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This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, PervasiveHealth 2023, held in Malmö, Sweden, during November 27-29, 2023. The 29 full papers and 6 short papers were selected from 90 submissions and are organized in thematic sessions as follows: Pervasive Mental Health; Privacy, Ethics and Regulations; Datasets and Big data Processing; Pervasive health for Carers; Pervasive Health in Clinical Practice; Remote Monitoring; Patient and User Aspects; Motion and rehabilitation; Workshop on the Internet of Things in Health Research; Posters and demos (non indexed annex).

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, PervasiveHealth 2022, which took place in Thessaloniki, Greece, in December 2022.The 45 full papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 120 submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: personal informatics and wearable devices; computer vision; IoT-HR: Internet of things in health research; pervasive health for COVID-19; machine learning, human activity recognition and speech recognition; software frameworks and interoperability; facial recognition, gesture recognition and object detection; machine learning, predictive models and personalised healthcare; human-centred design of pervasive health solutions; personalized healthcare.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third EAI International Conference on IoT and Big Data Technologies for Health Care, IotCARE 2022, which took place virtually during December 12-13, 2022.The 23 papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 67 submissions. The papers are present newest results in big data technologies for e-health and for e-care. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: big data technologies for e-health; and big data technologies for e-care.

This book presents the proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021), held online on June 13-18, 2021. By highlighting the latest theories and models, as well as cutting-edge technologies and applications, and by combining findings from a range of disciplines including engineering, design, robotics, healthcare, management, computer science, human biology and behavioral science, it provides researchers and practitioners alike with a comprehensive, timely guide on human factors and ergonomics. It also offers an excellent source of innovative ideas to stimulate future discussions and developments aimed at applying knowledge and techniques to optimize system performance, while at the same time promoting the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals. The proceedings include papers from researchers and practitioners, scientists and physicians, institutional leaders, managers and policy makers that contribute to constructing the Human Factors andErgonomics approach across a variety of methodologies, domains and productive sectors. This volume includes papers addressing the following topics: Healthcare Ergonomics, Health and Safety, Musculoskeletal Disorders, HF/E Contribution to cope with Covid-19.

This book is a collection of the best scientific research presented during the First International Conference of Indonesian Medical and Health Professions Education (INA-MHPE Conference 2022) hosted by the Departments of Medicine, Health Professions Education, and Bioethics in the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing at the Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Indonesia. The conference was held in co-operation with the co-hosts of Department of Medical Education at Universitas Indonesia (UI) and the Medical Education Unit in the Faculty of Medicine at Universitas Airlangga (UA), who will host the forthcoming INA-MHPEC in 2024 and 2026, respectively. This collection presents selected papers presented by health professionals and bioethicists from these leading institutions in Indonesia, focusing on the theme of character building in the context of health education for medical professionals in the twenty-first century. It considers effective learning strategies for character building, appropriate methods of character assessment, means of assessing and improving the learning environment in the community, clinics, university classes and hospitals, and addresses the role of the healthcare educator in providing resources, program evaluations, and effective medical management to support the development of healthcare professionals'characters, and their modus operandi, in the future. The book is relevant to medical and public health professionals in Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and beyond.

The book contains proceedings of the International Conference on Emergent Converging Technologies and Biomedical Systems ETBS 2022. It includes papers on wireless multimedia networks, green wireless networks, electric vehicles, biomedical signal processing and instrumentation, wearable sensors for health care monitoring, biomedical imaging, & bio-materials, modeling and simulation in medicine biomedical, and health informatics. The book will serve as a useful guide for educators, researchers, and developers working in the area of signal processing, imaging, computing, instrumentation, artificial intelligence, and their related applications. This book will also provide support and aid to the researchers involved in designing the latest advancements in healthcare technologies.

This is an open access book. The book provides an overview of the state of research in developing countries – Africa, Latin America, and Asia (especially India) and why research and publications are important in these regions. It addresses budding but struggling academics in low and middle-income countries. It is written mainly by senior colleagues who have experienced and recognized the challenges with design, documentation, and publication of health research in the developing world. The book includes short chapters providing insight into planning research at the undergraduate or postgraduate level, issues related to research ethics, and conduct of clinical trials. It also serves as a guide towards establishing a research question and research methodology. It covers important concepts such as writing a paper, the submission process, dealing with rejection and revisions, and covers additional topics such as planning lectures and presentations. The book will be useful for graduates, postgraduates, teachers as well as physicians and practitioners all over the developing world who are interested in academic medicine and wish to do medical research.

The book contains peer-reviewed proceedings of the International Conference on Emergent Converging Technologies and Biomedical Systems 2021. It includes papers on wireless multimedia networks, green wireless networks, electric vehicles, biomedical signal processing and instrumentation, wearable sensors for health care monitoring, biomedical imaging, & bio-materials, modeling and simulation in medicine biomedical and health informatics. The book will serve as a useful guide for educators, researchers, and developers working in the area of signal processing, imaging, computing, instrumentation, artificial intelligence, and their related applications. This book will also provide support and aid to the researchers involved in designing the latest advancements in healthcare technologies.

Measurements of individual benefits of different health and medical interventions are fundamental for prioritizing among different alternative uses of resources in the healthcare sector. While psychometric measures do not necessarily provide information sufficient for assigning relative values to different health states, preference-based approaches produce measures that allow comparisons of such values. In this volume of the series of Advances in Health Economics and Health Services Research, entitled Preference Measurement in Health, the papers cover altruism within families, differences in risk attitudes, and estimation of health benefits of food safety. Specific topics include efficiency and altruism, comparison of mother and daughter values of HPV vaccination for daughters, differences in risk attitudes between women and men, how context matters in valuing food safety programs, and valuation of health risks associated with pesticide use.

