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

Learn how to ensure quality and safety for vulnerable older adults Transitional care is crucial to older adults with complex care needs who are moving between different locations or different levels of care. Charting a Course for High Quality Care Transitions addresses this problem by providing leading experts and leaders in the field discussing practical strategies that ensure care quality and safety for transitioning vulnerable older adults. This helpful resource comprehensively discusses current research, quality improvement, risk targeting, risk identification, patterns of care, care coordination, and performance assessment. Lowering the inherent risks for adverse events when moving patients can be challenging. Numerous unforeseen variables such as possible mismanagement of medication or staff shortages can often jeopardize patient safety. Charting a Course for High Quality Care Transitions offers practical approaches to address several of the main challenges encountered by health professionals. This book focuses on various ways to provide the highest quality patient-centered care through advancements in research, practice, and data measurement. This informative text is extensively referenced and contains numerous tables to clarify and illustrate important data. Topics in Charting a Course for High Quality Care Transitions include: a semantic framework for overcoming quality improvement issues stemming from inconsistent use of terms a tool for home health agencies to identify home health care patients at risk for hospital readmission medical and social factors that contribute to poor quality care transitions a successful Advanced Practice Nurse transitional care model that can improve outcomes to cognitively impaired older adults unrecognized needs of older adults living in residential care facilities patient-centered performance measurement early results of the Reducing Acute Care Hospitalization National Demonstration Collaborative gaps in research that need to be addressed in the future Charting a Course for High Quality Care Transitions is an important resource for home care professionals, hospital discharge planners, public health nurses, geriatric health services researchers, and health care professionals of all types.

From arrest to release, the organizational response to mentally ill offenders is continually evolving according to existing policies and resources. How organizations respond, how they should respond, and their ability to evolve is important. The chapters in this volume offer cases with wide ranging policy implications regarding structural and functional changes institutions and organizations might consider given the confines of context and resources to improve the conditions of mentally ill offenders. Policies regarding mentally ill offenders are played out differently by state and county, and the capacity of communities to support individuals with mental illness and criminal histories varies. The quantitative and qualitative research on organizational responses to offenders with mental illness highlighted herein include program evaluation; data collection; best practices in resource utilization; dispositions and the courts; screening; and a broader articulation of outcomes given the special needs of the population.

Bayesian analyses have made important inroads in modern clinical research due, in part, to the incorporation of the traditional tools of noninformative priors as well as the modern innovations of adaptive randomization and predictive power. Presenting an introductory perspective to modern Bayesian procedures, Elementary Bayesian Biostatistics explores Bayesian principles and illustrates their application to healthcare research. Building on the basics of classic biostatistics and algebra, this easy-to-read book provides a clear overview of the subject. It focuses on the history and mathematical foundation of Bayesian procedures, before discussing their implementation in healthcare research from first principles. The author also elaborates on the current controversies between Bayesian and frequentist biostatisticians. The book concludes with recommendations for Bayesians to improve their standing in the clinical trials community. Calculus derivations are relegated to the appendices so as not to overly complicate the main text. As Bayesian methods gain more acceptance in healthcare, it is necessary for clinical scientists to understand Bayesian principles. Applying Bayesian analyses to modern healthcare research issues, this lucid introduction helps readers make the correct choices in the development of clinical research programs.

"Intersex" is the condition whereby an individual is born with biological features that are simultaneously perceived as male and female. Ranging from the ambiguous genitalia of the true 'hermaphrodite' to the 'mildly or internally intersexed', the condition may be as common as cleft palate. Like cleft palate, it is hidden and surgically altered, but for very different reasons. This important book draws heavily on the personal testimony of intersexed individuals, their loved ones, and medical careers. The impact of early sex-assignment surgery on an individual's later life is examined within the context of ethical and clinical questions. Harper challenges the conventional and radical 'treatment' of intersexuality through non-consensual infant sex-assignment surgery. In doing so she exposes powerful myths, taboos, and constructions of gender - the perfect phallus, a bi-polar model of gender and the infallibility of medical decisions. Handling sensitive material with care, this book deepens our understanding of a condition that has itself only been medically understood in recent years.

