There is growing acknowledgement of the importance of interpersonal and communication skills in the training of future physicians. Effective diagnostic and clinical management skills require competency in observing, listening, communicating, problem-solving and negotiating. In addition, the physician needs human relationship skills. It is apparent that a systematic curriculum is needed to teach these clinical skills to medical students and trainees and this handbook provides a practical guide. Each chapter in this book discusses one of the clinical skills in depth. A unique feature of this book is the use of concepts developed in several other disciplines. For example, ideas to learn listening skills are borrowed from industrial management literature. The other unique feature is the inclusion of practical exercises to learn and teach each of these skills. The Appendix outlines ideas on how to organize a course on clinical competency skills and includes a few exercises to start discussion groups. This practical manual is a resource for training of future physicians for competency in the art and practice of medicine. Ideas expressed in this book have been developed, tested and improved over a period of 25 to 30 years with input from trainees and medical practitioners.

The fourth edition of the landmark reference Child Maltreatment?now titled Chadwick's Child Maltreatment?offers a comprehensive view of the signs and aftermath of physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and psychological maltreatment. Formerly presented as a 2-volume clinical guide and photographic atlas, this cutting-edge series has been divided into 3 definitive volumes: Physical Abuse and Neglect, Sexual Abuse and Psychological Maltreatment, and Cultures at Risk and Role of Professionals. Each book is supplemented by an atlas of clinically valuable case studies and images to assist in the identification, interpretation, and investigation of child maltreatment. Chadwick's Child Maltreatment has been edited by some of the most prominent experts in the field, including child abuse specialist and pioneer Dr. David Chadwick. This newly revised series is specifically designed for professionals who are in positions to identify and respond to the plight of child maltreatment and its many adverse effects on children and families. Dr. Chadwick and his collaborators have expended great effort to present relevant, updated clinical text in the fourth edition, which includes 1950 pages and 1976 images. Key benefits and features of Chadwick's Child Maltreatment include: New! Over 350 new photographs to help practicing professionals identify various incidents of child maltreatment. New! Seven new chapters including: Volume 2, Chapter 5, Sexual Behaviors in Children; Volume 2, Chapter 6, Therapy Approaches in Sexually Abused Children; Volume 2, Chapter 7, Positive and Negative Findings and What They Mean; Volume 2, Chapter 9, Understanding Resilience; Volume 2, Chapter 10, Lifelong and Life-Limiting Effects of Child Maltreatment; Volume 3, Chapter 10, Prosecution of Child Maltreatment; and Volume 3, Chapter 23, Public Health. Volume 3, Chapter 2, Risk of the Internet, has been completely revised to reflect the fast-paced growth of the role of technology in our society. Combined clinical guide and photographic atlas in each book for easier access to information. Multidisciplinary focus to support collaboration among health care, law enforcement, social work, child protection, and court-related professionals. Volume Two: Sexual Abuse and Psychological Maltreatment Volume Two in the fourth edition of Chadwick's Child Maltreatment series provides a comprehensive review of the signs and effects of sexual abuse and psychological maltreatment toward children. The clinical text includes new and revised content on topics that are critical to the effective assessment and treatment of sexually and psychologically abused victims. More than 30 medical experts collaborated to provide the latest clinical data and research on topics including interviewing children, sexually transmitted infections, psychological assessment and treatment approaches, and developmental aspects of the young, among others. The clinical portion of the text is accompanied by a photographic atlas in the back of the book, which contains current cases studies and more than 300 images and illustrations that document instances of sexual abuse, equipment used by professionals for the documentation of cases, and concepts of psychological maltreatment and developmental health issues. Peer-reviewed by experts in the field, Sexual Abuse and Psychological Maltreatment is a comprehensive resource to support health care, law enforcement, social work, child protection, and court-related professionals in their ongoing efforts to identify and prevent sexual abuse and psychological maltreatment of innocent victims. Key Features and Benefits: New! Over 100 new photographs to help practicing professionals identify and treat various incidents of sexual abuse and psychological maltreatment. New! Five new chapters including: Chapter 5, Sexual Behaviors in Children; Chapter 6, Therapy Approaches in Sexually Abused Children; Chapter 7, Positive and Negative Findings and What They Mean; Chapter 9, Understanding Resilience; and Chapter 10, Lifelong and Life-Limiting Effects of Child Maltreatment. New! Combined clinical guide and photographic atlas for more convenience and easier access to information. Multidisciplinary focus to support collaboration among health care, law enforcement, social work, child protection, and court-related professionals.