This book is based on the proceedings and discussions of a closed workshop held in Santa Margherita Ligure in January 1995. It was an original scientific experience: no public was admitted. For three days the main contributors of this book remained closed in a wonderful ho­ tel. In the same hotel Guglielmo Marconi, in the 30s, performed his first experiments with radio waves. The hotel was therefore an ideal place, al­ though the problems we discussed were not so'revolutionary'like Marco­ ni's experiments. In these days round tables, superrescricted meetings on specific topics and presentation of selected papers, only for very few persons, were per­ formed. We discussed about definition, ethiopathogenesis, physiopathology, clinical and instrumental evaluations, medico-legal and therapeutic aspects of whiplash injuries. All the attendants tried to report and discuss personal experiences and ideas in order to compare them. All the discussions were especially aimed to prepare the chapters you will read in this book. We returned to our homes very tired, but very rich in our minds. We really hope that after reading this book you will be as tired as rich. We are very grateful to Pharmacia, who supported the closed workshop and the preparation of this publication.

This two volumes constitute the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Intelligent Robotics and Applications, ICIRA 2008, held in Wuhan, China, in October 2008. The 265 revised full papers presented were thoroughly reviewed and selected from 552 submissions; they are devoted but not limited to robot motion planning and manipulation; robot control; cognitive robotics; rehabilitation robotics; health care and artificial limb; robot learning; robot vision; human-machine interaction & coordination; mobile robotics; micro/nano mechanical systems; manufacturing automation; multi-axis surface machining; realworld applications.

In an era of rapid advancements,'Healthcare Management'explores the transformative journey of modern healthcare. This book covers a broad spectrum of topics, from the evolution of healthcare systems around the world and the epidemiological perspectives of healthcare management to the intricate aspects of health policy, planning, and economics. The book examines emerging trends in healthcare needs assessment, public-private partnerships, and evidence-based medicine, offering critical insights into modern management practices. Healthcare reforms are discussed with a focus on professional regulation, law and ethics. Gain insights into the latest scientific discoveries and research methodologies that are pushing the boundaries of what is possible in healthcare. Learn about the collaborative efforts that are accelerating medical breakthroughs and translating research into practice. Anticipate the future of healthcare with expert analyses on the integration of artificial intelligence, personalized medicine, telehealth, medical ethics, health services accreditation, organ transplant and patient-centered care models.'Healthcare Management'is an essential resource for healthcare professionals, administrators, academic administrators, teachers and students who are keen to stay ahead in a rapidly changing field. It provides the knowledge and tools to navigate the complexities of modern healthcare and drive meaningful improvements in patient care and system management, ultimately guiding readers towards establishing world-class healthcare systems and universities.

The main objective of translational health science is to concentrate on discovering healthcare products for all people where care gaps exist. This book examines the applications of translational research, identifies its difficulties, outlines its essential characteristics, considers healthcare management strategies, and examines the public's perspectives today. This book assists aspiring implementation scientists in researching this area because the discipline is still relatively young for the wide range of researchers tackling the challenge of clinical and translational science, a field dedicated to examining human health and disease, interventions, and outcomes to develop new treatment approaches, devices, and modalities to improve health. This book Edition is the most authoritative and timely resource that introduces new physiological and therapeutic processes to engage the fastest-growing scientific outcomes from academic and industrial research. The chapters in this book give insights into perspectives on the field of clinical and translational science and discuss artificial intelligence in drug development and conventional and novel clinical trial designs. There is a lot of hope that using artificial intelligence (AI) will significantly advance all facets of healthcare, from diagnosis to therapy. AI is prepared to assist medical staff with various duties, including administrative workflow, clinical documentation, patient outreach, and specialist support like image analysis, medical device automation, and patient monitoring. Some of the most important uses of AI in healthcare will be covered in this book by eminent Scientists, Academicians, and Industrial persons from both clinical and non-clinical fields.

This book presents the latest evidence-based approach in diagnosis and management of the aging of both individuals and society from a gerontology perspective. Amid significant demographic changes such as aging and longevity, one crucial concern is how to live a long healthy life and how community and company can support it. Thus, this book aims to educate society on this vital issue and promote research that integrates the humanities and sciences that welcomes the elderly into an economic market and considers them the new social asset. The book is organized into three themed parts; Environmental Health, Culture/Society in Gerontology, and Preventive Medicine. Chapters provide easy-to-follow algorithms and critical points for each topic. With the study of preventive medicine and environmental medicine in hygiene, the interdisciplinary systems will be suitable for pioneering new academic fields and innovation. Gerontology as an Interdisciplinary Science is a must-have source of information for academics for environmental and occupational health worldwide. It is also a valuable resource for both new and established researchers and students who seek comprehensive information on care, welfare and health promotion for the elderly. Researchers in various fields, such as robot operation interface and emotion analysis using biological signals of the elderly, will value this book. It enriches the understanding for creators and technical staff for data science/data-based science of the bio-signal of the elderly.

This book explores the applications of cutting-edge technologies such as AI, blockchain, signal processing, digital twin technology, and 5G communication technology in healthcare. The writing style combines diagrams, tables, formulae, and text to enhance readability. The content combines theoretical analysis and medical application in every chapter. This book presents several innovative methods, including an AI-based computer-aided diagnosis system, a blockchain-based AI system framework for healthcare, pre-processing algorithms for medical imaging, digital twin models for healthcare, a healthcare platform based on cloud, fog, and edge computing, and a personal health device domain information model. This book will be valuable for researchers, engineers, and post-graduate students in the fields of medicine management and software engineering.

