The NHS is in crisis. The past 10 years of Tory real-terms cuts in funding has been disastrous. This book looks at the threat to the NHS posed by the combination of two years of a global pandemic with the relentless policies pursued by Tory-led governments since 2010. With contributions by 13 experts on different aspects of the crisis: Lobby Akkinnola, Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Rehana Azam, National Secretary, Public Services GMB union; Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary, National Education Union, on Covid, education and schools; Sara Gorton, Head of Health UNISON, on pay and conditions of NHS staff; Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe, National Officer Unite, the Health & Care Bill, on ambulance and other staff; Roger Kline, Research fellow at Middlesex University, on equalities and BAME; Roy Lilley, health policy analyst, on management views; Michael Mansfield, barrister QC, on holding the government to account; Sir Michael Marmot, Prof. of Epidemiology & Public Health, University College London, Director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity, on health inequality. Martin McKee, Prof. European Public Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, on public health; Neena Modi, Prof. Neonatal Medicine at Imperial College, on child and adolescent health, including mental health; Jan Shortt, General Secretary of the National Pensioners Convention, on care for the elderly; David Wrigley, Deputy Chair British Medical Association, on primary care; ... a superb reply to what is happening with our beloved NHS. We need it to help us in our struggles to push back against those who are snatching it away from us. All struggles need resolve, solidarity and hope, but they also need information. - From the foreword by Michael Rosen

This book offers a bio-psycho-social approach to evidence-based practice in health and social care. The book presents current evidence on the influence of genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors on behaviour, a survey of developmental factors from childhood to old age, and implications for practice at each stage.

First published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The maintenance of health and the provision of services for the sick are probably some of the most challenging tasks facing modern government. "Health Care Systems in Seven Countries" looks at the way in which health care is organized and delivered in Australia, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the USA. It also examines the continuing quest for solutions to some of the seemingly intractible problems on the health care agenda. The organization of health care in each country is analyzed within a common framework.
It is increasingly important that students and practitioners have a wider perspective and are able to draw upon knowledge of other health care systems in order to inform their own analysis. This book will make a substantial contribution towards that end.

This text is a response to changes currently affecting counselling. A team of contributors identify the pressures forcing change, taking into account national and European legislation and the drive from within counselling towards greater professionalism and accountability. Part one considers the impact of accredation, National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), developing Codes of Ethics and evaluating effectiveness. Part two looks at new interventions for common problems, such as smoking, depression, stress and abuse; new settings for counselling, including the workplace and medical practice; and new techniques, such as using narratives. The final part discusses issues in training, raising questions about the place of a feminist perspective and whether there are still myths about counselling which need to be challenged.

This book provides a hands-on introduction to Machine Learning (ML) from a multidisciplinary perspective that does not require a background in data science or computer science. It explains ML using simple language and a straightforward approach guided by real-world examples in areas such as health informatics, information technology, and business analytics. The book will help readers understand the various key algorithms, major software tools, and their applications. Moreover, through examples from the healthcare and business analytics fields, it demonstrates how and when ML can help them make better decisions in their disciplines. The book is chiefly intended for undergraduate and graduate students who are taking an introductory course in machine learning. It will also benefit data analysts and anyone interested in learning ML approaches.

Germs and governance brings together leading historians, practitioners and policy makers to consider the past, present and future of hospital infection control. Combining historical case-studies with practitioner experiences, this volume offers a new understanding of the emergence of theories of germ transmission and containment and how these theories played out in real-world environments, networks and professional organisations. Exploring the historical context in which technologies like gloves were developed and popularised, as well as how relationships between communities and hospitals, doctors and nurses, and the emerging role of hospital bacteriologists have shaped infection control practices, the collection emphasises the diverse contexts in which ideas about germs, infection and safety circulated. The volume also addresses the historical neglect of the critical role of nurses in the development and success of infection control measures. -- .

As technology evolves and electronic data becomes more complex, digital medical record management and analysis becomes a challenge. In order to discover patterns and make relevant predictions based on large data sets, researchers and medical professionals must find new methods to analyze and extract relevant health information. Big Data Analytics in Bioinformatics and Healthcare merges the fields of biology, technology, and medicine in order to present a comprehensive study on the emerging information processing applications necessary in the field of electronic medical record management. Complete with interdisciplinary research resources, this publication is an essential reference source for researchers, practitioners, and students interested in the fields of biological computation, database management, and health information technology, with a special focus on the methodologies and tools to manage massive and complex electronic information.