The Pocket Guide to Mycological Diagnosis provides useful and concise information for microbiologists and professionals diagnosing the most medically relevant fungal species. Cellular and molecular techniques, immunological methods, and more accurate microscopy equipment available in most mycology laboratories now make diagnosis more routine. Furthermore, information regarding medical mycology, including identification of specific fungal pathogens, is widely available. This book helps mycologists address the emerging challenges of diagnosis. Key Features Succinct summary of fungal disease diagnosis Includes opportunistic fungal infections that can afflict immunocompromised patients Permits the identification of common fungal pathogens Reviews antifungal drugs Related Titles Ghannoum, M. A. & John R. Perfect, eds. Antifungal Therapy, 2nd ed. (ISBN 978-1-4987-6814-6) Miyaji, M., ed. Animal Models in Medical Mycology (ISBN 978-1-3158-9059-3) Razzaghi-Abyaneh, M., M. Shams-Ghahfarokhi and M. Rai, eds. Medical Mycology: Current Trends and Future Prospects (ISBN 978-1-4987-1421-1)

The Pocket Guide to Mycological Diagnosis provides useful and concise information for microbiologists and professionals diagnosing the most medically relevant fungal species. Cellular and molecular techniques, immunological methods, and more accurate microscopy equipment available in most mycology laboratories now make diagnosis more routine. Furthermore, information regarding medical mycology, including identification of specific fungal pathogens, is widely available. This book helps mycologists address the emerging challenges of diagnosis. Key Features Succinct summary of fungal disease diagnosis Includes opportunistic fungal infections that can afflict immunocompromised patients Permits the identification of common fungal pathogens Reviews antifungal drugs Related Titles Ghannoum, M. A. & John R. Perfect, eds. Antifungal Therapy, 2nd ed. (ISBN 978-1-4987-6814-6) Miyaji, M., ed. Animal Models in Medical Mycology (ISBN 978-1-3158-9059-3) Razzaghi-Abyaneh, M., M. Shams-Ghahfarokhi and M. Rai, eds. Medical Mycology: Current Trends and Future Prospects (ISBN 978-1-4987-1421-1)

The book introduces the bioinformatics tools, databases and strategies for the translational research, focuses on the biomarker discovery based on integrative data analysis and systems biological network reconstruction. With the coming of personal genomics era, the biomedical data will be accumulated fast and then it will become reality for the personalized and accurate diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of complex diseases. The book covers both state of the art of bioinformatics methodologies and the examples for the identification of simple or network biomarkers. In addition, bioinformatics software tools and scripts are provided to the practical application in the study of complex diseases. The present state, the future challenges and perspectives were discussed. The book is written for biologists, biomedical informatics scientists and clinicians, etc. Dr. Bairong Shen is Professor and Director of Center for Systems Biology, Soochow University; he is also Director of Taicang Center for Translational Bioinformatics.

This book explores how PPPM, clinical practice, and basic research could be best served by information technology (IT). A use-case was developed for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The subject was approached with four interrelated tasks: (1) review of clinical practices relating to HCC; (2) propose an IT system relating to HCC, including clinical decision support and research needs; (3) determine how a clinical liver cancer center can contribute; and, (4) examine the enhancements and impact that the first three tasks will have on the management of HCC. An IT System for Personalized Medicine (ITS-PM) for HCC will provide the means to identify and determine the relative value of the wide number of variables, including clinical assessment of the patient -- functional status, liver function, degree of cirrhosis, and comorbidities; tumor biology, at a molecular, genetic and anatomic level; tumor burden and individual patient response; medical and operative treatments and their outcomes.

In Molecular Diagnostics for Melanoma: Methods and Protocols, expert researchers and clinicians in the field of melanoma provide updated information on biomarkers and assays for diagnosis, prognosis, and assays predicting response to treatment for routine testing. The focus of the volume is on biomarkers with established clinical validity rather than those on early discovery stage. With additional in-depth discussion of the molecular biology and pathology of melanoma, treatment options in adjuvant and metastatic setting, and implications of biomarker testing for clinical management of melanoma patients. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include extensive introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and key tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Comprehensive and practical, Molecular Diagnostics for Melanoma: Methods and Protocols seeks to provide both clinicians and scientists with technical information and extensive background information on the wide ranging approaches available in the field of diagnostics of melanoma.

