Medical

Features:

• Provides questions and answers about the medical definitions and descriptions of heart disease and keeping your heart healthy. General topics include the causes of heart disease, details of symptoms, and available treatments /diets /preventative measures (see selected topics below)
• Includes numerous in-text Web links to the American Heart Association (AHA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), USDA, Centers for Disease Control(CDC), pharmaceutical companies, YouTube, and other sites with animations, diets, practical case studies, and tools related to your heart health
• Uses videos, animations, practical tips, case studies, charts and tables, figures, and photos to explain topics under discussion
• Companion files (with 100MB of videos, resources, recipes, fact sheets, and illustrations) are available for downloading by writing to the publisher at info@merclearning.com with proof of purchase.

Seit der Charakterisierung der genetischen Marker des familiären medullären Schilddrüsenkarzinoms bzw. der multiplen endokrinen Neoplasie Typ 2 bestehen verbesserte Möglichkeiten zur Früherkennung und kurativen Behandlung der hereditären Formen dieser Tumoren. Durch Nachweis eines erhöhten Calcitonins als sensitiven und prädiktiven Marker für medulläre Schilddrüsenkarzinome können prinzipiell auch die sporadischen Formen frühzeitig erkannt und therapiert werden. Eine konsequente Anwendung der exzellenten diagnostischen Methoden sollte in Zukunft zu einer verbesserten Langzeitprognose dieser Karzinome beitragen. In der Praxis werden medulläre Schilddrüsenkarzinome jedoch häufig erst im fortgeschrittenen Tumorstadium klinisch auffällig. Um auch für diese Patienten eine optimale Heilungschance zu erzielen, müssen die bisherigen Diagnostik- und Therapieprotokolle optimiert und durch innovative Verfahren ergänzt oder ersetzt werden.

In dieser bisher einmaligen Zusammenstellung werden neue Aspekte der Genanalyse zur Diagnostik der hereditären Karzinome, vielversprechende Methoden zur Lokalisationsdiagnostik von Metastasen sowie etablierte und experimentelle Ansätze zur Therapie dieser Tumorentität beleuchtet.

Renommierte Autoren präsentieren aktuelle und praxisrelevante Beiträge zu folgenden Themen:

• Zufallsbefund Schilddrüsenknoten
• Zufallsbefund Schilddrüsenkarzinom
• Latente Schilddrüsenfunktionsstörungen
• Befindlichkeitsstörungen und Lebensqualität bei Schilddrüsenfunktionsstörungen
• Ergebnisse der Schilddrüsen-Initiative Papillon I

Another pandemic is coming. It’s only a matter of time. It could be a novel flu virus, a biological weapon, even a prehistoric virus from melting glaciers—and we are not prepared. No one wants to endure the lockdowns and social isolation, the confusion and mixed messaging, or the fear and distrust that we experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic ever again. Yet that’s exactly the path we’re headed down if we erase the last pandemic from our memories.

In Before the Next Crisis, the public health expert Tista S. Ghosh implores us to remember. She shares the pandemic stories of everyday Americans from all walks of life—red and blue states, urban and rural areas. This gripping and relatable book recounts the real-life struggles that Americans faced: a Colorado grocery store manager dealing with harassment over mask policies, an Indiana police officer encountering a growing mental health crisis, a rural Wisconsin physician fighting rising public distrust, a California company leader struggling to keep frontline workers safe, and an Ohio health official grappling with the decision to cancel the city’s largest tourist event. These and other powerful narratives not only preserve the history of the pandemic but also highlight the lessons we must learn before the next health crisis—not just politicians or scientists, but all of us.

Another pandemic is coming. It’s only a matter of time. It could be a novel flu virus, a biological weapon, even a prehistoric virus from melting glaciers—and we are not prepared. No one wants to endure the lockdowns and social isolation, the confusion and mixed messaging, or the fear and distrust that we experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic ever again. Yet that’s exactly the path we’re headed down if we erase the last pandemic from our memories.

