In the United States alone, burns are the third leading cause of death among children 0 to 14 years of age. In addition, each year greater than 125,000 children suffer serious burn injuries, with a disturbing percentage of those through abuse. Yet the number of specialized burn centers in the U.S. is not near enough to be in proximity or even accessible to the majority of these patients. The situation is even worse in most other regions of the world. Therefore, it is critical that the information in this book reaches as many caregivers as possible because treatment of burn injuries has undergone dramatic changes over time in every area, from surgical procedures to respiratory and fluid resuscitation and even nourishment and metabolic support. The ability to recognize and react appropriately to pediatric injury can greatly affect the outcome and prognosis, up to and including the patient's future quality of life. It is in this context that this comprehensive guide for the diagnosis, treatment and follow up of the burned child from Time Zero through Long-term Rehabilitation was put together. This book is essential for the medical professional involved in attaining the most positive outcome possible for their patients and their families.

User-Driven Healthcare and Narrative Medicine: Utilizing Collaborative Social Networks and Technologies fills this gap by exploring various individual user driven strategies that move towards solving multiple clinical system problems in healthcare, utilizing real life examples. Documenting individual concrete experiences, reflective observations, abstract conceptualizations and particular instances of active experimentation, this text is a valuable resource not only for the healthcare academic community, but patients interested in social networking to improve their own healthcare outcomes.

The effective delivery of healthcare services is vital to the general welfare and well-being of a country's citizens. Financial infrastructure and policy reform can play a significant role in optimizing existing healthcare programs. Health Economics and Healthcare Reform: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice is a comprehensive source of academic material on the importance of economic structures and policy reform initiatives in modern healthcare systems. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as clinical costing, patient engagement, and e-health, this book is ideally designed for medical practitioners, researchers, professionals, and students interested in the optimization of healthcare delivery.

At present, human society is facing a health care crisis that is affecting patients worldwide. In the United States, it is generally believed that the major problem is lack of affordable access to health care (i.e. health insurance). This book takes an unprecedented approach to address this issue by proposing that the major problem is not lack of affordable access to health care per se, but lack of access to better, safer, and more affordable medicines. The latter problem is present not only in the United States and the developing world but also in countries with socialized health care systems, such as Europe and the rest of the industrialized world. This book provides a comparative analysis of the health care systems throughout the world and also examines the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

Examines the health care structure of the United States, Europe, and the third world, both separately and comparativelyOffers primary source insight through in-depth interviews with pharmaceutical and health care industry leaders from around the worldCarefully explains, in clear terms, the intricacies of the health care and pharmaceutical system and how these intricacies have led to the current crisisOffers concrete, comprehensive solutions to the health care crisis

In this groundbreaking book, experts show what a difference support systems-family, friends, community and social programs-can make towards the recovery of the millions of people who suffer a traumatic brain injury each year. Health and Healing after Traumatic Brain Injury: Understanding the Power of Family, Friends, Community, and Other Support Systems stresses the importance of an integrated and systems approach to healing. This book offers a unique combination of practitioner perspectives on what works for individual patients, consumer stories and learned insights over time, as well as researcher insights from innovative programs. It provides a holistic account of the important factors in living with a brain injury that will inform and benefit health practitioners and policy makers as well as people with brain injuries and their family members and friends. The chapters explore the current best evidence and contemporary views on healing that draw on optimism, aspirational living, and meaningful partnerships. The authors focus on the emergent area of the salutogenic experience of injury-how brain injury changes and shapes lives in positive ways-and on the variables within individuals and their environments that provide a supportive influence in long-term healing. Presents multiple viewpoints from the perspectives of consumers, practitioners, researchers, and policy makers Advocates an integrated approach to healing after brain injury that incorporates multiple strategies Demonstrates how change and growth are possible after brain injury

Technology has become an integral part of our daily interactions, even within the hospitals and healthcare facilities we rely on in times of illness and injury. New technologies and systems are being developed every day, advancing the ways that we treat and maintain the health and wellbeing of diverse populations. Reshaping Medical Practice and Care with Health Information Systems explores the latest advancements in telemedicine and various medical technologies transforming the healthcare sector. Emphasizing current trends and future opportunities for IT integration in medicine, this timely publication is an essential reference source for medical professionals, IT specialists, graduate-level students, and researchers.

Around half the world's population live in countries where the fertility rate is far below the replacement rate and where life expectancy is increasing dramatically. Using Singapore as a case study, Social Policy in an Ageing Society explores what might happen in a dynamic and prosperous society when falling births, longer life expectancy and rising expectations put disproportionate pressure on scarce resources that have alternative uses. David Reisman investigates the challenges facing Singapore, where a rapidly rising median age and the growing pressure of the elderly upon medical attention are threatening to disrupt the economic and even the political status quo. The dependency of the old upon the young is becoming a financial and an emotional burden. Health care is swelling in quantity and price. Voluntary and compulsory savings are being used up. New demands for pensions and subsidies are challenging the national ideology of family network and self-reliance. Despite a wealth of prospective problems, the author argues that viable solutions can be found. Discretionary savings can increase. Reverse mortgages can monetise owner-occupied property. A higher participation rate can give the elderly the opportunity to earn a living for themselves. This book concludes that public policy must play its part in facilitating these solutions. It must ensure that the old retain their dignity. The old should not lie where they fall. This comprehensive, intelligible and highly original cross-disciplinary study will appeal to a wide-ranging audience. Readers will include academics, researchers and students with an interest in health economics, the economics of development, social policy and administration, public policy and the socio-economic aspects of medicine.

By combining electronic communication and information technology with healthcare practices, e-health promises access to health information, diagnosis, treatment, and care to patients who may "enter" and interact with the system in new ways. Telemedicine and E-Health Services, Policies, and Applications: Advancements and Developments offers a comprehensive and integrated approach to telemedicine by collecting e-health experiences and applications from around the world and by exploring developments and trends in medical informatics. Researchers and professionals in health management, medicine, nursing, and medical informatics will find discussions of critical issues in the emerging field of e- health. The book also introduces innovative concepts and services at the leading edge of healthcare and information technology, which may enable a safer, higher quality, more equitable and sustainable health system.

This revealing book tackles the daunting problem of increasing chronic illness in America, offering fresh ideas for the ways in which the challenge can be successfully managed. Remaking Chronic Care in the Age of Health Care Reform: Changes for Lower Cost, Higher Quality Treatment is nothing less than a blueprint for a new mode of chronic care. It depicts a current system in which there is little financial incentive to furnish coordinated services via appropriate primary care and few penalties for failure to deliver such care. Arguing that the current system is unsustainable, the book documents efforts that have been made to promote better coordination of care through patient-centered medical homes and accountable care organizations. Specifically, the book focuses on linking the ongoing innovations in health care practices with the supports for scaling up innovations found in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. It shows how expanding and improving primary care as the vehicle for care coordination will reduce costs for those with conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, or other longstanding disorders, but also makes it clear that incentives have to be realigned if such improved primary care is to become a reality. 400 up-to-date references A brief history of the development of patient-centered primary care Qualitative descriptions of what it means to have a chronic illness and how it can be managed in the community Comments from patients about appropriate and inappropriate professional behavior