This book introduces quality improvement for anyone studying or working in healthcare. Written in clear, straightforward language, it explores quality improvement from multiple perspectives and outlines a range models and toolkits you can use in practice. Encouraging you to reflect on your role as an improver, the book equips you with the knowledge and skills you need to work through each stage of the improvement process – from troubleshooting an issue, to working with others to make an improvement, through to its evaluation. Key features: -          Case studies and activities help you to apply theory and methodology to your everyday role. -          A comprehensive glossary introduces quality improvement terminology and concepts. -          A logical four-part structure moves from the basics up, building your knowledge and understanding as you go.

A guide to progressive healthcare packed full of actionable recommendations and a road map to a more inclusive and equitable future. Health for Everyone: A Guide to Politically and Socially Progressive Healthcare brings together experts across a range of healthcare and related disciplines to explore how we can make our healthcare system more progressive for groups that have been overlooked for too long. Rather than a health policy manual adopting a 30,000-foot view, this is a practical guide to start making healthcare more responsive, more patient-centered, and more community-led-right now, starting from present realities. Zackary Berger, a well-known primary care physician, activist, and bioethicist, has brought together teachers, clinicians, advocates, and researchers, to map the steps we need to take to provide better care to African American, Latinx, chronically ill, and disabled patients while improving the system overall for everyone Health for Everyone answers questions such as how do you provide the same care to every individual, when individuals are different? How do you get ideal care when you are a member of a disadvantaged group? What if you have a chronic condition that tends to get the short end of the stick, for which treatment might not be available, or be stigmatized?Focusing on a practical, yet ethical and philosophical case for progressive health care, this book focuses on what matters most to patients and on the steps we need to take to insure better health for everyone.

This book provides an analysis of the role of fog computing, cloud computing, and Internet of Things in providing uninterrupted context-aware services as they relate to Healthcare 4.0. The book considers a three-layer patient-driven healthcare architecture for real-time data collection, processing, and transmission. It gives insight to the readers for the applicability of fog devices and gateways in Healthcare 4.0 environments for current and future applications. It also considers aspects required to manage the complexity of fog computing for Healthcare 4.0 and also develops a comprehensive taxonomy.

[ The main goal of this cluster is the optimisation of the medical arts and science. In a graphical representation of human life, the lifespan or time can be shown on a horizontal axis, and the incidences of disease or health can be shown on a vertical axis. Throughout, patient exists in his personal environment, in his individual pri vate sphere. th In the late 20 century, medical arts and sciences have achieved enormous pro gress resulting in highly effective diagnosis and therapy. Today in Europe, a main concern of our society centres around non-communi cable diseases, because communicable diseases have been dramatically reduced by past intensive socio-hygienic programmes. Nevertheless, medicine in Europe must be always alert to fight communicable diseases such as TB, AIDS, SARS etc. Medicine has been very successful in the past in fighting communicable and non-communicable diseases. This has resulted in an increase of our lifespan, and an ageing population. Table 1 shows life expectancy in Europe in 2001. This varies in EU member states from 78.6 up to 82.2 years in females, from 73.7 to 74.6 years in males. In the candidate countries, life expectancy varies in females from 75.2 to 78.1 years and from 66.1 to 71.1 years in males. Table 2 shows the remaining life span at age 65, which is much higher in the EU member states than in the candidate countries. This increasing life expectancy dramatically alters the structure of our society.

Data is more valuable than ever in the twenty-first century, and tremendous amounts of data are being generated every second. With a fast-growing information industry, engineers are required to develop new tools and techniques that increase human capabilities of mining useful knowledge from the vast amounts of data. Optimized Genetic Programming Applications: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an essential reference source that explores the concept of genetic programming and its role in managing engineering problems. It also examines genetic programming as a supervised machine learning technique, focusing on implementation and application. As a resource that details both the theoretical aspects and implementation of genetic programming, this book is a useful source for academicians, biological engineers, computer programmers, scientists, researchers, and upper-level students seeking the latest research on genetic programming.

Applying a trans-disciplinary approach, this book provides a comprehensive, research-based guide to understanding, implementing, and strengthening sustainable community health in diverse international settings. By examining the interdependence of environmental, economic, public health, community wellbeing and development factors, the authors address the systemic factors impacting health disparities, inequality and social justice issues. The book analyzes strategies based on a partnership view of health, in which communities determine their health and wellness working alongside local, state and federal health agencies. Crucially, it demonstrates that communities are themselves health systems and their wellbeing capabilities affect the health of individuals and the collective alike. It identifies health indicators and tools that communities and policy makers can utilize to sustain truly inclusive health systems. This book offers a unique resource for researchers and practitioners working across psychology, mental health, rehabilitation, public health, epidemiology, social policy, healthcare and allied health.

