Improvements in health services require continual attention and dedication to ensure proper care and treatment for citizens. To support this endeavor, professionals rely more and more on the application of information systems and technologies to promote the overall quality of modern healthcare. Maximizing Healthcare Delivery and Management through Technology Integration is an authoritative reference source for the latest scholarly research on the integration of ICT within the health services sector. Featuring comprehensive coverage on a range of topics from technical and non-technical perspectives, this book is an essential reference source for IT specialists, professionals, managers, and students seeking current research on the growing relationship between technology and healthcare.

Over the past three decades, professions across the European Union have faced significant and radical challenges. This book analyses three professional groups involved in the academic and health sectors and how they are affected by different national Welfare State models such as Mediterranean, Scandinavian and Anglo Saxon.

This book is an illustration of care giver history dating back to the early 1900's to modern 21st century. Health ministry is the art of helping target communities locate and utilize services and reduce health disparities among at risk populations.

The universality of health concerns and the complexity of dealing with them makes it increasingly important for professionals in sociology, health care, and policy making to become acquainted with the wide variety of strategies used in different social contexts. Although Israel is in some ways unique in its social problems and its approach to health care, many of its problems resemble those of other societies, and many of its solutions can be applied in other countries. Social Dimensions of Health looks at distinctive aspects of the Israeli health care system, while at the same time drawing comparisons with other societies.

Judith Shuval discusses the health and health behavior of a variety of groups in Israeli society that have not been systematically considered in other analyses: women, the elderly, alternative health care providers, immigrants, and Israeli Arabs. Shuval analyzes the critical influence of ultraorthodox parties on health policy in the context of a tenuously balanced coalition government, and shows how the pervasive conflict between Israel and the Arab world penetrates all aspects of social life, including health. Inequality in health is discussed with special reference to Israeli Arabs. The study concludes with a discussion of what can be learned from the Israeli experience, and how it can best be applied in other social contexts. Social Dimensions of Health will prove useful to scholars, health practitioners, and lay people seeking a broad understanding of the social factors underlying health and health care.

The technology on our body, in our body and all around us enhances our health and well-being from conception to death. This environment is emerging now with intelligent caring machines, cyborgs, wireless embedded continuous computing, healthwear, sensors, healthons, nanomedicine, adaptive process control, mathematical modeling, and common sense systems. Human body and the world in which it functions is a continuously changing complex adaptive system. We are able to collect more and more data about it but the real challenge is to infer local dynamics from that data. Intelligent Caring Biomechatronic Creatures and Healthmaticians (mathematicians serving human health) have a better chance of inferring the dynamics that needs to be understood than human physicians. Humans can only process comfortably three dimensions while computers can see infinite number of dimensions. We will need to trust the distributed network of healthons, Intelligent Caring Creatures, and NURSES (New Unified Resource System Engineers) to create Health Extelligence. We need new vocabulary to push forward in a new way. For instance; healthons are tools combining prevention with diagnosis and treatment based on continuous monitoring and analyzing of our vital signs and biochemistry. The "Healthon Era" is just beginning. We are closer and closer to the world with healthons on your body, in your body and all around you; where not a doctor but your primary care healthmatician warns you about an approaching headache; and where NURSE programs your intelligent caring creatures so they can talk to your cells and stop disease in its tracks.

How can we be happier, healthier and more satisfied in life? This edited collection examines various dimensions of wellbeing among older people, including its measurement; social, environmental and economic determinants; and how research can be translated into policy to improve quality of life for older people. With an increasingly ageing population across countries and an increasing population of older adults, there is growing interest in improving older people's ability to live healthily and happily. With a focus on retirement and aged care, this book is important reading for those interested in Welfare Economics, Health Economics and Development.

Vogel views health care within the context of total Sub-Saharan economic systems, emphasizing the output of health-care programs (i.e., healthier people) and the most cost-effective ways to maximize that output. He recommends shifting public financing resources from the hospital sector to primary and preventive care, in order to reposition financial resources away from the colonial and post-colonial period of concentration upon cost-ineffective hospitals and toward the direction emphasized by the World Health Organization.