The second edition builds upon the previous content, exploring new and emerging evidence to enhance the structure and content of rehabilitation provided. It considers the additional impact of COVID-19 throughout each chapter. In addition, sadly not every patient survives their critical illness but good, multidisciplinary and holistic care is just as essential for these patients. The editors have added a chapter on end-of-life care, focusing on the importance of personalised care and family involvement and on PICS. Since 2020, healthcare professionals have faced unprecedented challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. High levels of illness severity, along with stretched critical care capacity and workforces, meant rapid development of new patient pathways were required. This has deepened our understanding of the physical, psychological and cognitive impact of critical illness, as well as the need for services to deliver multi-professional, holistic programmes of rehabilitation to maximise outcomes. An admission to ICU with a critical illness has a well-recognised physical, psychological and social impact all on the individual and their loved ones. Successful discharge from ICU requires significant attention to detail on all aspects of care concurrently to ensure a return to the best quality of life achievable. The new edition explores key areas to consider and ensure rehabilitation is delivered in a holistic way. The chapters are written by a range of multidisciplinary ICU team members, providing expert guidance and an evidence-based approach to improve outcomes and return patients to their families.

This book discusses the need to establish social work for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) with an emphasis on the emerging role of effective and sustainable social interventions for the control and elimination of NTDs. NTDs are a group of infectious diseases prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions, causing significant morbidity and mortality to the world's poorest populations but receiving relatively lesser attention. They significantly affect communities with poor financial resources, inadequate sanitation and limited healthcare facilities, indicating their social dimension. Addressing NTDs requires multifaceted strategies that consider environmental, social, and economic factors, with socioeconomic factors emerging as a critical determinant. The global battle against NTDs has seen significant progress, yet social workers'involvement remains limited, particularly in high-prevalence regions like India. This stems from undefined roles and a lack of focus within existing NTD frameworks. Integrating social work into NTD intervention is crucial for addressing the diverse challenges associated with these diseases, especially the social dimensions. Social workers, by advocating for health equity, engaging communities, addressing social determinants, and collaborating with healthcare professionals, can contribute significantly to the broader efforts in mitigating the impact of NTDs on vulnerable populations. This book builds on the social nature of NTDs to argue for the case of NTD social work. Establishing NTD social work requires efforts in training, standardising practices, research, advocacy, infrastructure development, and partnerships. Among the topics covered: Neglected Tropical Diseases: A Brief Introduction to the Global Scenario Neglected Tropical Diseases and the Social Dimension of Illness in India Social Work for the Control and Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases Towards Sustainable Impact: Future Directions in Social Work for NTD Control and Elimination Social Work with Populations Vulnerable to Neglected Tropical Diseases helps readers to understand the intersectional nature of health inequities and effectively work towards the control and elimination of diseases of poverty, specifically NTDs. The book is useful reading for health social workers, social work educators, healthcare professionals, medical and public health educators, and public policy and health policy researchers.

This volume captures emerging strategies, technologies, and innovations leading to international advancements in healthcare outcomes and health science education. Its multidisciplinary contributions provide far-reaching implications for One Health research and practice at the patient, community, and population level.Readers will discover technological and institutional drivers of cutting-edge developments in the healthcare sector with a comprehensive scope, including human medicine, student training, and nursing. Topics include telehealth and telemedicine, mental health, educational innovations, molecular biology & biomedicine, global pandemic (COVID-19) effects on professionals and services, and more. The chapters stem from academics, practitioners, researchers, healthcare stakeholders and industry representatives resulting in highly multi- and inter-disciplinary content, which was carefully compiled during the first HCT International Conference on Advancements in HealthSciences, ICAHS 2023, held on March 8-9, 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Terms such as “patient engagement”, “centricity”, and “patient first” are often loosely used to describe a company vision, a joint objective in establishing an ethos which incorporates the person who matters the most, the patient. Traditionally, a psychologist is known to work in clinical settings, directly with people experiencing psychological difficulties, within a healthcare structure. This is still the premise; however, the foundational knowledge and understanding of human behaviour has driven psychologists into a new, previously unconsidered professional field: the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. This industry is pivotal in clinical drug development, new discoveries, innovation, and the reach is endless. So, what is a psychologist doing working in this environment? This book offers insights on how to build successful patient engagement strategies based on behaviour science and the real-world experience of a psychologist working in the pharmaceutical industry.

This edited collection presents the latest work on the application of discursive psychology and conversation analysis to sensitive interactions and interventions in healthcare. While all interactions in healthcare settings can be challenging for both patients and practitioners, this book pays particular attention to topics that are likely to be especially sensitive, such as communication around sexual health, palliative care, suicide prevention, medically unexplained symptoms, or chronic pain. Across nine chapters authors discuss how discursive psychology and conversation analysis can help us understand what people actually do in conversations, hence providing a strong basis for developing and testing training methods that support health professionals to reflect on their interactions with patients. Addressing both practical and theoretical challenges in the development and implementation of such training sessions, this volume establishes the state-of-the-art in this area and offers a valuable tool for academics and researchers in discourse analytical fields, practitioners working to improve communication in health, as well as meeting facilitators in education or work settings related to healthcare.

This comprehensive textbook on healthcare organizational behavior and management uniquely bridges theory and practice, directing significant attention toward operationalization in health and medical settings. This blend of theory and practice differentiates the content of this book from that of related academic and professional books that tend to discuss theory at length with limited attention being directed toward practical applications. This approach ultimately affords readers with a working knowledge of the subject matter which must be mastered to successfully operate healthcare organizations and a real‐world skill set for use in practice. The contents of the text encompass a fairly broad spectrum of organizational behavior and management within the context of the healthcare industry and its associated organizations. Among the topics covered: Leadership in Health and Medicine Motivation in Health and Medicine Communication in Health and Medicine Strategy in Health and Medicine Ethics and Social Responsibility in Health and Medicine Organizational Culture in Health and Medicine Groups and Teams in Health and Medicine Power and Politics in Health and Medicine Beyond its efficient presentation of core facets of organizational behavior and management, the book features practical insights in each chapter from the authors'experiences as leaders at a health system. These passages share real-world insights, often involving unique applications, innovative thinking, and other creative perspectives from practice. These viewpoints are invaluable for helping readers to ground the theoretical overviews presented in each chapter, bolstering knowledge and understanding. A glossary of organizational behavior and management terminology is also included. Organizational Behavior and Management in Health and Medicine serves as a primer featuring principles and practices with intensive application and operational guidance. The text, with its learning objectives, chapter summaries, key terms, and exercises, is ideally suited for professors and students of health administration, medicine, nursing, and allied health. The book also can serve as a refresher for healthcare executives and managers (e.g., administrators, nurses, physicians) and as a useful reference for anyone with an interest in learning about administrative practices in health and medical settings.