International cooperation has developed rapidly on a wide range of policy areas in the last decades. National governments have learned to look across national borders in order to improve their policy systems, as in the case of health care, the subject of this book. There is a need to compare policy results, and therefore international comparison of statistical data is of great importance. For decades, international organisations like OECD and WHO have collected and distributed statistical information of member states in order to describe developments within these countries. However, comparability across countries has always been problematic. The task of international comparison of statistical data has only reluctantly been adopted due to difficulties caused by differences in definition and methods of data collection. In this book a method is presented for the advancement of international comparison of health care. Starting points are the determination of the boundaries of national health care systems and the activities that take place within these boundaries. This book is meant for all those working in the international health care field or interested in international comparison, who want to be aware of the pitfalls of international comparison and who want to learn, from the described experiences, how to solve problems of comparability.

In less than four months, beginning with a staff of five, an obscure office buried deep within the federal bureaucracy transformed the nation's hospitals from our most racially and economically segregated institutions into our most integrated. These powerful private institutions, which had for a half century selectively served people on the basis of race and wealth, began equally caring for all on the basis of need. The book draws the reader into the struggles of the unsung heroes of the transformation, black medical leaders whose stubborn courage helped shape the larger civil rights movement. They demanded an end to federal subsidization of discrimination in the form of Medicare payments to hospitals that embraced the ""separate but equal"" creed that shaped American life during the Jim Crow era. Faced with this pressure, the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations tried to play a cautious chess game, but that game led to perhaps the biggest gamble in the history of domestic policy. Leaders secretly recruited volunteer federal employees to serve as inspectors and an invisible army of hospital workers and civil rights activists to work as agents, making it impossible for hospitals to get Medicare dollars with mere paper compliance. These triumphs did not come without casualties, yet the story offers lessons and hope for realizing this transformational dream.

This book provides in-depth insights into use cases implementing artificial intelligence (AI) applications at the edge. It covers new ideas, concepts, research, and innovation to enable the development and deployment of AI, the industrial internet of things (IIoT), edge computing, and digital twin technologies in industrial environments. The work is based on the research results and activities of the AI4DI (ECSEL JU) project, including an overview of industrial use cases, research, technological innovation, validation, and deployment. This book's sections build on the research, development, and innovative ideas elaborated for applications in five industries: automotive, semiconductor, industrial machinery, food and beverage, and transportation. The articles included under each of these five industrial sectors discuss AI-based methods, techniques, models, algorithms, and supporting technologies, such as IIoT, edge computing, digital twins, collaborative robots, silicon-born AI circuit concepts, neuromorphic architectures, and augmented intelligence, that are anticipating the development of Industry 5.0. Automotive applications cover use cases addressing AI-based solutions for inbound logistics and assembly process optimisation, autonomous reconfigurable battery systems, virtual AI training platforms for robot learning, autonomous mobile robotic agents, and predictive maintenance for machines on the level of a digital twin. AI-based technologies and applications in the semiconductor manufacturing industry address use cases related to AI-based failure modes and effects analysis assistants, neural networks for predicting critical 3D dimensions in MEMS inertial sensors, machine vision systems developed in the wafer inspection production line, semiconductor wafer fault classifications, automatic inspection of scanning electron microscope cross-section images for technology verification, anomaly detection on wire bond process trace data, and optical inspection. The use cases presented for machinery and industrial equipment industry applications cover topics related to wood machinery, with the perception of the surrounding environment and intelligent robot applications. AI, IIoT, and robotics solutions are highlighted for the food and beverage industry, presenting use cases addressing novel AI-based environmental monitoring; autonomous environment-aware, quality control systems for Champagne production; and production process optimisation and predictive maintenance for soybeans manufacturing. For the transportation sector, the use cases presented cover the mobility-as-a-service development of AI-based fleet management for supporting multimodal transport. This book highlights the significant technological challenges that AI application developments in industrial sectors are facing, presenting several research challenges and open issues that should guide future development for evolution towards an environment-friendly Industry 5.0. The challenges presented for AI-based applications in industrial environments include issues related to complexity, multidisciplinary and heterogeneity, convergence of AI with other technologies, energy consumption and efficiency, knowledge acquisition, reasoning with limited data, fusion of heterogeneous data, availability of reliable data sets, verification, validation, and testing for decision-making processes.