The European Union is becoming increasingly involved in health policy. The Treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam require the EU to consider health issues in all that it does. Even though the Union has no direct involvement in the delivery of health services, its range of responsibilities, including the ramifications for health of the Single European Market, make it a key player. This is the first major academic book solely devoted to EU health and health-related policy.

This book presents an evaluation framework for assessing the impact of the new media on the health care system by juxtaposing characteristics of emerging information and communication technologies (interactive, seamlessly connected, and user-driven) and health care objectives (to increase access, improve quality, and manage costs). Each chapter provides a unique set of tools and perspectives on how to harness these new media to improve individual health and the health care delivery system. This innovative volume has also stimulated the creation of a "Forum on Health and the New Media" on the World Wide Web (http: //Health.Dartmouth.edu/NewMedia/). The forum offers highlights of the book as well as links to the authors and related web sites.
The volume is divided into six sections as follows:
*The "Overview" juxtaposes characteristics of the new media (interactive, connected, and user-driven) with the three criteria for health care improvement: increased access, improved quality, and cost management. It offers a New Media and Health Care matrix of criteria for building and evaluating emerging health care systems.
*The "Delivery" -- how new media can enhance the delivery of health care -- includes chapters on: managed care, demand management and self-care, telemedicine for rural residents, and how the Internet can be used to facilitate collaboration among health researchers and providers.
*Health Information -- the life blood of health care -- addresses the potential for: extending the traditional flow of health information (from researchers to providers) to reach patients who want to share in decisions about their care; and the federal government's role in providing health information to the public.
*Health Education discusses: integrating multimedia health programming for public schools; using networked multimedia and simulation technologies and new learning theories that promise to transform public health education; and educating health providers and patients through interactive media and drama.
*Potholes Along the Highway provides a sobering balance to otherwise rather optimistic assumptions that a national information infrastructure will be forthcoming.
*The New Media: Annotated Glossary provides computing and networking technology tools for readers who are not fluent in cyberlanguage.

Traditionally in health services research, cost, quality and access to care have been viewed as the three major issues of health care delivery and have been important in the development of health services research as a multidisciplinary way to examine issues in health care and health care delivery. Satisfaction is often viewed as a specialized aspect of access to care. Given the sociological focus of this volume, costs are less of a focus, but access, quality and satisfaction are important sociological aspects of health services delivery concerns and have been for more than 30 years. This volume explores a variety of those issues in todays health care system, with a strong sociological focus.
Besides the introductory section of the volume, the other sections of the volume focus on articles that are about patients and special types of care, elderly care issues, issues of access, quality and satisfaction with care from the perspective of foreign health care systems, and these issues in public systems of care. Some of the specific chapters look at issues of care for Vietnam veterans, patients with myocardial infarctions, and dental care and maternity care, elderly care issues, and what can be learned from explorations of some aspects of the health care systems of Canada and Hungary.
Access, Quality and Satisfaction with Care is essential reading for medical sociologists and people working in other social science disciplines studying health-related issues. The volume also provides vital information for health services researchers, policy analysts and public health researchers.
*Looks at health care from a sociological perspective that is more focused on access, quality andsatisfaction than cost
*Chapters focus on specialized forms of care and specific issues (i.e. Vietnam Veterans, dental and maternity care, elderly care issues, health care systems in different countries, etc.)
*Essential for medical sociologists and others in social science industries studying health-related issues

