A clear, concise, and essential guide providing key information about cancer survivors and their needs-and how those needs can best be met. Excellent Care for Cancer Survivors: A Guide to Fully Meet Their Needs in Medical Offices and in the Community is edited by the director of the Lance Armstrong Cancer Survivorship Program at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and comprised of articles by experts from that prestigious institution, from the Harvard Medical School, and other leading cancer programs. Its goal is simple: to assure that the millions of cancer survivors in the United States get the help they need to live life to its fullest. This timely work, enriched by conversations with cancer survivors themselves, explains the array of challenges that may affect survivors, from physical needs to psychological, spiritual, sexual, and financial issues. Topics such as nutrition and exercise are also addressed, as are risk assessment, rehabilitation, and possible cognitive dysfunction after chemotherapy. A final section explains the nuts and bolts of starting a professional cancer survivorship program, from staffing to fundraising, exploring what can and is being done to help cancer survivors in different settings achieve optimal health and quality of life. Conversations with cancer survivors explaining the physical and psychological challenges/obstacles they face A listing of current cancer survivorship programs across the United States

This is a resource for professionals involved in determining the driving capacity of individuals with neurological involvement and or trauma. While much work has been completed in this new and growing field, this is the first attempt to bring together clinical work on assessing driving capacity for different clinical populations and conditions. Specific topics include, traumatic brain injury, stroke, dementia, normal aging, medications, retraining, interventions, medical conditions, legal issues, practical issues, assessment instruments, simulators, research and epidemiology. Each chapter will address clinically relevant issues specific to the clinical population. This comprehensive compilation of driving assessment of cognitively compromised populations is the first of its kind and Dr. Schultheis is regarded as a leader in the field.
*The first definitive handbook about driving assessment of cognitively impaired populations, a growing area of research
*Addresses a myriad of clinical populations and conditions such as brain injured and elderly patients
*Written by nationally recognized leaders in their fields of expertise

The six writers in this book explore the contribution and the transferability of narrative inquiry from curriculum studies to daily life in education and in healthcare. They examine the interconnectivity of reconstructed experience with the construction of disciplinary identity and knowledge. Thinking narratively, they write auto/biographically about relationships between teachers, students, nurses, colleagues, and/or people in their care. As narrative inquirers, they are curious how research moves forward professional situations in education and healthcare. The narrative plotlines of knowledge construction, curriculum building and identity formation thread through the chapters. In education and healthcare, the reconstructed experience of a teacher is shown to be foundational to curriculum content and processes. In nursing education, we see congruence between narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 1995, 2000; Connelly & Clandinin, 1988, 1999) as a process that includes the teacher-researcher as co-participant; and, theorists, such as Watson (1999), include the nurse in the caring situation as shapers of the experience of people in their care. As practitioner-researchers, teachers in education and healthcare construct who they are and how they are in relationship in the context of social situations. Inquiry, not certainty (Dewey, 1929), is a life stance that is formative for education. Practitioners in education and in healthcare will be interested in this book as a way to make meaning of their experience. Policymakers and administrators will be interested in this book as a way of conceptualizing teachers' knowledge as a source of curriculum. Researchers will be interested in this book as a demonstration of how narrative inquiry illuminates ways of being that are educative and an innovative way to study curriculum.

Modern technology has impacted healthcare and interactions between patients and healthcare providers through a variety of means including the internet, social media, mobile devices, and the internet of things. These new technologies have empowered, frustrated, educated, and confused patients by making educational materials more widely available and allowing patients to monitor their own vital signs and self-diagnose. Further analysis of these and future technologies is needed in order to provide new approaches to empowerment, reduce mistakes, and improve overall healthcare. Impacts of Information Technology on Patient Care and Empowerment is a critical scholarly resource that delves into patient access to information and the effect that access has on their relationship with healthcare providers and their health outcomes. Featuring a range of topics such as gamification, mobile computing, and risk analysis, this book is ideal for healthcare practitioners, doctors, nurses, surgeons, hospital staff, medical administrators, patient advocates, researchers, academicians, policymakers, and healthcare students.

Virtual communities have gained popularity in many growing fields and have continued to expand into healthcare environments. Analyzing the impact these communities have can help provide more effective methods to support patients and community members. Novel Applications of Virtual Communities in Healthcare Settings is a crucial scholarly reference source that examines the challenges virtual communities can face, as well as the advantages they provide to members of healthcare organizations. Featuring pertinent topics that include evaluation frameworks, disaster management, knowledge translation, and user engagement, this book is ideal for medical practitioners, academicians, students, and healthcare researchers that are interested in taking part in the latest discussions of virtual communities within medical fields.

By relying on private enterprise more than any other developed nation, American health care has all the appearances of free-market in action. And for more than a hundred years, attempts to reform this system (including President Obama's Affordable Care Act) have been met with opposition from parties warning against the stifling effect of government intervention. What these warnings about federal overreach overlook is the fact that the federal government has long been an indispensible player in guiding and supporting the current US health care system. Its role is so pervasive and of such longstanding importance that it is easy to overlook, but it actually created American health care as we know it today. Seminal public programs stand behind every segment of America's massive and hugely profitable health care industry. This is not to deny the instrumental roles of private entrepreneurship and innovation, but rather to describe the foundation on which they rest. The industry's underlying driving force is a massive partnership between the public and private spheres. The partnership is complex, and its effects are not always ideal. But for better or worse, it shapes every aspect of what we in the United States know as health care. Mother of Invention traces the government's role in building four key health care sectors into the financial powerhouses they are today: pharmaceuticals, hospitals, the medical profession, and private insurance. It traces their history, surveys their growth, and highlights some of their greatest success stories, which together reveal the indispensible role of public initiatives in contemporary private health care. Only by understanding what actually drives our system can we appreciate possibilities for meaningful reform or comprehend the true context - historically and politically - of the Obama plan.