'One of the most beautiful books you will ever read' Kate Mosse In this powerful memoir, Joanna Cannon tells her story as a junior doctor in visceral, heart-rending snapshots. We walk with her through the wards, facing extraordinary and daunting moments: from attending her first post-mortem, sitting with a patient through their final moments, to learning the power of a well- or badly chosen word. These moments, and the small sustaining acts of kindness and connection that punctuate hospital life, teach her that emotional care and mental health can be just as critical as restoring a heartbeat. In a profession where weakness remains a taboo, this moving, beautifully written book brings to life the vivid, human stories of doctors and patients - and shows us why we need to take better care of those who care for us.

This open access book explores ways to leverage information technology and machine learning to combat disease and promote health, especially in resource-constrained settings. It focuses on digital disease surveillance through the application of machine learning to non-traditional data sources. Developing countries are uniquely prone to large-scale emerging infectious disease outbreaks due to disruption of ecosystems, civil unrest, and poor healthcare infrastructure - and without comprehensive surveillance, delays in outbreak identification, resource deployment, and case management can be catastrophic. In combination with context-informed analytics, students will learn how non-traditional digital disease data sources - including news media, social media, Google Trends, and Google Street View - can fill critical knowledge gaps and help inform on-the-ground decision-making when formal surveillance systems are insufficient.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the latest theory and practice on Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in research. Its seven chapters cover the historical and conceptual background; the various ways implementation can be approached and how they are put into practice; ethical considerations and critical perspectives, including on the potentially negative impacts of PPI; approaches to meaningful evaluation; a step by-step guide to planning PPI and conclusions with considerations for future research. Drawing on current literature, this book provides an essential reference work for research students and all who want to better understand PPI in practice. It offers exercises to address key questions, case examples and a checklist for planning PPI and includes a valuable glossary of terms.

This book gathers extended versions of the best papers presented at the Global Joint Conference on Industrial Engineering and Its Application Areas (GJCIE), held as a hybrid event on October 29-30, 2022, in/from Istanbul Technical University. Continuing the tradition of previous volumes, it highlights recent developments of industrial engineering at the purpose of using and managing digital and intelligent technologies for application to a wide range of field, including manufacturing, healthcare, e-commerce and sustainable development. A special emphasis is given to engineering methods and strategies for managing pandemics and reducing their adverse effects on businesses.

There is a clear trend in rich countries that, despite rising incomes and living standards, the gap between rich and poor is widening. What does this mean for our health? Does increasing income inequality affect outcomes such as obesity, life expectancy and subjective well-being? Are rich and poor groups affected in the same ways? This book reviews the latest research on the relationship between inequality and health, and provides a pedagogical introduction to the tools and knowledge needed to understand and assess the vast literature on the subject. The book includes discussion of the definitions and measurement of objective and subjective health and income inequality, and illustrates how various measures have been developed in different countries. Main conclusions from the literature are then summarized and discussed critically. It incorporates a substantial research overview of the field, as well as a detailed debate of the empirical challenges that arise during research. The book concludes that results are surprisingly contradictory, but that several studies have found that higher inequality is directly linked to lower subjective well-being. Students and scholars in public health, social work, economics, and sociology will find this book an essential exposition of conceptual issues and empirical methods applied to the controversial topic of the health consequences of inequality.

An eye-opening and compelling ethnography about how doctors make decisions The oath that doctors take to "do no harm" suggests that patient welfare is at the center of what it means to be a successful medical professional. It is also understood, however, that hospitals are not only vessels for medical care-they are businesses, educational institutions, and complex bureaucracies with intricate codes of etiquette that dictate how each staff member should approach situations with patients. In Conflicted Care, Hyeyoung Oh Nelson provides an in-depth look at the decision-making processes of physicians at a large, prestigious academic medical center-that she calls Pacific Medical Center-and finds that more often than not patient wellbeing is only one of several factors governing day-to-day decisions. The steps physicians take reveal a kind of hidden curriculum of the medical world, one that is guided by status and hierarchy, bureaucracy, norms for consulting with third-parties, regulations for interactions with patients, and medical uncertainty. While at an institutional and individual level patient care continues to be integral to everything the physicians do, they are forced to reconcile that vow with these other, often-conflicting internal logics. Harm, Nelson argues, is thus built into the practice of medicine in the United States. This harm can take the form of unnecessary treatments and consultations or inadequate treatment for pain to motivate specialist intervention that would otherwise be resisted. These and other practices have the overall consequence of significantly driving up inpatient care costs, which then results in patients forgoing needed, ongoing treatment once they receive their medical bills. Drawing on a deep ethnography of physicians in the Internal Medicine Service unit, Nelson offers a sharp assessment of current policies aimed at alleviating medical costs and explains why they are ineffective. She concludes by offering novel policy and practice recommendations for health care practitioners, policy makers, and healthcare institutions.