Hospice Care and Cultural Diversity captures the richness and differences that make up the United States and its culture. This book shows you the complex issues arising from work with patients of a different culture and encourages research in hospices which support culturally innovative programs. Many people are individually knowledgeable and culturally sensitive, but few hospices have systematically planned for service to culturally diverse groups. This volume identifies who is implementing organizational programs of cultural sensitivity and acknowledges the efforts of those individuals working to make hospice accessible to everyone.Hospice Care and Cultural Diversity contains original research, personal insights, and overviews to help you understand what is being done in the field. Specifically, chapters discuss: National Hospice Organization activities, goals, and recommended actions death and dying from a Native American perspective breaking barriers to hospice for African Americans a case study of the development of a culturally sensitive treatment plan in pre-hospice south Texas caregiving norms surrounding dying and use of hospice services among Hispanic American elderly cultural considerations surrounding childhood bereavement among Cambodians in the U.S. one hospice's experience in identifying and meeting the needs of ethnic minority patientsPeople from many different cultures are eager to share their customs, practices, and beliefs. They want hospice providers to understand their culture, and they want their community served by hospice. The only book of its kind, Hospice Care and Cultural Diversity is a valuable reference and source of ideas for anyone interested in the delivery of hospice services. From students to experts, you will find much information to help make hospice care accessible and comfortable for all groups of people.

With moves towards greater integration of health and social care services, there is a need for improved understanding of the importance and benefits of a person-centred, holistic approach to work in these fields. This accessible text, the product of a collaborative venture between older people's groups and academics, provides students, academics and practitioners across a wide range of health and social care professions with a guide to understanding the value of this approach. Health, well-being and older people: provides an overview of relevant research and service development literature; presents and discusses a range of issues that are important to the health of older people including attitudes and ageism, the body, the environment, family and community, sexuality and having fun; draws on material developed and, in some cases, written by older people themselves; integrates theory and empirical evidence with practice experience; offers models of best practice. Designed with the needs of students in mind, each chapter has helpful aids to understanding including: key learning points; models for case studies; summaries and exercises; glossaries and recommended texts. Throughout, readers are encouraged to think through the implications of the material in respect of their own service settings. Health, well-being and older people is essential reading for students and staff on qualifying and post-qualifying programmes in nursing, social work, social care, social policy, gerontology and related courses. It is also recommended reading for practitioners who will want to engage with the ideas for best practice presented in the book.

As health care costs soar, there is increasing interest in examining what society and, particularly, patients receive in return for these expenditures. Optimizing Health brings together the best thinking from both sides of the Atlantic to explore these issues. It employs disciplinary perspectives from economics, ethics, philosophy, psychology, clinical practice, and epidemiology to explore various ways that value for patients have and can be determined. It concludes with a discussion of changes required in practice, research, and health care systems to maximize the outcomes received from the provision of medical care services from the patient's perspective. The first section of the book provides theoretical perspectives from economics and systems thinking that help us to focus on how one might determine the value of medical care for patients. The next section considers the ethical and philosophical dilemmas that face developed countries in distributing medical care. How is justice served and evidence-based medicine employed to increase the value of medical care for patients? perspective and involving patients in medical decision making. Measuring quality of life and gaining valid quality of life information when patients cannot respond for themselves are important topics covered by these chapters. Other chapters consider ways that patients can become more involved in medical decision making with the expectation that this will increase the value of medical care for patients. A major section of the book about clinical practice discusses problems that can reduce the value to patients of medical care. These include over diagnosis, aggressive treatments that do not result in better patient outcomes, findings that earlier diagnosis does not always result in better outcomes, and the extent of medical error in treatment. The final sections deal with cost-effectiveness analyses and applications of clinical epidemiology. The chapters include a number of original investigations and applications of new methodologies. researchers who want to find in one place the state-of-the-art thinking and future directions of valuing medical care from the patient's perspective. Ronald Andersen Wasserman is the Professor Emeritus of the Departments of Health Services and Sociology at the University of California School of Public Health in Los Angeles.

The contributing authors of this volume--respected authorities on health care and social work--describe the shift from hospital based care to ambulatory patient and family focused community based services. Social Work in Ambulatory Care assists readers who need to develop, plan, and implement new social work roles for a changing health care system. Chapters focus on the implications of health care reform, based on policy or economic mandates, and provide specific examples of how social service providers can approach health care in a new era.As the authors describe the shift in health care to ambulatory care and the role of social work in this new environment, they cover areas of potential concern to social service providers. Readers will be challenged to plan new social work roles in the future--roles that help advance social work s own definitions of health and wellness. Specific examples of creative roles for social work are described and several of the most important areas this guidebook analyzes are: the health care system under siege support groups managed care emergency room community based careFor social workers in health settings, struggling with the questions of relevance, growth, and worth in a changing environment, Social Work in Ambulatory Care provokes new ideas about health care for the future.