The success of healthcare decision-making lies in whether healthcare staff, patients, and healthcare organization managers can comprehensively understand the choices and consider future implications to make the best decision possible. Multiple-criteria decision making (MCDM), including multiple rule-based decision making (MRDM), multiple-objective decision making (MODM), and multiple-attribute decision making (MADM), is used by clinical decision-makers to analyze healthcare issues from various perspectives. In practical health care cases, semi-structured and unstructured decision-making issues involve multiple criteria (or goals) that may conflict with each other. Thus, the use of MCDM is a promising source of practical solutions for such problems. MCDM methods mainly include the three parts: data process, evaluation and selection, and planning and design. Data process focuses on analyzing and identifying healthcare management issues and data features for solving practical cases. Evaluation and selection focus on evaluating the performance of each solution for healthcare management, and these methods can be used to support decision-making and help organizations choose the best solution for practical healthcare management cases. Finally, planning and design focus on analyzing and designing the goals of healthcare management applications, which can be modelled as a minimizing or maximizing problem for finding the optimal solutions. Furthermore, these methods can explore the relationship structure construction among criteria between various related issues arising from healthcare.

This thoroughly revised edition of The Sociology of Mental Disorders presents a biosocial model for understanding mental disorders, which integrates the sociological paradigm with current research in the epidemiology of mental disorders and on biological features of mental disorders. It shows the many ways in which macrosocial factors-such as stratification, integration, and culture-and microsocial factors-such as self-concept formation, socialization, and imitation-influence the distribution of mental disorders throughout the population, in combination with psychological and biological factors. The author adopts an epistemological point of view, comparing and contrasting various frameworks for comprehending bizarre forms of deviance that are labeled as mental disorders, including a definition of mental disorder that is purely sociological. He introduces new data and frameworks concerning the process of social stratification and mental disorders, the diffusion of somatoform disorders, mental disorders in the modern world, and the insane society. Original data from classic research studies in the field are introduced and discussed to illustrate the application of sociological frameworks to the problem of bizarre deviance. Carefully selected first-person accounts of the experience of bizarre deviance add poignancy to the presentation, along with examples of official diagnostic criteria.

Families of children with special health needs frequently cite difficulties in their communications with physicians and other medical professionals. Indeed, parents of high-risk, chronically ill, and disabled infants often regard interactions with health care providers as one of the most stressful parts of their early experiences with their children.

This volume was designed to present a variety of medical education approaches used to overcome this problem. After providing an overview of some of the difficulties faced by physicians and families of children with special health needs in their interactions with one another, the volume examines a number of useful medical education models. The models and viewpoints presented include those of physicians, early intervention professionals, professionals with backgrounds in education, psychology, and sociology, and parents. This volume is invaluable to those involved in designing and evaluating medical education approaches, and those developing public policy for children and the family.

Relevant for the entire primary care team, this book provides a diverse range of perspectives on current topical issues. Healthcare ethics is a subject of increasing interest, especially when it related to some of the challenging themes regularly discussed in the media. Until now there has been little useful literature for those in primary care, where ethical problems are often experienced with a unique set of issues. Primary Care Ethics is rigorous and academic, while remaining highly accessible for the full range of practitioners. Moral and legal aspects are clearly distinguished throughout, and the theme-based approach is stimulating and original. In providing greater depth and breadth in this subject than has been available previously, the book is both practical and thought-provoking, and essential reading for everyone, whether in academic, training or practice-based primary care.

Plagued by geographic isolation, poverty, and acute shortages of health professionals and hospital beds, the South was dubbed by Surgeon General Thomas Parran "the nation's number one health problem." The improvement of southern, rural, and black health would become a top priority of the U.S. Public Health Service during the Roosevelt and Truman administrations.

Karen Kruse Thomas details how NAACP lawsuits pushed southern states to equalize public services and facilities for blacks just as wartime shortages of health personnel and high rates of draft rejections generated broad support for health reform. Southern Democrats leveraged their power in Congress and used the war effort to call for federal aid to uplift the South. The language of regional uplift, Thomas contends, allowed southern liberals to aid blacks while remaining silent on race. Reformers embraced, at least initially, the notion of "deluxe Jim Crow"--support for health care that maintained segregation. Thomas argues that this strategy was, in certain respects, a success, building much-needed hospitals and training more black doctors.

By the 1950s, deluxe Jim Crow policy had helped to weaken the legal basis for segregation. Thomas traces this transformation at the national level and in North Carolina, where "deluxe Jim Crow reached its fullest potential." This dual focus allows her to examine the shifting alliances--between blacks and liberal whites, southerners and northerners, activists and doctors--that drove policy. "Deluxe Jim Crow" provides insight into a variety of historical debates, including the racial dimensions of state building, the nature of white southern liberalism, and the role of black professionals during the long civil rights movement.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, organizations that fail to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with mental disabilities may be subject to penalties and punitive damages. The Act does not, however, provide useful guidelines to help organizations comply--a gap that Dr. Fielder's book now fills. This manual shows that compliance is not difficult or expensive. In clear, concise language, it acquaints management with mental diagnoses, impairments, disabilities, the myths of mental illness and its affect on job performance, and provides samples of workplace accommodations and compliance plans. Practical and readable, the book is intended for management of organizations with 15 or more employees, their human resource staffs and employee assistance professionals, and legal counsel.

