysis. Computational screening methods that utilize speech and language can detect subtle changes and alert clinicians as well as individuals and caregivers.

The use of online technologies in mental health, however, poses ethical problems that will occupy concerned individuals, governments and the wider public for some time. Assuming that these ethical problems can be solved, it should be possible to diagnose and treat mental health disorders online (excluding the use of medication).

Speech and language are particularly interesting from the viewpoint of psychological assessment. For instance, depression may change the characteristics of voice in individuals and these changes can be detected by a special form of speech analysis. Computational screening methods that utilize speech and language can detect subtle changes and alert clinicians as well as individuals and caregivers.

The use of online technologies in mental health, however, poses ethical problems that will occupy concerned individuals, governments and the wider public for some time. Assuming that these ethical problems can be solved, it should be possible to diagnose and treat mental health disorders online (excluding the use of medication).

Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research (CPFR) provides a forum for the very latest in family research; examining family structures, behaviours, and relationships from a variety of theoretical, methodological, and disciplinary viewpoints. Published annually, each volume focuses upon a 'hot topic' at the leading edge of family research, providing in-depth coverage from expert authors. Previous volumes have covered issues such as economic stress, family relations in the 21st Century, and parent-child relations in later life. Each annual volume recognizes the mainstream of family research topics and provides detailed investigations within those topics. In addition, each annual volume honours the internationalization of family research, and provides perspectives on each topic from a truly cross-cultural point of view.

This text examines in detail mathematical and physical modeling, computational methods and systems for obtaining and analyzing biological structures, using pioneering research cases as examples. As such, it emphasizes programming and problem-solving skills. It provides information on structure bioinformatics at various levels, with individual chapters covering introductory to advanced aspects, from fundamental methods and guidelines on acquiring and analyzing genomics and proteomics sequences, the structures of protein, DNA and RNA, to the basics of physical simulations and methods for conformation searches. This book will be of immense value to researchers and students in the fields of bioinformatics, computational biology and chemistry. Dr. Dongqing Wei is a Professor at the Department of Bioinformatics and Biostatistics, College of Life Science and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China. His research interest is in the general area of structural bioinformatics.

Biomedical Engineering Principles in Sports contains in-depth discussions on the fundamental biomechanical and physiological principles underlying the acts of throwing, shooting, hitting, kicking, and tackling in sports, as well as vision training, sports injury, and rehabilitation. The topics include:

-Golf ball aerodynamics and golf club design,

-Golf swing and putting biomechanics,

-Tennis ball aerodynamics and ball- and shoe-surface interactions,

-Tennis stroke mechanics and optimizing ball-racket interactions,

-Baseball pitching biomechanics and perceptual illusions of batters,

-Football forward pass aerodynamics and tackling biomechanics,

-Soccer biomechanics,

-Basketball aerodynamics and biomechanics,

-Vision training in sports,

-Children maturation and performance,

-Rehabilitation and medical advances in treatment of sports injuries. This book is essential reading for biomedical engineers, physicists, sport scientists, and physiologists who wish to update their knowledge of biomechanical and biomedical principles and their applications to sports. The book can be used in a one-semester Senior or Graduate-level course in Biomechanics, Biomedical Engineering, Sports Technology, Sports Medicine, or Exercise Physiology. In addition, it will be of value to interested athletic laypersons who enjoy watching or participating in sports such as golf, tennis, softball, football, soccer, and basketball.