Patient-Centered Medicine: A Human Experience emphasizes the health professional's role in caring for patients as unique individuals by focusing on the patients' psychological and social realities as well as their biological needs. The book concerns itself with caring for the whole patient, and outlines the basic principles involved in developing a biopsychosocial approach to medical practice. This is a volume of guidelines that will help medical students and clinicians develop and master basic attitudes and skills essential to providing empathic and comprehensive medical care. As Norman Cousins writes in the foreword, 'The authors understand and repeatedly demonstrate in this book, that the patient-physician relationship is a powerful, sometimes mysterious, frequently healing interaction between human beings. It is the person of the doctor and the presence of the doctor-just as much and frequently more than-what the doctor does that creates an environment for healing. The physician represents restoration. The physician holds the lifeline.' Since the book's original publication by University Park Press in 1984, greater awareness and acceptance of the biopsychosocial model has occurred, and medical schools are now working to fully integrate psychosocial education into the clinical curriculum.

This is a celebratory volume in honour of Professor T.R. Miles of the Bangor Dyslexia Unit. Among the papers offered by known specialists in the field are "Differential Diagnosis of Developmental Dyslexia", by P. Aaron, and "Evaluating Teaching Methods", by Michael Thompson.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Fungal Infections, 2nd Edition is a thorough update to Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Mycoses. Globally recognized experts are brought together again to provide the latest research and clinical evidence on fungal infections and basic mycology. This concise text is divided into sections dedicated to the patient approach, laboratory and radiological diagnosis, antifungal agents, mycoses and instructive cases. Ideal for patient care or as a teaching guide, the busy infectious disease, hematology, oncology, pulmonology, or critical care specialist will find this resource to be a practical tool for diagnosing, treating, and managing patients with fungal infections.

Endometriosis is one of the most common gynecological diseases, causing pelvic pain, infertility, and cancer. The condition reduces the quality of life for the estimated 10% of menstruating women who are affected by it. This book provides a clear insight into the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of endometriosis—essential information for clinicians intending to successfully treat the condition. The first part covers a range of topics including stem cells, NK cells, macrophages, inflammation, cytokines, epigenetics, prostaglandin, sex steroids, aromatase, apoptosis, nerve fibers, and malignant transformation to aid in understanding the pathogenesis and pathophysiology of the disease. The second part provides useful tools for therapy, specifically, notable recent techniques in prevention, imaging, biomarkers, medical treatments, surgical treatments, prevention of recurrence, and infertility treatments. Each chapter was written by an expert in the field, with nearly 40 researchers and clinicians contributing to the work. This book will be highly useful to clinicians as well as to research scientists who are interested in this enigmatic disease.  

Milton Taylor, Indiana University, offers an easy-to-read and fascinating text describing the impact of viruses on human society. The book starts with an analysis of the profound effect that viral epidemics had on world history resulting in demographic upheavals by destroying total populations. It also provides a brief history of virology and immunology. Furthermore, the use of viruses for the treatment of cancer (viral oncolysis or virotherapy) and bacterial diseases (phage therapy) and as vectors in gene therapy is discussed in detail. Several chapters focus on viral diseases such as smallpox, influenza, polio, hepatitis and their control, as well as on HIV and AIDS and on some emerging viruses with an interesting story attached to their discovery or vaccine development. The book closes with a chapter on biological weapons. It will serve as an invaluable source of information for beginners in the field of virology as well as for experienced virologists, other academics, students, and readers without prior knowledge of virology or molecular biology.

Molecular Diagnostics: 12 Tests That Changed Everything focuses on specific laboratory tests and emphasizes how the availability of these tests has altered how clinicians treat their patients. Presented as a standard outline, each chapter focuses on a specific molecular test and provides background on the test and its clinical applications. Continuing with some discussion on how the test is done, interpreted, and used clinically, each chapter then concludes with a discussion of how that test has changed the way medicine is practiced with respect to the disease or condition in question. Authored by renowned experts in the field, Molecular Diagnostics: 12 Tests That Changed Everything is a valuable resource for pathologists, pathology residents, laboratory directors, development personnel, lab medicine fellows and those working in the broad area of oncology, infectious disease and genetics.