Traditional approaches to vocational rehabilitation, such as skills training classes, job clubs, and sheltered employment, have not been successful in helping people with severe mental illness gain competitive employment. Supported employment, in which clients are placed in jobs and then trained by on-site coaches, is a radically new conceptual approach to vocational rehabilitation designed for people with developmental disabilities. The Individual Placement and Support (IPS) method utilizes the supported employment concept, but modifies it for use with the severely mentally ill. It is the only approach that has a strong empirical research base: rates of competitive employment are 40% or more in IPS programs, compared to 15% in traditional mental health programs. The third volume in the Innovations in Practice and Service Delivery with Vulnerable Populations series, this will be extremely useful to students in psychiatric rehabilitation programs and social work classes dealing with the severely mentally ill, as well as to practitioners in the field.

By chronicling the transformations of hospitals from houses of mercy to tools for confinement, from dwellings of rehabilitation to spaces for clinical teaching and research, from rooms for birthing and dying to institutions of science and technology, this book provides a historical approach to understanding of today's hospitals. The story is told in a dozen episodes which illustrate hospitals in particular times and places, covering important themes and developments in the history of medicine and therapeutics, from ancient Greece to the era of AIDS. This book furnishes a unique insight into the world of meanings and emotions associated with hospital life and patienthood by including narratives by both patients and care givers. By conceiving of hospitals as houses of order capable of taming the chaos associated with suffering, illness, and death, we can better understand the significance of their ritualized routines and rules. From their beginnings, hospitals were places of spiritual and physical recovery. They should continue to respond to all human needs. As traditional testimonials to human empathy and benevolence, hospitals must endure as spaces of healing.

Noted experts provide practical, effective strategies to meet global health challenges International Social Health Care Policy, Program, and Studies presents a collection of papers drawn from the Ninth Doris Siegel Memorial Fund Colloquium that focuses on social work and international health issues, emphasizing an international exchange and cooperation as a crucial facet of meeting global health challenges. Honoring the memory and spirit of social work pioneer Doris Siegel for her accomplishments and advocacy on behalf of social-health issues, this fine selection of scholarly papers explores ideas and strategies from around the world which offer greater opportunity for success for diverse social work and health care problems. Internationally recognized practitioners and academics offer research and case studies illustrating approaches, programs, and policies that any practitioner or policymaker may find helpful. International Social Health Care Policy, Program, and Studies closely examines the common ground in social health care problems shared by various countries worldwide. Issues such as the effects of terrorism, academic-practice partnerships in practice research, and the international exchange program are explored, with insightful discussions that explain in which directions to best channel social and health care energies and resources. Helpful figures and tables further explain concepts and research. Topics in International Social Health Care Policy, Program, and Studies include: Strength-focused and Meaning-oriented Approach to Resilience and Transformation (SMART) as a model of crisis intervention that uses a holistic view of health outpatient commitment as a delivery system assisted conception and social work needs in the United Kingdom a study on the psychological distress between elderly Israeli residents and immigrant family caregivers impact of prolonged terrorist attacks on children and adolescents in Israel stress experienced by social workers working with terror victims integration of social workers into hospital disaster response teams in Australia academic practice research partnerships for health social workers evaluation of the outcomes from the Mount Sinai Social Work Leadership Enhancement Program discussion of the lessons learned from the 75-year history of health social work in Melbourne, Australia and more! International Social Health Care Policy, Program, and Studies is horizon-expanding reading that is perfect for social workers dealing with a global community, social work libraries, educators, students, and libraries of all types.

First published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

A groundbreaking prescription for health care reform-from a legendary leader in innovation Our health care system is in critical condition. Each year, fewer Americans are able to afford health care and fewer businesses are able to provide it. We need a cure, and we need it now. Lead author Clayton M. Christensen is the foremost expert in the field of disruptive innovation. In this thought-provoking book, Christensen and his coauthors, health care pioneers Jerome Grossman, MD, and Jason Hwang, MD, present a comprehensive analysis of the strategies needed to improve health care. They examine a range of symptoms and offer proven solutions. You'll learn how disruptive business models improve quality, accessibility, and affordability by changing the way hospitals and doctors work.