This comprehensive review covers the full and latest array of interventional techniques for managing chronic pain. Chapters are grouped by specific treatment modalities that include spinal interventional techniques, non-spinal and peripheral nerve blocks, sympathetic interventional techniques, soft tissue and joint injections, and implantables. This second edition features new chapters covering challenges with opioid therapy, impact of COVID-19, and spinal interventional techniques.Practical step-by-step and evidence-based guidance is given to each approach in order to improve the clinician's understanding. Innovative and timely, Essentials of Interventional Techniques in Managing Chronic Pain is a critical resource for anesthesiologists, neurologists, and rehabilitation and pain physicians.

This book systematically reviews the progress of Explainable Ambient Intelligence (XAmI) and introduces its methods, tools, and applications. Ambient intelligence (AmI) is a vision in which an environment supports the people inhabiting it in an unobtrusive, interconnected, adaptable, dynamic, embedded, and intelligent way. So far, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies have been widely applied in AmI. However, some advanced AI methods are not easy to understand or communicate, especially for users with insufficient background knowledge of AI, which undoubtedly limits the practicability of these methods. To address this issue, explainable AI (XAI) has been considered a viable strategy. Although XAI technologies and tools applied in other fields can also be applied to explain AI technology applications in AmI, users should be the main body in the application of AmI, which is slightly different from the application of AI technologies in other fields. This book containsreal case studies of the application of XAml and is a valuable resource for students and researchers.

This book provides a complete teaching companion that an organization can use to educate on the hard topics of racism, antiracism, microaggressions, bias and allyships. It explores the experience of underrepresented minority trainees and other healthcare professionals with racism and allyship. Talking about racism is challenging due to the amount of associated pain, suffering and strong emotions. Creating a respectful, open, interactive and safe place to have conversations, teach and learn is paramount in order to produce change in the healthcare environment. Using narratives to facilitate difficult conversations is familiar to healthcare professionals, and with humility reminds us that we are all'patients'that also need healing. Narratives promote self-reflection and have the power to change beliefs and attitudes. The volume opens with introductory chapters that focus on definitions, historical context and the current climate of racism, bias, microaggressions and allyship. Narratives are presented in 42 chapters organized by themes of racism, microaggression, allyship, sexism and health equity. Each narrative is an honest representation of real-life encounters within the healthcare system. The narratives include personal experiences of racism in health care, explicit and implicit bias, microaggressions and experiences of anti-racist efforts and allyship. There are clear instructions on how to use the narratives for teaching and to facilitate discussion. Among the book's benefits: Explicitly includes the perspective of trainees and administration; Engages learners in affective and emotional learning as well as practical and cognitive learning modes; Provides a series of historical cases, consistent with the preferred and traditional learning modality of health professions; Includes an array of activities, tools and learning exercises. Racism, Microaggressions and Allyship in Health Care is a timely and essential text for medical student and resident training, graduate and undergraduate nursing programs, advanced practice care providers, clinical faculty and staff development, CME workshops, public health programs, and hospital administration. It also is a useful resource for undergraduate pre-medicine programs, structural racism courses, and advanced social science courses (health disparities, medical sociology, inequality, healthcare policy).

This book argues that patient safety is the cornerstone of high-quality healthcare, and that we need to highlight the positive impact of a Safety-11 approach to risk management to improve the quality of patient services and care. Moreover, the author emphasizes the importance of upskilling leaders with coaching capability within the healthcare facility so that decisions can be made quickly to prevent adverse events. In light of this, this book aims to equip clinical leaders across all levels and in all areas of healthcare organizations with the knowledge and skills to develop a patient safety culture in their team and organization based on evidence-based contemporary research into patient safety practices. The author also proposes strengthening leader capability by outlining how they can create a psychologically safe working environment and adopt a coaching leadership style that promotes staff wellbeing and patient care. This book provides strategies for leaders so they can ensure staff wellbeing at work and a patient-centric approach to patient care. It outlines how clinical leaders can support team members to reduce their stress, better utilize their strengths, practice mindfulness, remain positive, and build resilience in the face of adversity, whilst also fostering a workplace culture of trust, support, and compassion. Lastly, this book aims to provide high-level executives and experienced clinical leaders with contemporary knowledge of governance issues and the best practice methods concerning patient safety as a quality improvement strategy.

This book provides an overview of the science and technology that helps us understand the trajectory, i.e., genomics, epidemiology, and health care of the COVID-19 pandemic, its virus, and pathogenicity. Topics that are covered include how the virus is impacting our health care system and the economy. Simulation modeling used to predict the spread of the virus and risk of infection in America and globally is included, as well as the critical role of communication in pandemic response. An important focus is synthetic biology, notably employed in the development and production of effective diagnostics that can be rapidly deployed and development of vaccines in unlimited quantity. US and global production of vaccine is discussed. Most importantly, treatment of patients infected with the virus that includes telemedicine and virtual reality for remote intensive care settings is a significant aspect of the discussion. Biotechnology plays a major role in responding to the COVID-19pandemic and advances utilized in the engineering sciences are introduced.