Providing authoritative and up-to-date medical and scientific information about Tourette syndrome, "A Family's Guide to Tourette Syndrome" speaks to patients, families, care providers, academic institutions, and medical centers in easy-to-understand language about this neurodevelopmental disorder that affects children, adolescents, and adults worldwide. Each chapter is authored by leading neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, scientists, and others with expertise and research interests in Tourette syndrome.
"Praise for A Family's Guide to Tourette Syndrome"

"I am delighted to see the breadth and wealth of valuable clinical and scientific findings that have been gathered together in this comprehensive resource for families. The information provided in this book is testimony to the talent, abiding intellectual curiosity, and dedication to compassionate care and sheer persistence of each of the professionals who have contributed chapters. Their common goal was clear and selfless-to uncover sound medical and scientific data that could provide much needed answers to the baffling complexities of Tourette syndrome. A mere two decades ago, it was clear to all in the field that the prospect of obtaining sufficient funding to explore more deeply the intriguing preliminary findings uncovered about the disorder was all but non-existent. Simply put-other research funding priorities prevailed at the time. And so we can appreciate that the decision by each of them to dedicate their professional efforts to the study of Tourette syndrome is especially laudable. And for this we all owe the contributing authors a profound debt of gratitude." -Sue Levi-Pearl, Emeritus TSA Vice President, Medical and Scientific Programs

For courses in orthopedics, physical therapy, athletic training, and physical examination, in programs for healthcare providers including physicians, nurses, athletic trainers, physician's assistants, physical therapists, and occupational therapists. This is the field's most comprehensive evidence-based guide to clinical tests for orthopedic physical examination. It presents complete explanations and photography visualizing all commonly used physical exam tests for all body regions, including both neurological screening tools and conventional tests. The quality of research supporting each test is assessed using the QUADAS quality instrument, which analyzes the extent to which bias may have influenced diagnostic values. Diagnostic values are reported wherever they exist, and summary "Utility" scores are provided for each test based on the authors' interpretation of the research and their use of the tests in clinical practice. This edition adds 200 new tests, presents valuable clusters of tests, and contains two entirely new chapters: one on visceral assessment and medical screening, and another on temporomandibular examination.

Many young, inexperienced doctors, have difficultly pinpointing a diagnosis: Is it a condition to which certain diseases could belong, or a disease definable in line with certain criteria? How can I apply my basic knowledge of diseases to a real patient? How can I find the correct diagnosis for a disease that I am seeing for the very first time? The traditional diagnostic pathways conveyed by current methods of teaching, from visual identification of the disease, knowledge of diseases, understanding of symptoms or patterns to diagnosis, leave certain diagnostic questions unanswered, especially on first experience of such a clinical pattern. Syndrome-based Approach to Diagnosis: A Practical Guide offers lecturers an alternative training concept in their teaching, which provides students with a model for self-study as well as the educational tools for learning how to think in clinical terms.

An examination of diagnostic processes that questions how we can better understand autism as a category and the unique forms of intelligence it glosses. As autism has grown in prevalence, so too have our attempts to make sense of it. From placing unfounded blame on vaccines to seeking a genetic cause, Americans have struggled to understand what autism is and where it comes from. Amidst these efforts, however, a key aspect of autism has been largely overlooked: the diagnostic process itself. That process is the central focus of Autistic Intelligence. The authors ask us to question the norms by which we measure autistic behavior, to probe how that behavior can be considered sensible rather than disordered, and to explore how we can better appreciate the individuality of those who receive the diagnosis. Drawing on hundreds of hours of video recordings and ethnographic observations at a clinic where professionals evaluated children for autism, the authors' analysis of interactions among clinicians, parents, and children demystifies the categories, tools, and practices involved in the diagnostic process. Autistic Intelligence shows that autism is not a stable category; it is the outcome of complex interactional processes involving professionals, children, families, and facets of the social and clinical environments they inhabit. The authors suggest that diagnosis, in addition to carefully classifying children, also can highlight or include unique and particular contributions those with autism potentially can make to the world around us.

