Research has paid little attention to date on how European Union law and regulation affect both the public-private mix in healthcare and the organization of private health insurance as an industry. Filling this gap, this collective book provides insights on the political economy of EU insurance regulation, its impact on private health insurers and on its interactions with domestic healthcare policy-making in four countries. Assembling original contributions drafted by a multidisciplinary team, Private Health Insurance and the European Union offers a thorough examination of a largely unrecognized source of EU influence in healthcare - and sheds a new light on the role played by private actors in social policy. Chapter 1 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This study adds to the small but growing literature on Black health history--the rise of hospital care and hospital services provided to Blacks from the antebellum era to the integration era, a period of some 150 years. The work examines the political, policy, legal, and philanthropic forces that helped to define the rise, development, and decline of Black hospitals in the United States. Particular discussion is given to the federal Hill-Burton Act of 1946 and the extent to which the legislation impacted Black hospital development. The roles of the Freedman's Bureau, National Medical Association, National Hospital Association, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in the development of Black hospitals is highlighted.

Obesity, which has increased in most developed countries in the past few decades, is the result of genetics, environment, and individual choices. Economics is useful for studying the individual choices that lead to obesity, explanations for the recent rise in obesity, the treatment options for obesity, and the costs and consequences of obesity for the individual and society.
The papers in this volume, devoted to the economics of obesity, illustrate the wide usefulness of the economic approach. The papers in the first section propose and test economic explanations for food-consumption choices and obesity. In particular, they assess the impact of food quality, access to fast food, food prices, legislation, and other factors on diet, physical activity, and body weight.
Treatments for obesity, specifically bariatric surgery and anti-obesity drugs, are studied in the second section of this volume. The third section is devoted to the labor market impacts of obesity; evidence from fifteen countries is presented and evaluated. The fourth and final section calculates the impact of obesity on hospital costs and examines the externalities imposed by obesity through health insurance.
Taken together, the papers in this volume advance the frontier of knowledge about the causes, implications, and consequences of obesity, and validate the usefulness of the economic approach for studying obesity in particular and medical conditions more generally.
*Studies obesity from an economic perspective
*Proposes economic explanation for food consumption choices, treatment of obesity, and treatment of the condition
*International in scope - provides evidence from 15 countries

That maternity staff are under pressure, with many leaving their jobs each year, is well known. Personal sacrifices, long working hours, lack of resources and an overstretched system take their toll, and occasionally staff are involved in traumatic and emotionally difficult situations. Many tolerate these conditions in the service of doing a job they love, but what happens to their mental health over time? Nurturing Maternity Staff explains how the system and individuals within it relate to each other, highlighting both the vital role compassionate leadership has in creating psychologically safe working environments, as well as tools individuals can use to optimise their own mental wellbeing. Let's dare to dream maternity services could be different.

This book explores the undeveloped potential of video-ethnography to study the material, embodied and sensory dimensions of workplace practices. With the growing interest in sociomateriality and the development of research on the embodied and sensory dimensions of organizational practices, some methodological challenges of this type of research need to be addressed. The main purpose of this book is to present various forms of video-ethnography that make organizational phenomena visible and help better appreciate the organizing properties of bodies, affects, senses and spaces in workplace practices. To do so, illustrative cases based on video-ethnography was discussed to understand how experiential and unspoken ways of knowing produced through a video-based approach can be made meaningful and relevant to study the material, embodied and sensory dimension of work practices. This book is addressed to researchers and students in social sciences and organizational studies and offers a methodological reflection on how to study the material, embodied, and sensory dimensions of organizational life.

Attachment theory-based treatments including depth psychology, somatic psychology, holistic therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) are becoming even more popular and desired by clinicians, health systems, and the patients they care for. Up until recently, cognitive behavioral therapy and medication management were the mainstays for trauma-informed care, although we are witnessing a demand for a more somatic, holistic, and, therefore, deeper level of treatment to target attachment injury and change/re-write the trauma narrative. This book provides the response and tools to meet this current need. Due to the pandemic, lockdowns, and significant changes in our stability, the economy, sense of belonging, and community, there is a heightened level of triggering which has resulted in multifactorial trauma responses. The devastating traumatic impact spans nations, ages, and socioeconomic statuses. Unfortunately, domestic violence, child abuse, substance use, medical trauma, self-injury, suicide, and violence turned outwards have all increased significantly in the past two years. This workbook focuses on the healing journey of the trauma survivor, utilizing easy-to-use methodologies for long-lasting effects. It includes various exercises, writing prompts, coping mechanisms, and soothing techniques with the intention of allowing the person to create an individualized experience. This empowers the person to go in the order they choose, experiment with different techniques from different modalities, and find the ones that meet their needs the best. The authors also address generational trauma, societal trauma, and trauma at the family and individual levels, and their work can be used in conjunction with a clinical treatment plan or by the end user. Re-Write: A Trauma Workbook of Creative Writing and Recovery in Our New Normal employs practical strategies using evidence-based methodologies with psychological theory within a human-centered design framework.