This book is a groundbreaking book that delves into the critical intersection of health care and sustainability. As the healthcare industry faces increasing scrutiny regarding its environmental impact, this comprehensive guide offers a roadmap for transforming healthcare systems into sustainable entities that prioritize the health of both individuals and the planet. Drawing on a multidisciplinary approach, the book explores the environmental footprint of healthcare practices and infrastructure, shedding light on the resource consumption, waste generation, and pollution associated with the industry. It establishes the crucial link between environmental health and human health, emphasizing how a polluted environment can impact public health outcomes and the need to preserve natural resources for improved healthcare outcomes. The book goes beyond merely highlighting the challenges; it presents practical strategies and actionable solutions for healthcare professionals, policymakers, and stakeholders to navigate the path toward sustainability. It examines case studies and best practices from healthcare institutions that have successfully implemented sustainable initiatives, showcasing their approaches and lessons learned. In addition to addressing the technical aspects, the book tackles the ethical and social considerations of sustainable health care. It emphasizes the importance of equity, social justice, and community engagement in promoting sustainability within healthcare delivery and decision-making processes. This book is an indispensable resource for healthcare professionals, policymakers, researchers, and students seeking to integrate sustainability practices into their work. It serves as a guide for creating a greener and healthier future, highlighting the potential of sustainable health care to improve both environmental well-being and public health outcomes. With its comprehensive coverage, insightful analysis, and practical recommendations, this book contributes to the global conversation on sustainable health care and provides a solid foundation for transforming the industry. It inspires readers to become catalysts for change, fostering a new era of health care that not only preserves health but also preserves the Earth for future generations.

This book provides answers to fundamental and challenging questions regarding the global response to COVID-19. It creates a historical record of COVID-19 research conducted over the four years of the pandemic, with a focus on how researchers have responded, quantified, and modeled COVID-19 problems. Since mid-2021, we have diligently monitored and analyzed global scientific efforts in tackling COVID-19. Our comprehensive global endeavor involves collecting, processing, analyzing, and discovering COVID-19 related scientific literature in English since January 2020. This provides insights into how scientists across disciplines and almost every country and regions have fought against COVID-19. Additionally, we explore the quantification of COVID-19 problems and impacts through mathematics, AI, machine learning, data science, epidemiology, and domain knowledge. The book reports findings on publication quantities, impacts, collaborations, and correlations with the economy and infectionsglobally, regionally, and country-wide. These results represent the first and only holistic and systematic studies aimed at scientifically understanding, quantifying, and containing the pandemic. We hope this comprehensive analysis will contribute to better preparedness, response, and management of future emergencies and inspire further research in infectious diseases. The book also serves as a valuable resource for research policy, funding management authorities, researchers, policy makers, and funding bodies involved in infectious disease management, public health, and emergency resilience.

This is a book about medical communication. Communication is a skill, as such it is learnable and can be refined. Between what we learn in college and clinical practice there is a gap regarding communication with patients and their families that many health professionals want to fill. Thus, the goal of this book is to encourage readers to develop their communication skills in patient care. Chapters cover the possible therapeutic origin of the human word, the placebo effect of the medical word, the distinction between information and communication, and the importance of empathy while communicating with patients. An overview of the medical words throughout history up to our current practice is presented. In addition, the content helps to develop a strategy for nonverbal communication and to analyse the impact of empathy on communication and patient satisfaction. Current topics such as special needs for LGBTQ patient care, telehealth and virtual communication are also featured in this book. Knowing how to communicate is healthy not only for the patient but also for the doctor. Therefore, the prevention of medical burnout through adequate communication, both in routine practice, and with patients with special needs, as well as in telemedicine is also discussed. Finally, the author addresses a personal and non-transferable task: each individual must build their own toolbox for communication - the stories, the anecdotes, the metaphors, the silences with which each of the readers will use to communicate with their patients. The aim of this book is to bridge a gap between the graduate and postgraduate training for dealing with information and problems in communicating during clinical practice. Since it is never too late to acquire or improve our communication skills, this work will be a useful and valuable resource for any health professional interested in the subject.

This book provides an overview of the available evidence surrounding immunotherapy in gastrointestinal cancers, and discusses its future place in clinical practice.Immunotherapy has celebrated some astonishing therapeutic successes in a variety of cancer types and is becoming increasingly relevant in daily clinical practice. Currently, the predominant class of immunotherapeutic drugs is the so-called checkpoint inhibitors, which disengage the physiological brakes on the immune system, enabling a more effective anti-cancer immune response. Malignancies of the gastrointestinal tract, which account for the majority of cancer cases worldwide, are a major cause of morbidity and mortality, creating an urgent need for more effective therapies. A large number of clinical trials have evaluated the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy in gastrointestinal malignancies and demonstrated its potential in certain subsets of patients. This book will appeal to a wide readership, including oncologists, health care professionals in general and biomedical scientists.

Sleep diseases and cases are both very common (such as sleep respiratory disturbances) and rare (such as narcolepsy), with increasing and alarming prevalence worldwide. As diagnosis is always performed by physicians, physiotherapists often receive the patients referred by other health practitioners.This engaging book focuses on a compilation of case reports and clinical scenarios collected over the years. It intends to show the practical management of different cases in treating sleep disorders by physiotherapists. The reader will have a chance to understand how, in clinical practice, physiotherapists from different countries treat sleep issues, either in conjunction or not with other health professions.Written by worldwide experts, the 30 instructive chapters present the practice of sleep and physical therapy around the globe, as well as the integration of sleep as a imperative topic in health promotion and well-being. They also intend to describe the anamnesis, the clinical history, rationale and process for the physiotherapeutic treatment, patient-centered, and with an interdisciplinary approach. The reader will be able to tie up loose ends of the clinical picture and to connect with the theoretical knowledge, understanding the evidence-based practice in each of the clinical case, thus having the insight to start thinking as a sleep physiotherapist. As the contemporary world is always changing, so is physical therapy on behalf of health in these lightning times.

