This book describes more than 60 web-accessible computational tools for protein analysis and is totally practical, with detailed explanations on how to use these tools and interpret their results and minimal mentions to their theoretical basis (only when that is required for making a better use of them). It covers a wide range of tools for dealing with different aspects of proteins, from their sequences, to their three-dimensional structures, and the biological networks they are immersed in. The selection of tools is based on the experience of the authors that lead a protein bioinformatics facility in a large research centre, with the additional constraint that the tools should be accessible through standard web browsers without requiring the local installation of specific software, command-line tools, etc. The web tools covered include those aimed to retrieve protein information, look for similar proteins, generate pair-wise and multiple sequence alignments of protein sequences, work with protein domains and motifs, study the phylogeny of a family of proteins, retrieve, manipulate and visualize protein three-dimensional structures, predict protein structural features as well as whole three-dimensional structures, extract biological information from protein structures, summarize large protein sets, study protein interaction and metabolic networks, etc. The book is associated to a dynamic web site that will reflect changes in the web addresses of the tools, updates of these, etc. It also contains QR codes that can be scanned with any device to direct its browser to the tool web site. This monograph will be most valuable for researchers in experimental labs without specific knowledge on bioinformatics or computing.

In this book, leading authors in the field discuss the habitats of tomorrow. These habitats will be connected through autonomous and assistive systems, turning habitats into health resorts. This book discusses how assistance technologies enable a smooth transition from comfortable health support to medical or nursing care. The contributions have been chosen and invited at the 9th AAL congress, Frankfurt.

This volume is a result of the fruitful and vivid discussions during the MedDecSup'2012 International Workshop bringing together a relevant body of knowledge, and new developments in the increasingly important field of medical informatics. This carefully edited book presents new ideas aimed at the development of intelligent processing of various kinds of medical information and the perfection of the contemporary computer systems for medical decision support. The book presents advances of the medical information systems for intelligent archiving, processing, analysis and search-by-content which will improve the quality of the medical services for every patient and of the global healthcare system. The book combines in a synergistic way theoretical developments with the practicability of the approaches developed and presents the last developments and achievements in medical informatics to a broad range of readers: engineers, mathematicians, physicians, and PhD students.

Antimicrobial Activity of Nanoparticles: Applications in Wound Healing and Infection Treatment presents the state of the art among nanotechnological approaches used in the treatment of infections. This field has gained a large amount of interest over the past few years, in response to the increasing resistance of pathogens to antibiotics. Leading researchers from around the world discuss the synthesis routes of nanobiomaterials, characterization, and their applications as antimicrobial agents. The book covers various aspects: from antiviral and antibacterial nanoparticles, to the functionalization of nanoparticles and their toxicity to human cells. This book offers an advanced reference text for biomedical engineers, materials scientists, clinicians, and biochemists, with an interest in nanomedicine and infection control.

The health care delivery system, its organizations, and its supporting industries are currently undergoing immense changes and at the center of this change is technology. This book is about the management of this technology. The authors refer to this new intellectual space as the Management of Medical Technology (MMT). From the core activities of delivering medical care, to the supporting industries producing technical systems, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, information technology, and finally to the insurers of health care - all of these demonstrate the central role technology plays in delivering health. Management of Medical Technology examines the many aspects of managing medical technology, discusses its key issues, and outlines how it can be managed more effectively. This is a foundational book in Kluwer's Series on MMT. It is designed for academics and students in all areas of management related to health care, as a text for related undergraduate and graduate courses, as well as a reference book for health care executives and managers of technology in industry. The book is divided into three complementary parts. Part 1 explores the theory of MMT and in six chapters outlines the new intellectual space of MMT and its theoretical background. Part 2 is dedicated to the practice of MMT. This part has six chapters and describes the two main empirical studies conducted by the authors on MMT; one study examined how hospitals currently manage medical technology and the second study investigated the management of medical information technology. Moreover, related to the practice of MMT, this part also discusses in detail issues of effectiveness of delivery, patient value and patientwelfare, and education in MMT. Part 3 is a thorough treatment of MMT cases in a variety of health care organizations, each describing a different phenomenon in the practice of MMT. Eleven cases are included, with discussion questions for use in the classroom.

Recent years have seen the development of two significant trends namely: the adoption of some Traditional Chinese Medicine Practices into mainstream Allopathic Western Medicine and the advent of the internet and broad band networks leading to an increased interest in the use of Telemedicine to deliver medical services. In this book, we see the convergence of these two trends leading to a semantically-based TCM Telemedicine system that utilizes an ontology to provide sharable knowledge in the TCM realm to achieve this. The underpinning research required the development of a three-layer architecture and an Ontology of the TCM knowledge. As TCM knowledge like all medical knowledge is not frozen in time it was important to develop an approach that would allow evolution of the Ontology when new evidence became available. In order for the system to be practically grounded it was important to work with an industry partner PuraPharm Group/HerbMiners Informatics Limited. This partnership was initiated through Professor Allan Wong and the Chairman of PuraPharm Group Mr. Abraham Chan. This led to the system being utilized in more than 20 Mobile Clinics in Hong Kong and 300 Hospitals in China. In order for these different deployments of the system to be coherent with the main core Ontology, it was necessary for us to develop an Ontology Driven Software System Generation approach.