Scholars and governments recognize the importance of policy development and implementation for population health, but there is a lack of systematic theoretical and conceptual development in the health field to address the issue. Health Promotion and the Policy Process is the first book to take an in-depth look at the theoretical advances in the political sciences, including discussing the significance of political economy and sociology, which so far have made little progress in health promotion development. The book argues that focusing on how public policies work makes it possible to move beyond the more behavioural 'health education' approach, and make the transition from political statements to political strategies. The authors draw from a wide array of theories on the policy process in the fields of political science and political sociology to illuminate health promotion strategies and objectives. For example they discuss how Kingdon's Multiple Streams Model, Sabatier's Advocacy-Coalition Framework and policy network theories can contribute to greater health equity, healthy public policies and community development. Through practical and critical tools, research, and experience-based discussion, Health Promotion and the Policy Process discusses how theories can be used to influence, evaluate, orient or implement health promotion interventions and policies. This book will be essential reading for health promoters who want to make a difference by influencing social determinants of health at the policy level including students, public health professionals, researchers, practitioners, decision makers and those concerned with applied policy research.

This work deals with the current health policy environment, organization and delivery of health services in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It discusses present financing means, and future financing methods such as a proposed national health insurance program and user-changes as well as important strategic issues. It is for healthcare directors, planners and strategists and will be of interest to experts and international investors in health system reorganization.

Every era, it is said, has its defining malady. What will be ours? Will it be a new human pandemic caused by an animal-borne infectious disease, such as swine flu? Will it be a lethal microbe like anthrax deliberately released by terrorists bent on causing mass civilian casualties? Or will it be one of our new 'lifestyle' diseases - the epidemics of smoking, obesity and excessive alcohol consumption that threaten to engulf modern societies? Perhaps our era will even be remembered for its tragic neglect of certain health issues - endemic diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS that continue to ravage millions in developing countries. In this book Stefan Elbe shows that in the new millennium international politics is no longer characterized by its preoccupation with a single disease, but precisely by its need to urgently confront what is now an epidemic of epidemics. Over the past decade a whole host of diverse global health issues have raised the highest levels of political concern, provoking governments and international institutions to tackle such health threats through the prism of security - be it national security, biosecurity, or human security. This convergence between health issues and security concerns has also produced the new notion of health security, which has already begun to shape the way international health policy is formulated. The intersection of the worlds of health and security is beginning to change our very ideas of what security means and how it is achieved. At the outset of the twenty-first century, practising security increasingly demands that citizens become patients, that states resemble huge hospitals, and that security itself becomes a technology of medical control. It is this transformation of security, Elbe argues in an innovative and engaging re-conceptualization of the health-security nexus, that marks nothing short of the medicalization of security.

This book describes the present awful state of India's Public Health Care Delivery, its dismal planning and implementation. It argues that it can be remedied comprehensively and effectively, using its 'own already present' resources. A radical re-evaluation of some sacrosanct ideas and discarding many of these, especially in Primary Care and its structure is required. It can be done without disadvantage to the last man served. This book starts with the sea change India has undergone and emphasizes new ways of managing health. High quality work force creation and its deployment, an unsolved problem is effectively given a solution. The bulk of the book discusses the entire public health care structure and function and how it can be newly laid out with proper work force allocation, hitherto grossly inadequate, including professionals from other training backgrounds. It is total solution that will help India to achieve the goal of Universal Health Care.

Genetic Counseling and Preventive Medicine in Post-War Bosnia offers a unique new perspective to longstanding debates on healthcare reforms in Bosnia. In this penetrating analysis, Philip C. Aka argues that twenty-five years after the ethnic war that shook Bosnia and Herzegovina to its foundations, healthcare reforms are a function of preventive medicine, defined as genetic counselling, backed by tobacco and alcohol control. At its core, the book offers a fresh examination of healthcare reforms in Bosnia set in the multidisciplinary field of bioethics, supplemented by comparative health studies, and comparative human rights. By offering an extensive list of electronically accessible literature on healthcare accessible in the public domain, Aka delivers an exemplar of research possibilities in the Information Age.

The book presents a methodology for detecting intervention needs on existing healthcare buildings and estimating the related costs, to perform a sustainable financial planning for modernization, regulatory adjustment and performance upgrade. By the identification of specific parameters, characterizing the building in terms of layout typology, technical features and services provision, it proposes a framework for the collection of relevant information to current regulations and standards. Integrated evaluation tools are developed to perform first a technical assessment of the investigated building, basing on the survey of its key features and on the codification of standard actions. Then, appraisal procedure valuates intervention cost from the similarity degree between the object of analysis and a set of interventions already performed on healthcare assets. The book offers a valuable tool for technical professionals, public administrations and healthcare managers engaged in maintenance and performance assessment of healthcare facilities.