In light of the Covid 19 pandemic and its impact on healthcare systems, this book examines health care innovations and service management models and discusses significant reforms and organizational and managerial changes in the healthcare systems of countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. It features contributions that shed new light on the impact of the pandemic on healthcare organizations and the lessons that can be drawn from this crisis for management practice.The book covers topics such as best practices in healthcare delivery, healthcare management, process and product innovation, digitization and information technologies, healthcare governance, collaborative healthcare experiences and networks, healthcare financing, and healthcare policy reform. It is aimed at scholars and practitioners in healthcare, as well as anyone interested in innovation in healthcare services and management.

This handy reference will help medical school department chairs and other Academic Health Center (AHC) leaders navigate the important, challenging and complex responsibilities and opportunities of their positions, whether they are new, experienced or future leaders. Medical school department chairs support four distinct missions (education, research, clinical care and public service), which serve multiple constituents, have different measures of success, and sometimes are in direct conflict for resources across the different priorities of their AHC and its component organizations. Having served as medical school department chairs, program and center directors, medical school deans, and AHC chief executives, the authors have seen first-hand the increasing difficulty and complexity of these roles and the inspiring impact these leaders can have on those they serve. This book shares their insights by providing contemporary and comprehensive information to help these leaders navigate the many issues and opportunities they face. While serving as a medical school department chair is challenging on many levels, it is one of the most important roles in AHCs and can be an extremely rewarding leadership position. Timely advice and guidance are keys to success, and this book articulates and answers the most common questions faced by medical school department chairs and other leaders over their careers.

This book is dedicated to showcase research and innovation in smart healthcare systems and technologies led by women scientists, researchers, and practitioners. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies, the healthcare sector has undergone tremendous changes in practice and management in recent years. On par to men, women have made significant contributions to tackle a variety of healthcare problems, creating smarter paradigms to provide effective and efficient solutions for patients and stakeholders. The book presents a small collection of contributions by outstanding women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education, focusing on the healthcare domain. The selected articles allow readers to comprehend current advances in AI and other methods for undertaking healthcare challenges. It is envisaged that the inspiring work by prominent women scientists, researchers, and practitioners reported inthis book offers a beacon to propel women in pursuing STEM education and advancing the healthcare sector for the benefits of humankind.

This book provides a practical guide on the art and science of compassionate care in an era of healthcare crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic that is inflicting long-lasting financial and psychosocial trauma on an unprecedented scale. A new approach to compassionate care is presented based on the overarching concepts of empathy, person and family centeredness, therapeutic relationship, kindness, gratitude, spirituality, communication skills, shared decision making, positive psychology, adversity-activated development, self-care, compassion fatigue, spirituality which are more than ever critical in successfully managing the pandemic adversity in front of us. This book draws on clinical experience, educational activities and evidence-based knowledge from academic physicians (primary, secondary and tertiary care), nurses,psychologists, health economists, healthcare managers, health policymakers, medical professionals students and patients. It provides skills and knowledge that can be implemented in daily clinical practice based on all levels of healthcare on a whole-person approach. An array of clinical cases, patient journeys, published evidence and practical experience is combined to deliver in a practical way unique guidance and advice. The target audience is all healthcare professionals, health policymakers, healthcare managers and patient associations. This approach of Compassionate Care is of great importance and can save lives and money in these unprecedented times of global healthcare care system challenges.

This book builds on the current trends in informal caregivers'role in the supportive care of cancer patients (as well as other diseases) across the care continuum covering topics from the healthcare professionals and the users'perspectives. Informal caregivers are a critical resource to their care recipients and an essential component of the health care system. The book introduces a comprehensive view of the topic and acknowledges the importance and the complexity of caregiving. Here lays one of the uniqueness of this book, which highlights the areas and the ways that for example interventions in specific settings/groups of patients can actually facilitate the caregiving process. The increasing number of care-dependent people, the adoption of the principle “outpatient before inpatient”, the shift of care from inpatient to outpatient and the preference for home care (i.e. majority) are only some of the reasons that contributed to Informal caregivingbecoming a central feature of the health care landscape and will become even more prominent in the decades ahead. The book draws on the experts'high-end, current systematic research evidence and real-life examples on these topics to provide an insightful perspective on undertaking research within this context, and to demonstrate informal caregivers'impact on patients'outcomes. The structure of the book provides multiple perspectives to the topic and makes it appealing to a wide range of recipients including the nursing community, clinicians, social workers, researchers, policy makers, technology experts as well as postgraduate students especially to those practicing specifically in supportive care in cancer. The book fills a gap in this field of expertise not only by familiarizing the reader with a wide range of topics to be considered but it also emphasizes on what the developments in the field in the future would needto take into consideration. Finally, current and future studies can be informed from the practices of preceding studies that are incorporated in the book.

This book brings together conceptual, theoretical, policy-based, and empirical contributions from multidisciplinary lenses to bridge the existing knowledge gap in the field of medicine, entrepreneurship and health economics. This book serves as a much needed intellectual resource providing guidance to the entrepreneurial-minded medical doctors (Medipreneurs), social entrepreneurs, policymakers, academics on the subject matter with a view of applying the knowledge gained for reinvigorating the healthcare delivery system leveraging a business approach. The contributions serve as a guide to connect entrepreneurially with market opportunities, especially to provide relevant health-oriented products, services, technologies and other medical solutions for social impact in the developed and developing countries with the overarching goal of assisting policymakers to accelerate the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3).

This book presents a sociomaterial perspective on work and organizational practices within the operating room. Looking at medical work from a sociological perspective and drawing on ethnographic observations conducted in a hospital's operating block, this book analyses the entanglements of humans and technologies in the execution of everyday activities. It highlights how the sociomateriality of work and organizational practices manifests in the encounters between operators and material artifacts and inthe way objects and technologies participate in processes and practices of organizational communication. Objects and technologies are also shaped by these very practices, giving rise to a recursive relationship wherein technology, communication, and organizing are intertwined.A sociomaterial understanding of organizational and working practices explains the role of objects and technologies in the generation and enactment of professional knowledge, while questioning how power materializes through the interaction of humans and technical objects. This book will be of great interest to scholars, students, and practitioners interested in how sociomaterial perspectives can inform organization studies and reshape our understanding of the intricate relationships between humans and technologies in healthcare settings.