Good leadership and governance at all levels of the healthcare system is necessary for better performance of the system and health outcomes. Lack of good leadership and governance practices can lead to misuse of health system inputs such as human resources, health commodities and financial resources hence lowering the quality of services delivered. Thus, this guide was developed through collaborative efforts envisioned to respond to the needs of improving good governance practices at the primary healthcare level in resource-limited healthcare systems. Key Features: * Improves the management of primary health facilities. * Helps the health facility managers and teams at primary healthcare level to effectively and efficiently lead and manage the facilities. * Enumerates practical scenarios on health issues that commonly occur in health facilities and provides alternative ways of addressing the issues raised in the scenarios.

This book examines healthcare innovation processes, shedding light on the controversies endemic to innovation, which make such processes notoriously challenging. While, in the heat of action, controversies may be seen as barriers to innovation, observations reported in this volume point to controversies also having an energizing role. Students and academics studying innovation, organization, and health management and economics will find this book a valuable read as it provides empirical case studies on innovation processes in practice. Controversies in Healthcare Innovation will also appeal to practitioners of health care management, innovation project managers and policy-makers in the health care sector.

Shedding light on current transformations in payment mechanisms and transparency of hospital performance data and prices, this volume of Advances in Health Care Management presents findings on hospital profitability, cost, and organizational structures. Divided into two sections: 'Reimbursement, Cost and Profitability' and 'The Move Towards Transparency', the chapters employ a variety of research methodologies to explore the impact of transformation in payment and debt structures, profitability, and horizontal or vertical integration on outcomes such as price, clinical outcomes, and health plan selection. The authors examine recent changes including the redesign of the U.S. health care system to achieve higher value, and the establishment of mechanisms that transform reimbursement models and promote consumerism through transparency of data. Additionally, the volume takes a look at the emerging trend of transparency between health care stakeholders such as patients, health care staff, hospitals, insurance companies, and the government, providing a valuable insight into how the future might look.

Patients with unmet needs will continue to increase as no viable nor adequate treatment exists. Meanwhile, healthcare systems are struggling to cope with the rise of patients with chronic diseases, the ageing population and the increasing cost of drugs. What if there is a faster and less expensive way to provide better care for patients using the right digital solutions and transforming the growing volumes of health data into insights? The increase of digital health has grown exponentially in the last few years. Why is there a slow uptake of these new digital solutions in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries? One of the key reasons is that patients are often left out of the innovation process. Their data are used without their knowledge, solutions designed for them are developed without their input and healthcare professionals refuse their expertise. This book explores what it means to empower patients in a digital world and how this empowerment will bridge the gap between science, technology and patients. All these components need to co-exist to bring value not only to the patients themselves but to improve the healthcare ecosystem. Patients have taken matters into their own hands. Some are equipped with the latest wearables and applications, engaged in improving their health using data, empowered to make informed decisions and ultimately are experts in their disease(s). They are the e-patients. The other side of the spectrum are patients with minimal digital literacy but equally willing to donate their data for the purpose of research. Finding the right balance when using digital health solutions becomes as critical as the need to develop a disease-specific solution. For the first time, the authors look at healthcare and technologies through the lens of patients and physicians via surveys and interviews in order to understand their perspective on digital health, analyse the benefits for them, explore how they can actively engage in the innovation process, and identify the threats and opportunities the large volumes of data create by digitizing healthcare. Are patients truly ready to know everything about their health? What is the value of their data? How can other stakeholders join the patient empowerment movement? This unique perspective will help us re-design the future of healthcare - an industry in desperate need for a change.