Engaging in ongoing, continuing professional development (CPD) is a strategic imperative for the health informatics professional. In our global economy, healthcare is fast-paced, dynamic, and ever-changing. While this rapid change is both exciting and exhausting, digital health transformation is positively impacting lives, today and every day, in ways not previously imagined. Faced with a COVID-19 pandemic that has forever changed the landscape of health and care delivery, global health and care stakeholders must ensure that our ecosystem continues to rapidly evolve through innovation, government and ministry incentives, and technological advancements to reach citizens everywhere. For these reasons, health informaticists must embrace lifelong learning to ensure they have the professional competencies to advance initiatives that positively impact patient care. The Handbook of Continuing Professional Development for the Health Informatics Professional, Second Edition has adapted to the evolving needs of health and care professionals everywhere. The Handbook provides the rationale and the resources to do so and serves as a reference to enhance one's career. No other comprehensive resource exists to assist health informaticists in developing and maintaining their professional competencies. Written as a contributed compilation of topics by leading practitioners, the book discusses the most critical competencies needed to ensure understanding of the vast health and care ecosystem while also highlighting industry influences that shape the very evolution of health information and technology. About HIMSS The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) is a global advisor, thought leader, and member association committed to transforming the health ecosystem. As a mission-driven non-profit, HIMSS offers a unique depth and breadth of expertise in health innovation, public policy, workforce development, research, and analytics to advise leaders, stakeholders, and influencers from across the ecosystem on best practices. With a community-centric approach, our innovation engine delivers key insights, education, and engaging events to healthcare providers, payers, governments, startups, life sciences, and other health services organizations, ensuring they have the right information at the point of decision. HIMSS has served the global health community for more than 60 years with focused operations across North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.

This comprehensive annotated bibliography, the first of its kind, provides lengthy entries on articles dealing with black health published during three time periods from post reconstruction to 1960. The compilers', Mitchell F. Rice and Woodrow Jones, Jr., introduction reviews the literature that composes the bibliography and discusses trends in the mortality, morbidity, and health care utilization behaviors of blacks from slavery to the mid-20th century. This cogent essay places the social context of black health care into perspective and enhances both linkages to the dominant themes of each period and a fuller understanding of the history of health care inequities in the U.S. A companion volume by the same compilers', Black American Health: An Annotated Bibliography (Greenwood Press, 1987), treats the more recent literature of the 1970s and 1980s. Following the in-depth introduction, the bibliography is divided into three chapters that annotate literature from the post reconstruction to the early 20th century, 1871-1919; from 1920 to 1950; and from 1951-1960. Each entry consists of an item number, author, title and source, date of publication, and page numbers as well as an exceptionally thorough and thoughtful annotation that averages ten lines in length. Subject and author indexes complete the work which will prove invaluable to students, scholars, and researchers in the fields of black history, medicine, and public health.

The CMIO Survival Guide is the handbook for the new Chief Medical Information Officer, as well as for those recruiting or planning to recruit a CMIO. This quick reference is organized by real-world topics that CMIOs need to know, as well as the criteria that the CIO, CMO or CEO should consider in identifying excellence in a CMIO candidate. It is written by pioneering physicians and AMDIS faculty with a wealth of experience in medical informatics who provide guidance, advice and lessons learned for those interested in this relatively new role in healthcare. This second edition updates every chapter in the original work and adds new chapters to address the changes in healthcare delivery, the role of the physician executive, technology, medical education, small and rural hospitals.

2020 introduced a global pandemic that led to global economic, social, and regional lockdowns affecting public life in ways never been imagined before. This book takes a look at how researchers from fields encompassing economics and political science, along with thought leaders in business and economic policy, experienced the crises themselves as experts in their field, as well as from a personal viewpoint. Most importantly, however, it looks into the future how entrepreneurship and economic policies may change and positively influence the societies and the economy after the pandemic. Keeping in mind that, with climate change and the digital revolution, change was already around the corner and inevitable, renowned economic and policy experts are asked for their assessment of future roads and feasible economic policies. The book follows the chronology of the pandemic and focuses on leading researchers and thought leaders in public policy and business. An introduction to each chapter describes the context particular to the contributing author when the pandemic struck and their own reactions, experiences, and insights triggered by the emerging pandemic.