Aging is an irreversible natural process; we as humans develop many age-related disadvantages impacting many aspects of our life. Aging is not a negative process, but the ever-increasing band of the aging population creates a different socioeconomic and healthcare cost-associated risk that may hinder the sustainable development goals of any country and the world in general. Thus, the primary purpose of this book is to cover all aspects of the aging population. Each chapter in this book will give its readers a comprehensive understanding of how an aging population affects public programs such as pension plans, social welfare aids, healthcare costs, asset loss, and labor income, including chapters focusing on the demographic distribution of age-related diseases and injuries that increase healthcare cost, current social psychological reforms, and scientific research work adopted continent wise towards sustaining the aging population. Therefore, this book is helpful for students, teachers, and practitioners studying/working in the broad areas of social sciences, economics, and scientific research advancements in aging. This book serves as a bridge toward planning and developing new policies and practices.

Healthcare systems around the world are struggling under intense pressure. Ageing populations, declining workforce, funding restraints and spending cuts have combined to produce a challenging environment to deliver a service that is fundamental to the lives of many. This book defines sustainable healthcare as an integrated system, where stakeholders work together to deliver high quality, safe patient care at the lowest possible cost and with a focus on outcomes that patients value. Using this definition as a guide, this book brings together an extensive body of knowledge from an elite group of academics to consider how we can shape healthcare service delivery in a way that delivers sustainable value to society as a whole.This edited collection will be of interest to academics working in healthcare management, healthcare innovation, the role of technology in healthcare, sustainable healthcare management, and healthcare in public policy. It will also be vital readingfor managers and professionals working in health and social care that are interested in research -based solutions to the challenges they face.

This book analyses the ability of technological advancements to represent, enhance, and empower multidisciplinarity in the context of Society 5.0. and next generation medicine. New technologies allow patients to communicate with medical personnel anytime, anywhere and shape the terrain of healthcare ecosystem at an unprecedented rate. Five main trends become apparent in this process: Hybrid care models combining virtual and in-person services, digitization of healthcare specialties, increased Artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, health systems moving to the cloud and advanced precision medicine.In its chapters the book dissects the important roles for technologies in areas such as digital twinning, big data, Internet of Things, AI, cyber-physical systems, blockchain technology to lead the healthcare digitalization envisioned in Society 5.0. Throughout the book the authors discuss how to incorporate these new technologies legally, ethically, safely, and securely and in keeping with the highest standards of human rights. It also advocates for the need for careful oversight and mindful allocation of resources and energy for sustainable development.This book, written by experts in the field from academia and industry, will appeal to researchers, healthcare professionals, policy makers, teachers and students interested in the ways healthcare is reorganized based on digital transformation efforts and the rethinking of care, including technologies.

The pandemic that struck in late 2019 - the coronavirus, commonly referred to as COVID-19 - affected every country in the world. This book examines how the pandemic has impacted healthcare institutions worldwide, and focuses on the international experience of COVID-19 in terms of healthcare delivery since 2019 and today. It highlights how healthcare facilities around the world have managed and continue to manage their obligations to their citizens. The book's goal is to improve our understanding of the many negative and positive impacts of the pandemic on various aspects of our lives, including the health aspect, and how healthcare institutions could expand their ability to manage similar pandemics in the future without seriously compromising their ability to address other, regular health issues. At the same time, it takes a closer look at CSR, sustainability, ethics, and governance issues related to the pandemic, as well as current CSR practices in each of the countries reviewed.Given its scope, the book will be of interest to a broad readership including researchers, practitioners, and students concerned with the pandemic's societal and public health implications.

This book analyzes the development of medical big data projects in Japan.Japan is experiencing unprecedented population aging, and labor productivity has decreased accordingly. Big data analysis of the Japanese medical real-world database (RWD) has the potential to tackle this issue.To allow readers to gain an understanding of Japanese medical big data analysis, the book discusses the original Japanese system that generates medical RWDs in the hospital medical records system, the nationwide standardized health checkup system, and the public medical insurance system in Japan.After introducing four major big data projects in the healthcare–medical field in Japan, the book explains the importance of creating information standards to maintain data quality and to analyze medical big data. It enables readers to analyze which standards are installed in which RWDs, how the standards are maintained, and which issues are prevalent in Japan.This book also describes the ethical processes involved in big data projects involving medical RWDs in Japan.

This 2-volumeset focuses on adolescent health in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), and presents the latest research on the health risk behaviours and social behaviours that adolescents from the MENA region engage in. While there has been a surge in peer-reviewed research publications on population health in the MENA region in the last couple of decades, very few books offer a resource to address the diverse negative influences that disproportionately affect adolescents and children in the MENA region, including increased tobacco consumption culture, low emphasis on physical activity, increased sedentary behaviours, weak health policies, and societal issues related to displacement and political conflicts. These books offer a synthesis of current knowledge on adolescent health issues in the MENA region, and aim to provide evidence-informed adolescent health care practices that address current issues related to mental, physical, reproductive and nutritional health. Volume 2 focuses on nutritional and reproductive health in the MENA region, predictive modelling of obesity, determinants of sexual and oral health, HIV, and diabetes. The study will aid health care professionals, policy makers, government organizations and health program planners to assess current policies and practices related to adolescent health in the MENA region, and to identify the best courses of action moving forward.