Telemedicine has the potential to significantly alter structures, procedures, and eventually outcomes in healthcare structures worldwide. Today the field of telemedicine is still dominated by very committed efforts of research and development. However, there is a growing number of concepts and applications which have been implemented in clinical routine or are ready to be implemented. Health care providers, patients, third party payers, and not at least policy makers should be informed about these rapidly emerging applications, which could have a considerable impact on the delivery of health care. This book offers a comprehensive source of information not only for experts but also for the target groups mentioned above. It provides background information on legal aspects, issues concerning further development, and evaluation of telemedicine applications. The work also presents numerous projects covering the clinical fields of emergency medicine, surgery, oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, ophthalmology, dermatology, radiology, pathology, psychiatry and other clinical specialties. Recognizing the Internet as a major source of information on issues related to telemedicine and information technology in general, a 'Webliography' provides links to a selection of the most relevant Web sites on the Internet.

Clinical decision support systems, medical applications, and electronic health records each help to ensure the provision of efficient, accurate healthcare services, thereby providing patients with a better experience and overall reducing health care costs. Advancing Technologies and Intelligence in Healthcare and Clinical Environments Breakthroughs is a prime resource for both academic researchers and practitioners looking to advance their knowledge of the interdisciplinary areas of healthcare information technology and management research. This book addresses innovative concepts and critical issues in the emerging field of health information systems and informatics, with an emphasis on sustainable computer information systems, ensuring healthcare efficiency, and denoising MRI and ECG outputs.

This book considers how mental health services have evolved over the past three decades to meet the needs of people with intellectual disability, focusing on the ways that theories and policies have been applied to clinical practice. Nick Bouras and Geraldine Holt both have extensive experience in developing and running mental health services and bring together international contributors all with longstanding expertise in the fields of mental health and intellectual disability. They present the current evidence-based practice on how people with intellectual disability can be best cared for in clinical settings. The book embraces a foreword by Professor David Goldberg and is divided into three sections: development of specialist mental health services, clinical practice, and training as an integrated component of service delivery. Chapters cover topics including: the association between psychopathology and intellectual disability international perspectives neuroimaging and genetic syndromes training professionals, families and support workers. Mental Health Services for Adults with Intellectual Disability provides an overview of the many improvements that have been made in services for people with intellectual disability, as well as examining the shortcomings of the services provided. It offers strategies and solutions for the wide array of interdisciplinary professionals who want to develop the range of resources on offer for people with intellectual disability.

This book offers examples of how data science, big data, analytics, and cloud technology can be used in healthcare to significantly improve a hospital's IT Energy Efficiency along with information on the best ways to improve energy efficiency for healthcare in a cost effective manner. The book builds on the work done in other sectors (mainly data centers) in effectively measuring and improving IT energy efficiency and includes case studies illustrating power and cooling requirements within Green Healthcare. Making Healthcare Green will appeal to professionals and researchers working in the areas of analytics and energy efficiency within the healthcare fields.

This volume addresses hospital effluents in terms of their composition and the management and treatment strategies currently (being) adopted around the globe. In this context, one major focus is on pharmaceutical compounds: their observed concentration range, ecotoxicological effects, and the removal efficiency achieved by the different technologies. Another focus is on management strategies (dedicated hospital wastewater treatment, or a combined approach also involving urban wastewater) and currently adopted treatments to reduce the released pollutant load. Innovative and promising technologies under investigation at the lab and pilot scale are presented. A discussion of remaining knowledge gaps and future research requirements rounds out the coverage. The respective chapters, written by experts in the different fields, provide useful information for a broad audience: scientists involved in the management and treatment of hospital effluents and wastewater containing micropollutants, administrators and decision-makers, legislators involved in the authorization and management of healthcare structure effluents, and environmental engineers involved in the design of wastewater treatment plants, as well as newcomers and students interested in these issues.

The National Health Service, or NHS, is the United Kingdom's national healthcare system. It oversees the public's health and ensures the medical wellbeing of the population of the UK. Governance network processes are complex because of the different nature of agendas and strategies of actors involved in health, but increasingly, because of the link between social and healthcare delivery, recent initiatives to provide a joined up or integrated approach have been presented. However, the extent of joined-up governance processes in the National Health Service is rather uneven. So far, reforms to try to improve the running of the NHS through the introduction of market mechanisms or increased decentralization have only served to exacerbate such tensions and resulted in further fragmentation of the public health system. The NHS and Contemporary Health Challenges From a Multilevel Perspective illustrates the complexities of governing public health services that are part of the NHS and takes an innovative approach by examining public health provision through a multiscalar lens, which reveals significant limits of the current governance model. The book raises the various challenges that clinical staff, public authorities, and the general public face in the provision of healthcare to uphold core values inherent in health systems. While highlighting topics including health governance, patient satisfaction, and public health, this book is ideally designed for policymakers, government officials, healthcare administrators, hospital managers, healthcare researchers, medical professionals, and students.