Evaluation Methods in Medical Informatics, Second Edition is a heavily updated and revised volume based on editors Friedman and Wyatt's successful first edition. This book incorporates the solid foundation of evaluation theories, methods, and techniques laid out in the first edition, and builds on it to include case studies from real world situations. Designed as a guide for both the informatics novice and the seasoned professional seeking a comprehensive resource, this book explores information systems evaluation from the ground up. Critique and disscussion of actual evaluation efforts will guide the reader through real world application of the techniques described.

Just like its first edition, this volume is an unparalled reference for a broad range of health information professionals. From those in training for careers in informatics to on-site medical information systems staff, Evaluation Methods in Medical Informatics, Second Edition is an invaluable guide to successful evaluation of information technology in health care.

The present book entitled "Novel Frontiers in the Production of Compounds for Biomedical Uses" can perhaps be placed in its best perspective by the Shakespearean character in The Tempest who exclaimed" What's past is prologue." Indeed, this compilation of some of the outstanding presentations in the field of biomedicine made at th the 9 European Congress on Biotechnology (Brussels, Belgium, July 11-15, 1999) not only reflects the achievements of the recent past, but provides a privileged glimpse of the biotechnology that is emerging in the first decade of the new Millennium. It is becoming increasingly apparent that biotechnology is offering biomedicine novel approaches and solutions to develop a sorely needed new generation of biopharmaceuticals. This is all the more necessary because in recent years, new diseases have emerged with extraordinary lethality in all corners of the globe, while age-related chronic illnesses have filled the gap wherever biomedicine has made successful inroads. The rise of antibiotic resistance also poses major threats to public health. Thus, as disease patterns evolve, the rational development of new drugs is becoming urgent, not only for the clinical outcome of patients, but also in optimising the allocation of scarce health care resources through the use of cost-effective productions methods. It is in response to all these challenges that biotechnology offers new strategies that go beyond the more traditional approaches. By the mid-1990's, the number of recombinant products approved annually for therapeutic use reached double digits. With the advent of the genomics revolution.

This book describes the emerging point-of-care (POC) technologies that are paving the way to the next generation healthcare monitoring and management. It provides the readers with comprehensive, up-to-date information about the emerging technologies, such as smartphone-based mobile healthcare technologies, smart devices, commercial personalized POC technologies, paper-based immunoassays (IAs), lab-on-a-chip (LOC)-based IAs, and multiplex IAs. The book also provides guided insights into the POC diabetes management software and smart applications, and the statistical determination of various bioanalytical parameters. Additionally, the authors discuss the future trends in POC technologies and personalized and integrated healthcare solutions for chronic diseases, such as diabetes, stress, obesity, and cardiovascular disorders. Each POC technology is described comprehensively and analyzed critically with its characteristic features, bioanalytical principles, applications, advantages, limitations, and future trends. This book would be a very useful resource and teaching aid for professionals working in the field of POC technologies, in vitro diagnostics (IVD), mobile healthcare, Big Data, smart technology, software, smart applications, biomedical engineering, biosensors, personalized healthcare, and other disciplines.

Medical science and practice have undergone fundamental changes in the last 5 years, as large-scale genome projects have resulted in the sequencing of a number of important microbial, plant and animal genomes. This book aims to combine industry standard software engineering and design principles with genomics, bioinformatics and cancer research. Rather than an exercise in learning a programming platform, the text focuses on useful analytical tools for the scientific community.

By the year 2050, the world's population is expected to reach nine billion. To feed and sustain this projected population, world food production must increase by at least 50 percent on much of the same land that we farm today. To meet this staggering challenge, scientists must develop the technology required to achieve an "evergreen" revolution -- one that increases crop productivity without degrading natural resources. With 30 percent new material, the updated and revised third edition of Growth and Mineral Nutrition of Field Crops covers all aspects of crop growth and mineral nutrition that contribute to sustainable, high-yield agriculture. Bringing together international scientific knowledge of crop production and the impacts of agriculture on the environment, this book: * Includes two new chapters on remediation of heavy-metal contaminated soils and cover crops * Covers theoretical and practical aspects of mineral nutrition of field crops * Provides recommendations for judicious use of fertilizers, which will reduce cost of crop production and enhance high crop yields without risking environmental pollution * Provides growth patterns for annual crops and forages * Includes a handful of color pictures of nutrient deficiencies for easy diagnostic purposes To make the book as practical as possible, each chapter is supported by experimental results and extensive references. A large number of figures and tables are also included to save readers time when researching. The overall emphasis of this reference is on the soil's ability to sustain high crop yields and a healthy human population.