Not all scientific discoveries are genius. Continual Raving tells the combined stories of how scientists across the 19th and 20th centuries defeated meningitis - not through flawless scientific research, but often through a series of serendipitous events, misplaced assumptions, and flawed conclusions. The result is a story of not just a vanquished disease, but how scientific accomplishment sometimes occurs where it's least expected. Although symptoms of meningitis were recorded as early as Hippocrates and the ancient Greeks, our understanding of the disease's origins and mechanisms remained obscure for most of human history. That changed in 1892, when German physician Richard Pfeiffer observed and isolated bacteria ultimately shown to cause meningitis in children - and concluded that those bacteria cause influenza. Haemophilus influenzae, as thee meningitis-causing bacteria have been erroneously named ever since, continued their strange journey to discovery in the decades that followed. Continual Raving traces the disease's strange encounters with science, including: * Heinrich Quincke, the German internist who first used a needle to draw spinal fluid from between a patient's back bones * Simon Flexner's management of American meningitis epidemics using immune serum from a horse * American bacteriologist Margaret Pittman's discovery (during the Great Depression, no less) of a sugar overcoat that protects the bacteria from white blood cells * Pediatrician Ashley Weech, who gave the first antibiotic used in America (based on instructions written in German) to a young patient sick with meningitis * Microbiologist Hattie Alexander, who learned why these antibiotics sometimes fail in such patients * Four scientists, in two teams, as they vied to be the first to create the right vaccine to prevent meningitis in infants In each of these deeply human stories, variables of chance, circumstance, and incorrect assumptions intervene to shape not just the arc of the scientists' lives, but the trajectory of how humans have come to understand one of our most pernicious diseases. Continual Raving is a mosaic tale of how science conquered meningitis - and a larger story of the sometimes winding road to discovery.

A rapid development in diverse areas of molecular biology and genetic engineering resulted in emergence of variety of tools. These tools are not only applicable to basic researches being carried out world over, but also exploited for precise detection of abnormal conditions in plants, animals and human body. Although a basic researcher is well versed with few techniques used by him/her in the laboratory, they may not be well acquainted with methodologies, which can be used to work out some of their own research problems. The picture is more blurred when the molecular diagnostic tools are to be used by physicians, scientists and technicians working in diagnostic laboratories in hospitals, industry and academic institutions. Since many of them are not trained in basics of these methods, they come across several gray areas in understanding of these tools. The accurate application of molecular diagnostic tools demands in depth understanding of the methodology for precise detection of the abnormal condition of living body. To meet the requirements of a good book on molecular diagnostics of students, physicians, scientists working in agricultural, veterinary, medical and pharmaceutical sciences, it needs to expose the reader lucidly to: Give basic science behind commonly used tools in diagnostics Expose the readers to detailed applications of these tools and Make them aware the availability of such diagnostic tools The book will attract additional audience of pathologists, medical microbiologists, pharmaceutical sciences, agricultural scientists and veterinary doctors if the following topics are incorporated at appropriate places in Unit II or separately as a part of Unit-III in the book. Molecular diagnosis of diseases in agricultural crops Molecular diagnosis of veterinary diseases. Molecular epidemiology, which helps to differentiate various epidemic strains and sources of disease outbreaks. Even in different units of the same hospital, the infections could be by different strains of the same species and the information becomes valuable for infection control strategies. Drug resistance is a growing problem for bacterial, fungal and parasitic microbes and the molecular biology tools can help to detect the drug resistance genes without the cultivation and in vitro sensitivity testing. Molecular diagnostics offers faster help in the selection of the proper antibiotic for the treatment of tuberculosis, which is a major problem of the in the developing world. The conventional culture and drug sensitivity testing of tuberculosis bacilli is laborious and time consuming, whereas molecular diagnosis offers rapid drug resistant gene detection even from direct clinical samples. The same approach for HIV, malaria and many more diseases needs to be considered. Molecular diagnostics in the detection of diseases during foetal life is an upcoming area in the foetal medicine in case of genetic abnormalities and infectious like TORCH complex etc. The book will be equally useful to students, scientists and professionals working in the field of molecular diagnostics.