Despite great improvement in service delivery, patient violence remains a major problem at mental health facilities. Focusing equally on causes, management, and prevention, this groundbreaking book represents the state of knowledge on this crucial topic. Violence in Mental Health Settings brings together salient theories, valuable data, and real-world interventions in one accessible volume. The contributors include psychiatrists, nurses, researchers, and academics (many affiliated with the European Violence in Psychiatry Research Group), offering an integrative context for understanding patient aggression and identifying areas where research is lacking. Chapters review the latest theories of violence, proven prevention strategies, and examples of positive organizational change. Practical highlights include: Assessing and measuring risk: self-versus other-reporting scales; how the ward environment can contribute to violence? pharmaceutical interventions; training issues and course development in violence management; professional coping after patient attacks; and developing a non-violent culture at the institutional level. Throughout, the material is illustrated liberally with graphs and clinical case examples, and coverage bridges the patient-rights and zero-tolerance ends of the spectrum. Therapists, nurses, social workers, and counselors in hospitals and other inpatient and community facilities will find Violence in Mental Health Settings a source of vital insights and ideas for future policy. Regardless of one's setting or specialty, the authors share a critical aim with their readers: a safer and more humane experience.

The US political system has come to depend upon money too much. The US health care industry spends the most on political lobbying among all the 13 industrial sectors in the US economy. The government regulatory agencies at both federal and state levels have been "captured" by the health industry interest groups meaning that the regulatory agencies respond to the interests of the industry but not those of citizens. This book employs a broad theoretical framework of crony capitalism to understand US health care system dysfunction. This framework has not been applied before in any serious manner to understand the shortcomings in the US health care system. Specifically, the book examines the role of seven key players using this framework - politicians/interest groups, pharmaceutical companies, private health insurers, hospitals/hospital networks, physicians, medical device manufacturers, and the American public. Crony capitalism is a destructive force and is rampant in US health care system, causing much waste, inefficiencies, and malaise in the system. Current efforts and initiatives, such as patient-centered medical homes and precision medicine, for improving/reforming the system are of mere academic interest and tantamount to taking aspirin to treat cancer. They do not even pretend to address the root cause of the problem, namely, crony capitalism. Offering prescriptions to fix the U.S. health care system based on a comprehensive diagnosis of the dysfunction, this book will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers, and students in the fields of health care management, public and non-profit management, health policy, administration, and economics, and political science.

In this issue of Pediatric Clinics of North America, guest editors Drs. Xiaoming Li and Sayward Harrison bring their considerable expertise to the topic of Progress in Behavioral Health Interventions for Children and Adolescents. Nearly three-quarters of adult mental health disorders have their onset during childhood, where treatment becomes more difficult and has greater social, educational, and economic consequences over time. This issue provides the information and resources needed to identify and treat mental health and clinical issues in children, with the goal of improving outcomes. Contains 16 relevant, practice-oriented topics including leveraging technology in novel interventions for autism spectrum disorder; childhood obesity prevention and treatment; parental rules, parental routines, and children's (0-12 years) sleep and screen time; family-based preventions and interventions for child emotional and behavioral functioning in families facing stress/trauma; integrating behavioral health in primary care; and more. Provides in-depth clinical reviews on behavioral health interventions for children and adolescents, offering actionable insights for clinical practice. Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews.

This book presents the refereed proceedings of the Fourth Italian Forum on Ambient Assisted Living (AAL), held in Ancona, Italy, in October 2013. A wide range of issues are covered and new technological developments are described which will support the autonomy and independence of individuals with special needs through an innovative and integrated approach, designed to respond to the socio-economic challenges of an aging population. Topics addressed include: health and well-being, prevention and rehabilitation and support for care providers; active aging and its social implications; services for the frail elderly with health problems and their families; nutrition; ICT platforms/technologies for the benefit of the elderly; home automation and control technologies (autonomy, safety and energy saving); smart cities and smart communities; telemedicine, telerehabilitation, and telecare; mobility, participation and social inclusion; games and fun for the elderly; building design; social housing; interface design and interaction (accessibility, acceptance); social policies to encourage and support active aging; business models, market analysis and development of sustainable financing and business and ethics, privacy and data protection. Many experimental validations based on user trials and usability testing are presented and discussed. The knowledge and insights provided in this book will help researchers and others involved in AAL to understand relevant societal trends, novel technological developments and pressing challenges.