Advanced Statistics for Health Research provides a rigorous geometric understanding of models used in the analysis of health data, including linear and non-linear regression models, and supervised machine learning models. Models drawn from the health literature include: ordinary least squares, two-stage least squares, probits, logits, Cox regressions, duration modeling, quantile regression and random forest regression. Causal inference techniques from the health literature are presented including randomization, matching and propensity score matching, differences-in-differences, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, and fixed effects analysis. Codes for the respective statistical techniques presented are given for STATA, SAS and R.

Introduction The prevailing model of medical care for patients with cancer emphasizes the curative efforts of medical technology toward the eradication of the disease. Yet the suffering of the patient as a result of both the disease and our efforts to treat it is often overlooked. If we are to improve the survival of patients with cancer, it will be through intensive research into the molecular under pinnings of the disease and clinical trials of new therapies. However, it is essen tial to recognize and address the suffering of cancer patients as they are being treated. It is the purpose of this book to illuminate and advance the preven tion and treatment of suffering as part of the continuum of care for patients with cancer. Fundamental concepts Since the time of Hippocrates in the fifth century B.c., there have been two overall goals for the physician: * Cure of disease * Relief of suffering From our vantage point in the late twentieth century looking back at previ ous centuries, it is easy to observe that, aside from surgery, much of the medical care administered to patients with cancer was aimed at relieving the suffering associated with illness. It wasn't until the concept of disease (as opposed to illness) was elucidated and the scientific method was applied to understand ing and eradicating cancer that significant strides were made to improve the physician's ability to cure cancer.

This is an increasingly timely book, focusing on issues arising from the impact of COVID-19 on the health care law of the Central and East European countries. It deals with dualism and system of health care law, depicts legal personality in the field of health care, examines property rights and turnover of human tissues, considers moral rights in this field, intellectual ownership in the field of medicine and pharmacy, contracts on health care and contracts on rendering medical services, the legal relationships of transplantology, post-mortem reproduction and donorship, features of family personal property rights in the field of health care, problems of legal regulation of medical workers labour, investigates private legal relationships of surrogate motherhood with foreign element. Special attention is given to the alternative resolution of health care disputes and impact of pandemic on the effective health rights protection. The book is intended for wide auditoria of scholars and practitioners, who engaged in health care rights protection, as well as judges and practicing lawyers, graduate and undergraduate students.

Why is our health care system so fragmented in the care it gives patients? Why is there little coordination amongst the many doctors who treat individual patients, who often even lack access to a common set of medical records? Why is fragmentation a problem even within a single hospital, where errors or miscommunications often seem to result from poor coordination amongst the myriad of professionals treating any one individual patient? Why is health care fragmented both over time, so that too little is spent on preventive care, and across patients, so that resources are often misallocated to the patients who need it least? The Fragmentation of U.S. Health Care: Causes and Solutions approaches these broad questions with a highly interdisciplinary approach.
The articles included in the work address legal and regulatory issues, including laws that mandate separate payments for each provider, restrict hospitals or others from controlling or rewarding the set of providers treating a patient to assure coordinated care, and provide affirmative disincentives for coordinating care by paying more for uncoordinated care that requires more services. Business reasons for the current form of hospital organization are considered, and efficiency and design are examined and compared to other industries. The economics of current hospital organization are also taken into account. The authors examine and propose various reforms that make our health care system less fragmented, more efficient, and more medically effective.

Providing a cross-cultural perspective on the social construction of AIDS in Brazil, this book presents research by authors who have a decade's experience in AIDS activism and social research. The final section offers a powerful portrayal of problems faced by a person living with AIDS.

Contents:
Lesbian health care research - a review of the literature from 1970 to 1990; ecological transition - using Bronfenbrenner's model to study sexual identity change; lesbian stereotypes; reasons American lesbians fail to seek traditional health care; lesbians as an invisible minority in the health service arena; health life styles of lesbians' images of recovery from alcohol problems; how do lesbian women develop serenity; lesbian childbearing couples' dilemmas and decisions; an investigation of the health care preferences of the lesbian population; the lesbian custody project.