Of the thousands of biomarkers that are currently being discovered, relatively few are being validated for further applications, and the potential of a biomarker can be quite difficult to evaluate. To aid in this imperative research, Dr. Kewal K. Jain's Handbook of Biomarkers thoroughly describes many different types of biomarkers and their discovery using various "-omics" technologies, such as proteomics and metabolomics, along with the background information needed for the evaluation of biomarkers as well as the essential procedures for their validation and use in clinical trials. With biomarkers described first according to technologies and then according to various diseases, this detailed book features the key correlations between diseases and classifications of biomarkers, which provides the reader with a guide to sort out current and future biomarkers. Comprehensive and cutting-edge, The Handbook of Biomarkers serves as a vital guide to furthering our understanding of biomarkers, which, by facilitating the combination of therapeutics with diagnostics, promise to play an important role in the development of personalized medicine, one of the most important emerging trends in healthcare today.

Technological developments in the life sciences confront us with new facets of a Faustian seduction. Are we "playing God" more and more, as claimed by critical authors of modernity? Achievements in genetic research produce ethical dilemmas which need to be the subject of reflection and debate in modern societies. Denial of ambivalences that ethical dilemmas arouse constitutes a threat to societies as well as to individuals. The book presents a compilation of some of the results of the interdisciplinary European study "Ethical Dilemmas Due to Prenatal and Genetic Diagnostics" (EDIG), which investigated some of these dilemmas in detail in a field which is particularly challenging: prenatal diagnosis. When results from prenatal diagnosis show fetal abnormalities, women and their partners are confronted with ethical dilemmas regarding: the right to know and the right not to know; decision-making about the remainder of the pregnancy and the desire for a healthy child; responsibility for the unborn child, for its well-being and possible suffering; life and death. This book provides answers from an ethical, psychoanalytical and medical viewpoint.

Intended to be intriguing but not morbid, this book takes readers on an amazing journey through past, present, and evolving postmortem practices. The first of its kind, it deals with a topic that is rapidly becoming popular in the collectibles world. Tastefully and beautifully illustrated with many historical photographs and postcards, the book provides a pictorial review of the customs employed by mankind throughout the ages to deal with the final disposition of loved ones. Included in the remarkable array of collectible items are embalming products and instruments, photographs of funeral homes and funeral processions, promotional and advertising materials, and an outstanding collection of postmortem photographs taken in private homes and other locations. Cemetery monuments, sculptures, and mausoleums are shown, along with background material on caskets, floral arrangements, burial garments, mourning etiquette, and more. Values are included in the captions.

According to the Autoimmune Diseases Coordinating Committee (ADCC), between 14.7 and 23.5 million people in the USA - up to eight percent of the population are affected by autoimmune disease. Autoimmune diseases are a family of more than 100 chronic, and often disabling, illnesses that develop when underlying defects in the immune system lead the body to attack its own organs, tissues, and cells. In Handbook of Autoimmune Disease, the editors have gathered in a comprehensive handbook a critical review, by renowned experts, of more than 100 autoimmune diseases, divided into two main groups, namely systemic and organ-specific autoimmune diseases. A contemporary overview of these conditions with special emphasis on diagnosis is presented. Each chapter contains the essential information required by attending physicians as well as bench scientists to understand the definition of a specific autoimmune disease, the diagnostic criteria, and the treatment.

Prepared by world leaders on this topic, Biomarkers in Cancer Screening and Early Detection offers a comprehensive, state-of-the-art perspective on the various research and clinical aspects of cancer biomarkers, from their discovery and development to their validation, clinical utility, and use in developing personalized cancer treatment. * Offers a comprehensive, state-of-the-art perspective on the various research and clinical aspects of cancer biomarkers * Provides immediately actionable information and hopefully also inspiration to move discovery and clinical application forward * Offers vital knowledge to help develop personalized cancer treatment for individual patients with specific cancers

Prognostication of acute neurologic disease is a major task for neurohospitalists and neurointensivists. The family conference raises the delicate matter of how to decide that outcome is indefinitely poor and how to define disability. This monograph is the first book on how to communicate prognosis in acute neurologic conditions. Communicating Prognosis includes useful data on prognosis in all major neurologic conditions and provides practical advice on how to effectively lead such a conference and how to resolve potential conflicts. This book provides straightforward common sense on-the-spot advice and touches on all aspects of support of devastated families.