A comprehensive look at the many types of male and female sex offenders who victimize children, adolescents, and adults Comprehensive Mental Health Practice with Sex Offenders and Their Families presents practitioners, professionals, and policymakers with effective, user-friendly practice methods for working with all types of sex offenders. Each chapter provides an overview of a specific category of sex offender and presents case examples and sample treatment plans with short- and long-term goals and objectives. This unique book also includes the latest assessment and intervention methods, family and relapse prevention efforts, and cultural issues that affect service delivery. Comprehensive Mental Health Practice with Sex Offenders and Their Families examines the etiology, prevalence, and behavioral consequences of eight different sex offender typologies to provide you with a much broader focus than you'll find in other sex offender books currently on the market. The book explores gender issues, demographics, offense characteristics, family characteristics, and assessment issues in dealing with both male and female sex offenders who use psychological and physical means to victimize children, adolescents, and adults. The end result is effective as a reference for health and mental health practitioners, as a resource for program implementation and outcome evaluation for policymakers and researchers, and as a classroom aid for the next generation of social workers and health and mental health providers. Comprehensive Mental Health Practice with Sex Offenders and Their Families examines: child sex offendersinappropriate, developmentally precocious, and aggressive sexual behavior among children adolescent sex offenderscriminal sexual acts committed by juveniles adult male sex offendersthe average male sexual molester will victimize hundreds of children in his lifetime women who sexually abuse childrenchallenging the stereotypes about motherhood and female-child relationships professional perpetratorsclerics, teachers, tutors, athletic coaches intellectually and developmentally challenged sex offenderssexually abusive acts committed by people with intellectual disabilities (ID) violent sex offendersphysical and psychological injuries suffered during sexual violation comorbid psychopathology in child, adolescent, and adult sexual offendersanti-social, narcissistic, and sadistic behaviors, learning problems, neuropsychological impairments, and more Comprehensive Mental Health Practice with Sex Offenders and Their Families is an essential resource for anyone working with diverse groups of sex offenders.

For more than a decade, there has been no resource to guide the practitioner, trainee or allied health professional in this important field of pediatrics. These disorders are addressed every day with children admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit, pediatric intensive care unit, inpatient units, day hospitals, surgical units (inpatient and ambulatory), emergency rooms or in the outpatient setting.

Fluid and Electrolytes in Pediatrics: A Comprehensive Handbook is a complete compendium of ready access information for pediatricians, family practitioners, residents, students and allied health professionals. The manual will be a "go to" source for tables or information on any aspect of fluid, electrolyte and acid-base metabolism for general pediatrics/ family practitioners/residents/medical students/nurses or the medical or surgical specialties.

In order to achieve the goal as the "THE" textbook in this discipline, each chapter of the book will be divided into the following areas: Definition and Pathophysiology, Symptoms, Diagnosis and Causes, Treatment and Representative Scenarios. Case presentations/problems (6-10) to illustrate the key points within the chapter. The scenarios will attempt to cover the most common problems that present in pediatrics.

This book will have unique information with extensive tables, lists, and algorithms that detail clinical features of the entire spectrum of water metabolism, disorders of electrolytes, and disturbances in acid-base homeostasis by age (infants/newborns, children and adolescents) that is not available in any other textbook.

Health care in the United States at the end of the 20th century occupies a completely different place in the economy, in the public consciousness, and in its impact on government, than it did at the beginning of the century, or even in the early years of the Clinton Administration. Health care is now a multi-billion dollar industry; one that consumes more than 15 percent of the nation's GNP. Citizens now regard health care as essential to the quality of their lives, and a steady stream of new medications and procedures point to ways to extend the lives of our aging population and restore those injured on or off the job. At the same time, the changing patterns of health care have stirred a national debate over the growth of managed care and the role that government can play in providing solid health care standards--a medical safety net--within tightening budgetary restraints. This book explores the role of the federal government in health care policy development from the years of the Founding Fathers to the present.

Kronenfeld reviews the key features of the American health care system, its infrastructure, and federal legislative process and outcomes in the health care arena. The current situation in health care is examined, with particular attention given to the attempt at major reform in the first Clinton administration, and to the modest changes that were ultimately passed. She closes with an examination of the future of health care and the role of government, emphasizing how current health care issues and concerns may set the stage for a changed federal role in funding and delivery of health care services in the next century. This comprehensive examination of the role of government in the health care system will be of great interest to students and researchers of public policy and the social aspects of American health care.