Digital healthcare is heterogeneous along the entire treatment pathway, ranging from monitoring applications and artificial-intelligence-based diagnostics, to support for virtual reality surgery. Since the introduction of the Digital Health Act in Germany in early 2020, there has been a push toward digital innovative solutions, especially in the outpatient sector.This book analyzes current digital health law from an economic perspective, combining theory with real-world applications. It examines both the incentives and market access pathways for digital solutions and the price effects brought about by the new regulatory framework in Germany. Further, it discusses the difficulties in pricing due to the monopolistic BfArM register and negotiations with the association of all German health insurance companies. The book addresses a wide range of topics, including incentives for innovation, specifics of digital health applications, reimbursement and financing optionsfor digital health solutions. Lastly, it presents an outlook for the future and a comparison between Germany and other countries, namely the USA and Japan. Given its scope, this book will appeal to scholars of health economics, healthcare management and public health, as well as practitioners and professionals in the public health sector.

Relational Care focuses on how people working in and around healthcare can improve the delivery of whole person care. This text integrates Systems Theory and a range of communication tools to support readers in working collaboratively and developing individualized road maps for difficult conversations.Focusing on the relationships between patient, family, and clinician, known as the Relational System, the authors explore how effective communication in healthcare can improve the well-being of all. Beginning with theoretical chapters, the Personal System is described as body, mind, and spirit. Using both Systems encourages readers to see the whole person as they practice. The book incorporates how relational practice improves care in topics such as grief, end-of-life care, stress, and burnout, giving bad news and resolving conflict. Each chapter includes case studies, reflective questions, and prompts for critical thinking to help the reader embed their learning.This practice-changing textbook will be useful to a range of health practitioners, including nurses, Physician Assistants, physicians, and more. It can be used as a supplemental reading for medical interviewing and communications courses.

This unique book presents in a single collection around 50 essays by Dr Launer on reflective practice in medicine, including examples specific to medical education and multiprofessional healthcare. Based on existing contributions to the literature by Dr Launer, the book brings them together in updated form for the first time as a themed collection with an introduction linking the different topics addressed. Coverage includes communication skills, supervision, teamwork and organisational health. In a time of unprecedented demand on healthcare services, educators and practitioners, Dr Launer offers invaluable guidance to a broad audience including community-based GPs, practice nurses and nurse practitioners, pharmacists, physician assistants and paramedics, secondary care staff including consultants and registrars across all specialties, communications skills educators, counsellors and mental health professionals, and health service managers and administrators.

The Covid pandemic has led us into an upheaval that has made us question the certainties underlying what it means to be a human being in our age; the ability to control medical and social facts through evidence. For the first-time western and developed countries have had to confront what many populations from the developing world (Africa. Latin America, etc) face on a daily basis with HIV and Ebola, etc. The Interconnectedness of Globalization has been the real disseminating catalyst of COVID 19, and many scientists wonder if this virus is the result of the Anthropocene age, with its indisputable lack of respect for the natural ecosystems. The virus has demonstrated that our frailty is only skin deep, and it has not only brought death, despair, but it has broken our interdependency as human beings, by imposing self- isolation as well as creating new ways of connections so that safety cannot imply loneliness. In this book, the coping strategies that originate from the multiplelanguages of care such as narrative, literature, science, philosophy, art, digital science are shown not only as reflective tools to promote health but also wellbeing amongst carers, patients, students, and citizens of our planet Earth. These strategies should be supported by the decision makers since they are low-cost investments necessary to make the health care system work. They however require a change of cultural paradigm. This book is a useful toolkit for patients, citizens and care services physicians who want to learn more on how to live better with this new world.

The modern-day practice of health care was imported into Nigeria over 500 years ago. In 1947, the first national health plan was developed in Nigeria with the primary goal of providing universal health care (UHC), but this goal remains elusive to date. This comprehensive book presents the roadmap needed to attain UHC in Nigeria and offers a blueprint for achieving high-quality health care in the nation.Starting with a brief overview of the Nigerian state, the fundamentals of health care, including the challenges to affordable quality healthcare delivery, the author critically examines the healthcare system in Nigeria and offers specific recommendations to invigorate the system and improve interprofessional collaborations. Each chapter includes case studies to allow readers to contextualize the information presented and behavioral learning objectives to test readers'knowledge. Among the topics covered:The Organizational Structure and Leadership of the Nigerian Healthcare SystemThe Vulnerabilities of the Nigerian Healthcare SystemThe Spectrum of Complementary and Alternative MedicineEmerging Developments in Traditional Medicine Practice in Nigeria The Plight of Persons Living with Disabilities: The Visible Invisibles in NigeriaA Comparative Analysis of the Health System of Nigeria and Six Selected Nations Around the WorldA Qualitative Investigation of the Barriers to the Delivery of High-Quality Healthcare Services in NigeriaThe Political and Economic Reforms Needed to Achieve Universal and High-Quality Health Care in NigeriaReimagining the Nigerian Healthcare System to Achieve Universal and High-Quality Health Care by 2030The Nigerian Healthcare System: Pathway to Universal and High-Quality Health Care is ideal for adoption as a textbook in health services administration, health policy andmanagement, health informatics, healthcare delivery systems, and primary health care courses offered at universities in Nigeria. It also would appeal to students and faculty in African diaspora programs internationally. The book is also essential for policymakers, health systems technocrats, researchers, and professionals in various health disciplines, including medicine, nursing, and allied health.

This book reviews the potential of next-generation point-of-care diagnosis in healthcare. It also discusses the printed chip-based assay (Lab-on-a-Chip, Lab-on-a-PCB) for rapid, inexpensive biomarkers detection. The book presents the development of sensory systems based on the use of nanomaterials. It examines different biosensors for medical diagnosis using surface modification strategies of transducers. It presents electrochemical concepts based on different nanobiomaterials and nanocomposites for cancer theranostics. Notably, the book examines the recent advances in wearable, cost-effective hemodynamic sensors to detect diseases at an early stage. It further explores the combination of redox cycling and electrochemical detection to develop ultrasensitive and reproducible biosensors for point-of-care testing. Finally, the book summarizes the significant challenges in the point of care diagnostics and its future opportunities in healthcare. ​