Ethics of Everyday Medicine: Explorations of Justice examines and analyses the relatively unexplored domain of ethics involved in the everyday practice of medicine. From the author's clinical experience, virtually every decision made in the day-to-day practice of medicine is fundamentally an ethical question, as virtually every decision hinge on some value judgment that goes beyond the medical facts of the matter. The first part of the book is devoted to medical decision cases in several areas of medicine. These cases highlight elements of the current healthcare ecosystem, involving players other than the physician and patient. Insurers (private, commercial, and governmental), administrators, and regulators' perspectives are surfaced in point of care case analysis. Part two contributes to the development of actionable tools to develop better ethical systems for the everyday practice of medicine by providing a critical analysis of Reflective Equilibrium and ethical induction from the perspective of logic and statistics. The chapter on Justice discusses the neurophysiological representations of just and unjust behaviours. The chapter on Ethical Theories follows, describing the epistemic conundrum, principlism, reproducibility, abstraction, chaos and complexity. The following chapter approaches ethical decisions from the logic and statistic perspectives. The following chapter, The Patient as Parenthetical, the author discusses patient-centric ethics, and the rise of business- and government-cetric ethics. The final chapter, A Framework to Frame the Questions for Explore Further, proposes a working framework to deal with current ethical issues. Ethics of everyday Medicine: Explorations of Justice acknowledges that there are no answers yet to the ethical dilemmas that confront the everyday practice of medicine, but proposes a framework for deeper analysis and action. This reading would be useful to all healthcare professionals. Regulators and policy makers could also benefit from understanding how the complex healthcare environment influences medical decisions at point of care.

Reproducibility in Biomedical Research: Epistemological and Statistical Problems explores the ideas and conundrums inherent in scientific research. It explores factors of reproducibility, including logic, distinguishing productive from unproductive irreproducibility, the scientific method, and the use of statistics. In multiple examples and six detailed case studies, the book demonstrates the misuse of logic resulting in unproductive irreproducibility, allowing researchers to develop their own logic and planning abilities. Biomedical researchers, clinicians, administrators of scientific institutions and funding agencies, journal editors, philosophers of science and medicine will find the arguments and explorations a valuable addition to their libraries.

Thorough understanding of electricity, electronics, biophysics, neurophysiology, and neuroanatomy renders more tractable otherwise complex electrophysiologically-based targeting. The textbook integrates these subjects in a single resource. Ultimately, electrophysiological monitoring required controlling the movement of electrons in electronic circuits. Thus, the textbook begins with fundamental discussions of electrons, the forces moving electrons, and the electrical circuits controlling these forces. The forces that allow recording and analysis also permeate the environment producing interference, such as noise and artifact. The textbook discusses noise and artifact and the measures to avoid or suppress them. The textbook discusses interpretive principles and methods for translating electrophysiological information collected along a trajectory into an understanding of the trajectory's functional- anatomical location, as well as its optimal location and direction. Forms included allow one to document observations, consult algorithms, and interpret data. Other discussions cover safe brain stimulation, correct interpretation of patient responses, procedures of targeted neurological examinations to assess patients' condition in response to stimulation and any surgical consequences, various aspects and limitations of image-based surgical planning, and principles governing use of electrode-guiding mechanical devices.

Modern medicine is one of humankind's greatest achievements.Yet today, frequent medical errors and irreproducibility in biomedical research suggest that tremendous challenges beset it. Understanding these challenges and trying to remedy them have driven considerable and thoughtful critical analyses, but the apparent intransigence of these problems suggests a different perspective is needed. Now more than ever, when we see options and opportunities for healthcare expanding while resources are diminishing, it is extremely important that healthcare professionals practice medicine wisely. In Medical Reasoning, neurologist Erwin B. Montgomery, Jr. offers a new and vital perspective. He begins with the idea that the need for certainty in medical decision-making has been the primary driving force in medical reasoning. Doctors must routinely confront countless manifestations of symptoms, diseases, or behaviors in their patients. Therefore, either there are as many different "diseases" as there are patients or some economical set of principles and facts can be combined to explain each patient's disease. The response to this epistemic conundrum has driven medicine throughout history: the challenge is to discover principles and facts and then to develop means to apply them to each unique patient in a manner that provides certainty. This book studies the nature of medical decision making systematically and rigorously in both an analytic and historical context, addressing medicine's unique need for certainty in the face of the enormous variety of diseases and in the manifestations of the same disease in different patients. The book also examines how the social, legal, and economic circumstances in which medical decision-making occurs greatly influence the nature of medical reasoning. Medical Reasoning is essential for those at the intersection of healthcare and philosophy.

Twenty Things to Know About Deep Brain Stimulation is an extensive and in-depth critical analysis of the field of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) from what many may consider a revolutionary perspective. This book demonstrates the unique nature and incredible promise of DBS and shows how it is unparalleled as a therapeutic intervention. Dr. Montgomery provides an epistemic analysis of the presuppositions, assumptions and fallacies underlying current clinical understanding of DBS as well as the physiology and pathophysiology affected by DBS. Reviews of the safety and efficacy for a number of conditions, patient selections and issues in the post-operative management are also included. Given the revolutionary potential and the complexity of DBS in an ever changing healthcare delivery context, the ethics of DBS are discussed in detail.

Deep brain stimulation programming (DBS) continues to grow as an effective therapy for a wide range of neurological and psychiatric disorders, helping patients reach optimal control of their disorder. With the technique finding so much success, the next question is how to make the complexities of post-operative programming cost-effective, especially when traditional medications and treatments can no longer do the job. The second edition of Deep Brain Stimulation Programming is fully revised and up-to-date with the latest technologies and focuses on post-operative programing, which no other text does. This book provides programmers with a foundation of the brain as an electrical device, focusing on the mechanisms by which neurons respond to electrical stimulation, how to control the stimulation and the regional anatomy, and the many variations that influence a patient's response to DBS. Dr. Montgomery explores new techniques of programming; including those based on stimulation frequency, closed-loop DBS, and the roles of oscillators in DBS; and new technological advances that make pre-existing theories of pathophysiology obsolete. Key Features of the Second Edition Include * Highlights post-operative deep brain stimulation; * Includes the most recent discoveries in deep brain stimulation programming; * Highly illustrated with figures for absorption of key programming and techniques; * Provides an appendix of additional resources available through the Greenville Neuromodulation Center.