Warning Read this book at your own risk. Upon reading it, some readers may be afraid to visit doctors or hospitals for the rest of their lives. However, other readers might die laughing as they indulge themselves to the variety of the many interesting and scaring subjects that they will read about. If you're planning to visit a doctor or hospital, you should read this book before taking that major step that will probably change your life. If your decision is to go ahead with that visit, let us hope that you don't run into some of the bad doctors and hospitals mentioned in this story. If you ever had any kind of bad experience as a result of visiting a doctor or hospital, or if you ever heard of anyone else who had a bad experience, you should definitely read this book. This story, although fictional, has been comically exaggerated. However, there is a great deal of reality, and some readers will find it very convincing, especially if they had similar experiences as the ones stated in this book. The story deals with the daily occurrences in certain doctors' offices, as well as certain hospitals in a major metropolitan city in the Northeast of The United States. You will see the worst treatments performed by the worst doctors. However, later on in the story, you will also see the best treatments offered by the best doctors. The story contains a generous amount of extremely grim occurrences, but it also contains a great deal of generosity and compassion. You will see that there are some people in this story who went out of their way to do the right thing. You will also see that there are numerous people who kept the promises that they made to others when they were in need. If this storychanges the life of only one person for the better, even for a brief moment, then it was worth writing this book. The names used in this story have been chosen by the author as a description of each person or place involved. Actual names were not used in order to protect the innocent - and the guilty. It may take some readers a little time to accept the names, but after they have accepted them, they will find the story extremely enjoyable and very interesting. Some readers may find it to be a very valuable and educational account of situations that they should avoid.

Our health care system is broken and messy. It is serving neither the patient nor the doctor well. It behooves us, the physicians, to take the lead and diligently try to fix it. --from THE SENSE OF DIRECTION The "invisible hand" will start healing and Adam Smith's "what is good for me" will still be vehemently pursued but not at the expense of others. With a restored sense of direction, it will be easy to not only fix the health care mess but tackle other problems also. --from THE SENSE OF DIRECTION

Millions of people each year decide to participate in clinical trials--medical research studies involving an innovative treatment for a medical problem. For the patient, such participation can sometimes be a life-saving choice. But it can also be just the opposite. Our country years ago adopted rules designed to assure that people are making informed choices about participation. This book explains the reality behind those rules: that our current system of clinical trials hides much of the information patients need to make the right choices.
Witness the following scenarios:
-Hundreds of patients with colon cancer undergo a new form of keyhole surgery at leading cancer centers--never being told that 85% of colorectal surgeons, worried that it increases the risk of the cancer returning, would not themselves undergo that procedure.
-Tens of thousands of women at high risk of developing breast cancer are asked to participate in a major research study. They are told about the option of having both breasts surgically removed--but not told about the option of taking a standard osteoporosis pill that might cut the risk of getting breast cancer by one-half or more.
What The Doctor Didn't Say, principally written by a nationally prominent expert, is the first book to reveal many heretofore hidden aspects about the true nature of participation in clinical trials. It shows why options not commonly known--including getting a new treatment outside of a research study--can often be the best choice. It explains how patients can make good decisions even if there is only limited information about a treatment's effect. And it does this through the eye-opening stories of what is happeningdaily to thousands of people.
This book ends up confronting the fundamental dilemma of medical research: Participation in clinical trials plays a vital role in advancing knowledge, and many experts fear that if the information provided herein became widely known, fewer people would participate. But the authors demonstrate that there is no need to deceive people into participating in research. We can have a system that promotes participation while still providing truthful information to participants.

Within the last years a variety of new healthcare concepts for supporting and assisting users in technology-enhanced home environments emerged. These so-called smart healthcare technologies are characterized by a combined use of information and communication technologies and health monitoring devices in the home domain. Smart Healthcare Applications and Services: Developments and Practices provides an in-depth introduction into medical, social, psychological, and technical aspects of smart healthcare applications as well as their consequences for the design, use and acceptance of future systems. The knowledge and insights provided in this book will help students as well as systems designers understand the fundamental social and technical requirements smart healthcare technologies have to meet.

In 1997, Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) therapy (Cyberonics, Houston, Texas) was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of epilepsy refractory to antiepileptic medications. In 2005, VNS received FDA approval for treatment-resistant depression refractory to antidepressants, and Cyberonics recently received FDA approval for the clinical study of VNS for rapid cycling bipolar depression. Many researchers continue to investigate the anxiolytic effects of VNS in human and non-human animal models. The author presents a study of VNS effects on anxiety and the capacity of atropine methyl nitrate to attenuate these effects. The results indicate that VNS decreases anxiety in the laboratory animals tested. These findings provide evidence to support the testing and subsequent use of VNS therapy for the treatment of clinical anxiety in humans. Because many therapies that are effective in the treatment of depression effectively treat anxiety, VNS therapy should be effective and approvable for clinical anxiety. This book can serve as a research tool, training mechanism, or surgical guide to the implantation of the vagus nerve stimulating electrode in the laboratory rat. Hopefully, this resource provides information that facilitates FDA approval of VNS for treatment-resistant anxiety, a chronic, devastating and often debilitating illness.