The COVID-19 pandemic upended the lives of many and taught us the critical importance of taking care of one's health and wellness. Technological advances, coupled with advances in healthcare, has enabled the widespread growth of a new area called mobile health or mHealth that has completely revolutionized how people envision healthcare today. Just as smartphones and tablet computers are rapidly becoming the dominant consumer computer platforms, mHealth technology is emerging as an integral part of consumer health and wellness management regimes. The aim of this book is to inform readers about the this relatively modern technology, from its history and evolution to the current state-of-the-art research developments and the underlying challenges related to privacy and security issues. The book's intended audience includes individuals interested in learning about mHealth and its contemporary applications, from students to researchers and practitioners working in this field. Both undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in college-level healthcare courses will find this book to be an especially useful companion and will be able to discover and explore novel research directions that will further enrich the field.

This comprehensive book looks at COVID-19, along with other recent infectious disease outbreaks, with the broad aim of providing constructive lessons and critical reflections from across a wide range of perspectives and disciplinary interests within the risk analysis field. The chapters in this edited volume probe the roles of risk communication, risk perception, and risk science in helping to manage the ever-growing pandemic that was declared a public health emergency of international concern in the beginning of 2020. A few chapters in the book also include relevant content discussing past disease outbreaks, such as Zika, Ebola and MERS-CoV. This book distils past and present knowledge, appraises current responses, introduces new ideas and data, and offers key recommendations, which will help illuminate different aspects of the global health crisis. It also explores how different constructive insights offered from a 'risk perspective' might inform decisions on how best to proceed in response as the pandemic continues. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Risk Research.

It's All Analytics! The Foundations of AI, Big Data and Data Science Landscape for Professionals in Healthcare, Business, and Government (978-0-367-35968-3, 325690) Professionals are challenged each day by a changing landscape of technology and terminology. In recent history, especially in the last 25 years, there has been an explosion of terms and methods that automate and improve decision-making and operations. One term, "analytics," is an overarching description of a compilation of methodologies. But AI (artificial intelligence), statistics, decision science, and optimization, which have been around for decades, have resurged. Also, things like business intelligence, online analytical processing (OLAP) and many, many more have been born or reborn. How is someone to make sense of all this methodology and terminology? This book, the first in a series of three, provides a look at the foundations of artificial intelligence and analytics and why readers need an unbiased understanding of the subject. The authors include the basics such as algorithms, mental concepts, models, and paradigms in addition to the benefits of machine learning. The book also includes a chapter on data and the various forms of data. The authors wrap up this book with a look at the next frontiers such as applications and designing your environment for success, which segue into the topics of the next two books in the series.

"True wellness innovation requires the recruitment of multi-disciplinary participants. This book breaks the mold with examples from healthcare experts and other professionals who have leveraged informatics to better the lives of their constituents." - Jason Helgerson, Founder & CEO, Helgerson Solutions Group LLC Developed for those training in academic centers as well as for those already "out in the field," this book looks at how attorneys, behavioral health experts, business development experts, chief information officers, chief medical officers, chief nursing information officers, consumer advocates, cryptographic experts, futurists, geneticists, informaticists, managed care executives, nurses, pharmacists, physicians, public health professionals, software developers, systems security officers, and workforce experts are collaborating on a "team-based," IT-enabled approach to improve healthcare.

Health Policy presents the key classic and contemporary articles and will be an important source of reference for health care professionals, academics and policymakers. It sheds light on the values and socio-political factors which underpin health policy, and will be invaluable in helping to assess and compare policymaking processes in different countries. The volume is divided into six sections and within each section the articles are presented chronologically. Thus the selection is suitable for both the beginner and the more advanced student; the beginner will benefit from the earlier readings by observing their cumulative impact on later writings, while the more advanced student may find the more up-to-date articles of particular interest. Section I introduces several basic values which underlie all health policies; section II reviews the socio-economic and political factors in health policy; section III deals with the experience and practice of American health care while section IV offers comparisons with other countries in Europe and also with Japan. Section V examines the opportunities and constraints for countries' learning from each other and finally section VI raises methodological issues and indicates the challenges which must be addressed in the future.

This volume analyses the transition of Chinese medicine during the modern era, and the development of product and service niches in selected countries: China, Malaysia, Japan and the Philippines. By investigating the major actors behind the transition, it explores in what way and to what extent these actors affect the transition. It argues that the transnational transition of Chinese medicine is caused not only by spontaneous cultural and social factors, i.e. population growth, technological innovation and acculturation, but also by hegemonic political and economic factors such as Western influence, adoption of the philosophy of modern state, and global commodification of indigenous medical specialties.