The objective of the EURO-QUAL programme has been to improve the quality of care for the individual patient. At the same time the need for harmonization of health care in Europe was recognized. This quality improvement system (QIS) for orthodontic care in Europe comprises of "Guidelines for how to implement a QIS" and reference material from the project teams: financial resources, professional development, consumer satisfaction, and industrial cooperation. In this respect the following topics are discussesd: the differences and similarities in local (national) quality initiatives; the use of databases, as a technique to improve quality by comparing one's own performance against that of colleagues; the influence of the different national systems of funding on both the amount of care provided as well as the quality of care; the contents and the quality of the educational programmes, at all levels of orthodontic care; promotion of patients' rights and responsibilities before, during and after the orthodontic treatment; and a common goal and common language with the industrial partners by which the interaction can be optimized and communication will be enriched. This book provides the background information for the appopriate use of the European Orthodontic Quality Manual (EOQM). Strategies for the implementation of a QIS in orthodontics, taking into account the complexity of the outlined aspects, make this book interesting for the orthodontic professional as well as the stakeholders (education, funding, industry and consumers) in orthodontic care.

This volume provides school-based practitioners with a comprehensive and comparative guide to the strategic interventions, therapeutic modalities, and treatment approaches that are most commonly and effectively used in educational settings. Three main sections of the text present a foundation of universal interventions, targeted interventions, and alternative interventions appropriate for use in schools. Unifying the chapters are two central case examples, allowing the reader to see and evaluate the strengths and potential challenges of each technique in a familiar situation. This emphasis on case examples and the comparative structure of the volume will provide a level of hands-on and practical learning that is helpful for both students and mental health practitioners working in schools for the first time, and as a resource for more seasoned professionals who need to expand the tools at their disposal.

Dr Alison Talbot-Smith, an experienced doctor and researcher, and Professor Allyson M. Pollock, one of the UKs leading authorities on the NHS, give a lucid and incisive account of the new NHS - which has emerged from a far-reaching programme of market-oriented changes. Providing an authoritative and accessible overview of the new NHS, the book describes: the structures and functions of the new organizations in each of the devolved countries the funding of NHS services, education, training and research and resource allocation the regulation of the new NHS systems and workforce the relationships between the NHS, the Department of Health, local authorities and regulatory bodies, and between the NHS and the private sector the future implications of current policies. This is an indispensable resource for those working in healthcare today as clinicians, academics, researchers and managers. It will also be essential reading for academics, students, and researchers in related fields, as well as the general public.

Paul Grayson, a co-editor of the successful 1989 book College Psychotherapy, has teamed up with Phil Meilman, a seasoned veteran of college counseling and psychological services, to compile this needed comprehensive up-to-date treatment guide. After an opening discussion of the campus environment and student mentality, the book provides an overview of the state of college mental health at the start of the 21st century, touching on the issues faced by students of every generation, as well as those concerns unique to this day and age. With an emphasis on practice, and not theory, this easily referenced treatment guide will be of use to anyone working in the mental health fields in and around a college environment.

The use of mobile devices in medical care settings and by wellness professionals has influenced and changed many aspects of clinical practice. Mobile devices have become ubiquitous in these settings, leading to rapid growth in the development of medical apps. Contemporary Applications of Mobile Computing in Healthcare Settings is a critical scholarly resource that explores the benefits of using mobile devices and apps in the medical field and examines the shortcomings in the validation practices regarding these technologies. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics such as smart healthcare, patient surveillance, and body fitness monitoring, this book is geared toward academicians, nurses, medical professionals, practitioners, and students seeking current research on the quality and safety of the apps currently available for use by medical care professionals.

This book is an introduction into methodology and practice of analysis, design and implementation of distributed health information systems. Special attention is dedicated to security and interoperability of such systems as well as to advanced electronic health record approaches. In the book, both available architectures and implementations but also current and future innovations are considered. Therefore, the component paradigm, UML, XML, eHealth are discussed in a concise way. Many practical solutions specified and implemented first in the author's environment are presented in greater detail. The book addresses information scientists, administrators, health professionals, managers and other users of health information systems.