In a systematic and clear manner, the authors discuss the problems associated with clinical decision making and explore the current methods to solve them. In this monograph, they examine the results of combining the classical control system approach with the symbolic approaches which have been central to developments in artificial intelligence. Well illustrated with case studies, this volume will prove to be an invaluable resource to system scientists, engineers, computer scientists, and members of the medical community.

This handbook brings together a variety of approaches to the uses of big data in multiple fields, primarily science, medicine, and business. This single resource features contributions from researchers around the world from a variety of fields, where they share their findings and experience. This book is intended to help spur further innovation in big data. The research is presented in a way that allows readers, regardless of their field of study, to learn from how applications have proven successful and how similar applications could be used in their own field. Contributions stem from researchers in fields such as physics, biology, energy, healthcare, and business. The contributors also discuss important topics such as fraud detection, privacy implications, legal perspectives, and ethical handling of big data.

Modern medicine generates, almost daily, huge amounts of heterogeneous data. For example, medical data may contain SPECT images, signals lik e ECG, clinical information like temperature, cholesterol levels, etc., as well as the physician's interpretation. Those who deal with such data understand that there is a widening gap between data collection a nd data comprehension. Computerized techniques are needed to help huma ns address this problem. This volume is devoted to the relatively youn g and growing field of medical data mining and knowledge discovery. As more and more medical procedures employ imaging as a preferred diagno stic tool, there is a need to develop methods for efficient mining in databases of images. Other significant features are security and confi dentiality concerns. Moreover, the physician's interpretation of image s, signals, or other technical data, is written in unstructured Englis h which is very difficult to mine. This book addresses all these speci fic features.

Microfluidics and BioMEMS Applications central idea is on microfluidics, a relatively new research field which finds its niche in biomedical devices, especially on lab-on-a-chip and related products. Being the essential component in providing driving fluidic flows, an example of micropump is chosen to illustrate a complete cycle in development of microfluidic devices which include literature review, designing and modelling, fabrication and testing. A few articles are included to demonstrate the idea of tackling this research problem, and they cover the main development scope discussed earlier as well as other advanced modelling schemes for microfluidics and beyond.

Scientists and students working in the areas of MEMS and microfluidics will benefit from this book, which may serve both communities as both a reference monograph and a textbook for courses in numerical simulation, and design and development of microfluidic devices.

Explosive growth in the field of microsystem technology (MST) has introduced a variety of promising products in major disciplines from microelectronics to life sciences. Especially the life sciences and health care business was, and is expected to be a major market for MST products. Undoubtedly the merging of biological sciences with micro- and nanoscience will create a scientific and technological revolution in future. Microminiaturization of devices, down to the nanoscale, approaching the size of biological structures, will be a prerequisite for the future success of life sciences. Bioanalytical and therapeutic micro- and nanosystems will be mandatory for system biologists in the long run, to obtain insight into morphology, the function and the interactive processes of the living system. With such a deeper understanding new and personalized drugs could be developed leading to a revolution in life sciences. Today, microanalytical devices are used in clinical analytics or molecular biology as gene chips. In parallel, standard microbiomedical products are employed in the intensive care and surgical theatre, mainly for monitoring and implantation purposes. The gap between these two different scientific fields will be closed, however, as soon as functional micro devices can be produced, allowing a deeper view into the function of cells and whole organisms.

Here, a new discipline evolved which focuses on microsystems for living systems called "BIOMEMS." In this review at a glance the exciting field of bio-microsystems, from their beginnings to indicators of future successes are presented. It will also show that a broad penetration of micro and nano technologies into biology and medicine will be mandatory for future scientific and new product development progress in life science.

Health information about patients is critical; currently, health records are saved in databases controlled by individual users, organizations, or large groups of organizations. As there are many malicious users, this information is not shared with other organizations due to security issues and the chance of the data being modified or tampered with. Blockchain can be used to securely exchange healthcare data, which can be accessed by organizations sharing the same network, allowing doctors/practitioners to provide better care for patients. The key properties of decentralization, such as immutability and transparency, improve healthcare interoperability. This book brings forth the prospects and research trends of Blockchain in healthcare, so that Researchers, Database professionals, Academia, and Healthcare professionals across the world can know/use the concept of Blockchain in healthcare. The book provides the fundamental and technical details of Blockchain, the applications of Blockchain in healthcare, hands-on chapters for graduate/postgraduate/doctoral students/healthcare professionals to secure healthcare data of patients, and research challenges and future work directions for researchers in healthcare.