This book gathers scientific contributions on comprehensive approaches to personalized medicine. In a systematic and clear manner, it provides extensive information on the methodological, technological, and clinical aspects of high-throughput analytics, nanotechnology approaches, microbiota/human interactions, in-vitro fertilization and preimplantation, and various diseases like cancer.Moreover, the book analyzes the social and legal aspects of social security systems, healthcare systems and EU law - e.g. the role of solidarity, regulatory possibilities and obstacles, justice and equality, privacy/disclosure of data, and the right to know - from an interdisciplinary perspective. Lastly, it explores the economical and ethical context in the fields of business models, intellectual property issues, the patient/physician relationship, and price discrimination.

Unique selling point: The Internet of Things (IoT), AI, and analytics are studied on how they can combat pandemics Core audience: Researchers and medical informatics professionals Place in the market: Academic reference title on timely topic also appealing to professionals

In Decolonizing Trauma Work, Renee Linklater explores healing and wellness in Indigenous communities on Turtle Island. Drawing on a decolonizing approach, Linklater engages ten Indigenous health care practitioners in a dialogue regarding Indigenous worldviews, notions of wellness and wholistic health, critiques of psychiatry and psychiatric diagnoses, and Indigenous approaches to helping people through trauma, depression and experiences of parallel and multiple realities. Linklater offers purposeful and practical methods to help individuals and communities that have experienced trauma, through stories and strategies that are grounded in Indigenous worldviews and embedded with cultural knowledge. Decolonizing Trauma Work, one of the first books of its kind, is a resource for education and training programs, health care practitioners, healing centres, clinical services and policy initiatives.

Addressing the area of shared leadership, also known as collective or distributed leadership, this edited book embraces the underlying idea that leadership is a dynamic process that intersects closely with followership. While some authors present rigorously researched qualitative and quantitative case studies that investigate the dynamics of followership in distributive leadership in terms of collective decision-making, leadership identity, roles and demographic composition of groups in a variety of settings, other authors take a critical look at distributed leadership models by viewing them through the lens of nature and ecosystems as well as human development processes. The chapters aim to inspire readers to challenge the current definition of leadership and explore more inclusive and holistic paradigms. Distributed Leadership provides a comprehensive and constructive contribution to the field of leadership and will be an essential read for academics and scholar-practitioners interested in business management.

How we recruit future healthcare professionals is critically important, as the demand for high quality healthcare increases across the globe. This book questions what the evidence tells us about how best to select those most suited to a career in healthcare, ensuring that the approaches used are relevant and fair to all who apply. The editors of this collection take a comprehensive look at the latest research surrounding recruitment and selection into healthcare roles. Each chapter is authored by leading experts and, using international case material, the practical implications for workforce policy are explored. They review the key stages in designing effective selection systems and discuss how best to evaluate the quality of selection processes. Evidence from role analysis studies as well as the effectiveness of different selection methods including aptitude and situational judgment tests, personality assessment and interviews are examined. Chapters also cover approaches to student selection and recruitment for postgraduate trainees through to senior appointments. Finally they highlight contemporary issues in recruitment, including the use of technology, selecting for values, candidate perceptions, coaching issues and how best to promote diversity and widening access.

This timely book is the most comprehensive account yet of recent commissioning practice in the English NHS and its impact on health services and the healthcare system. Drawing on eight years of research, expert researchers in the field analyse crucial aspects of commissioning, including competition and cooperation, the development of Clinical Commissioning Groups and contractual mechanisms. They also consider the influence of recent commissioning reforms on public health infrastructure. For academics and policy makers in health services research and policy, this is a valuable collection of evidence that deepens understanding of how commissioning works.

This book analyses the perceived legitimacy of health and safety in post-1960 British public life. Since 2010 health and safety has appeared to be in crisis, being attacked by press, politicians and public alike, but are these claims of crisis accurate? How have understandings of health and safety changed over the past 60 years? By exploring the history, culture, and operation of health and safety in contemporary Britain, this book provides a new assessment of an understudied, but surprisingly far-reaching, part of the British political and social landscape. Combining archival research with focus group, social survey and oral history testimony, the book examines the historical background to health and safety, how health and safety has been enacted in public and in the workplace, the impact of changing economic, occupational and social structures on the operation of health and safety, and the conflicts and interests that have shaped the area.

Over the past three decades, professions across the European Union have faced significant and radical challenges. This book analyses three professional groups involved in the academic and health sectors and how they are affected by different national Welfare State models such as Mediterranean, Scandinavian and Anglo Saxon.