The term "electrophoresis" was first used by Michaelis in 1909, to - scribe the migration of colloids in an electric field. The first practical elect- phoresis method was described by Tiselius in 1937. He used a U-tube filled with buffer layered on top of sample; migration could be monitored using Schlieren optics. In zone electrophoresis, the U-tube was replaced by paper, a support material employed simply to prevent or minimize diffusion of ions, so that ions applied in a narrow strip to the paper will separate and remain as relatively discrete zones. Paper was superceded by a variety of other media, - cluding cellulose acetate, hydrolyzed starch (starch gel), agarose, and polyacry- mide. The latter, in addition to being a support medium, has size-sieving properties. From the basic zone electrophoresis, other means of separation have been dev- oped. These include, isoelectric focusing, isotachophoresis, density gradient el- trophoresis, and various forms of immunoelectrophoresis. In some ways Capillary Electrophoresis (CE) has gone full circle back to the original method of Tiselius. In its simplest form, separations occur in a buffer solution within a glass (fused silica) tube and detection occurs as sample moves past an optical window. CE has rapidly developed into a technique that rivals HPLC in its versatility. All the classical electrophoretic separations-zone, IEF, and isotachophoresis-have their counterparts in CE. Excitingly so, and - thoritatively treated in Clinical Applications of Capillary Electrophoresis.

Under managed care, health care has become a sometimes uneasy partnership between consumers, health care providers, and the communities they serve. Empowered by a broadly held understanding of medicine and an ability to collect and use performance information to improve health services, this alliance is reshaping our local health systems. In this constantly changing environment, competitive advantage will go to those physicians who are fast-and focused-in their ability to transform their practice into accountable, cooperative business units-reshaping society's expectations of medicine and ultimately improving the delivery of health care.

In The New Health Partners, physician Stephen Prather reveals how doctors can regain stewardship of their medical practices and strengthen their crucial role in the health care of their local communities. Prather?a nationally known physician consultant, educator, practitioner, and speaker--gives physicians effective techniques and practical advice needed to deliver bottom-line results.
Prather shows physicians, medical directors, and administrators how they can acquire the essential skills of leadership and team development for use in both office and community health settings. Step-by-step, Prather explains how to apply the transformative power of the "Six Dimensions of Health Systems" to integrate delivery of care, align economic and non-economic incentives, manage chronic illness, empower clinical groups, work with patients and their families, and redesign care for community benefit.

This groundbreaking book explores how to
A- Put in place successful methods for creating economic incentives to motivate physician change
A- Map outproven approaches for achieving clinical quality improvement and efficient office practices
A- Gain insight into a proven strategy for engaging the community in a rewarding partnership
A- Combine effective management principles, time-honored values, and useful guidelines for the most skillful use of performance data

The New Health Partners is based on the information gathered from in-depth organizational and marketplace assessments and surveys of physician-leaders from across the country. This vital resource also includes numerous examples of best practices that have proven to be easily reproducible, cost-effective, and beneficial to patients. This hands-on volume will prove to be an invaluable aid for any physician-leader who wants to work smarter and direct a health care organization to be ethically, clinically, and fiscally sound.

Discover t-he Six Dimensions of Health Systems That Can Transform Your Medical Practice

The New Health Partners is an essential handbook for physicians who want to reshape their practices to prosper within the managed care environment. This key resource offers a blueprint for helping physicians, medical directors, and administrators create the needed partnerships and cooperative business alliances, put in place the best practices that will maximize accountability, and, ultimately, achieve success in disease management.

"Steve Prather's book encapsulates the key forces in health care today. If followed, his practical solutions will dramatically change the way we organize and deliver care."--Henry G. Walker, president and CEO, Providence/Health System

"Prather has written a book full of helpful insights, tips, and examples for thosetrying to make sense of the leadership opportunity facing doctors today and tomorrow. His strategies and stories can help those who lead physician practice today and guide those who teach tomorrow's doctors."-Paul Batalden, professor and director, Health Care Improvement Leadership Development Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Dartmouth Medical School

"Using his vast experience and keen insight, Steve Prather presents exciting concepts and practices that will contribute greatly to the improvement of the delivery and quality of clinical care into the next millennium-a major concern for all health care leaders."-Dan S. Wilford, president, Memorial Hermann Healthcare System

"I urge the leaders of health care systems to read and study this enlightening book together. And, since integration, alignment, improvement, teamwork, and partnering are relevant activities at all levels of an organization, it would be wise for leaders to encourage and enable the many natural work groups in their organization to similarly study, digest, and adapt the rich knowledge available in [this book]. Doing so will produce a much more effective and competitive health care system."-From the foreword by James S. Roberts, senior vice president, physician leadership, VHA, Inc.