In Before the Next Crisis, the public health expert Tista S. Ghosh implores us to remember. She shares the pandemic stories of everyday Americans from all walks of life—red and blue states, urban and rural areas. This gripping and relatable book recounts the real-life struggles that Americans faced: a Colorado grocery store manager dealing with harassment over mask policies, an Indiana police officer encountering a growing mental health crisis, a rural Wisconsin physician fighting rising public distrust, a California company leader struggling to keep frontline workers safe, and an Ohio health official grappling with the decision to cancel the city’s largest tourist event. These and other powerful narratives not only preserve the history of the pandemic but also highlight the lessons we must learn before the next health crisis—not just politicians or scientists, but all of us.

Leaders in healthcare today face many challenges ranging from managing interprofessional teams and teamwork, to payment reform, to tackling issues such as homelessness and the opioid crisis. Leaders have access to depth of information and resources to help them solve these complex and real-world problems. However, it is our belief that given the complexities of healthcare, there is value in sharing and learning from those who have first-hand experience with interprofessional leadership in healthcare.

Challenges and Opportunities in Healthcare Leadership: Voices from the Crowd in Today’s Complex and Interprofessional Healthcare Environment, is a volume in a book series titled, Contemporary Perspectives in Business Leadership. In this book, authors share their true, authentic reflections and professional stories describing the lived experience(s) of the author/leaders and how the experience changed the author/leaders' approach as an interprofessional leader. Each chapter includes a (1) story about the topic and the lived experience, (2) perspectives, and (3) lessons of the author(s). Additionally, scholarly commentary and discussion questions included within each chapter create opportunity for application to leadership theories and strategies as well as allow for reflection and further dialogue on the topic.

The intended audience is broad, including faculty and students in institutions of higher education, interprofessional healthcare team leaders and members, and other healthcare stakeholders who have experience in interprofessional healthcare leadership. The book is applicable for leadership growth and development at a personal, group, or organizational level.

Leaders in healthcare today face many challenges ranging from managing interprofessional teams and teamwork, to payment reform, to tackling issues such as homelessness and the opioid crisis. Leaders have access to depth of information and resources to help them solve these complex and real-world problems. However, it is our belief that given the complexities of healthcare, there is value in sharing and learning from those who have first-hand experience with interprofessional leadership in healthcare.

Challenges and Opportunities in Healthcare Leadership: Voices from the Crowd in Today’s Complex and Interprofessional Healthcare Environment, is a volume in a book series titled, Contemporary Perspectives in Business Leadership. In this book, authors share their true, authentic reflections and professional stories describing the lived experience(s) of the author/leaders and how the experience changed the author/leaders' approach as an interprofessional leader. Each chapter includes a (1) story about the topic and the lived experience, (2) perspectives, and (3) lessons of the author(s). Additionally, scholarly commentary and discussion questions included within each chapter create opportunity for application to leadership theories and strategies as well as allow for reflection and further dialogue on the topic.

The intended audience is broad, including faculty and students in institutions of higher education, interprofessional healthcare team leaders and members, and other healthcare stakeholders who have experience in interprofessional healthcare leadership. The book is applicable for leadership growth and development at a personal, group, or organizational level.

Acquired brain injury (ABI) describes damage to the brain that occurs after birth, caused by traumatic injury such as an accident or fall, or by non-traumatic cause such as substance abuse, stroke, or disease. Today’s medical techniques are improving the survival rate for people of all ages diagnosed with ABI, and current trends in rehabilitation are supporting these individuals returning to live, attend school, and work in their communities. Yet strategies on the best way of providing community participation vary among rehabilitation experts. Because many of survivors of ABI do not and will not return to the status quo of their former lives it is important to examine what constitutes best and promisingpractices in this area.

This casebook is the world’s first compilation of evidence-informed programs that foster community participation for people of all ages with brain injury. With thisreview, we elicited and carefully examined existing programmatic efforts that combine emphasis on the individual, the social, and the service systems in a way that captures community participation as a complex process of interactive change in the person-environment relationship – programs that do not divorce ABI survivors from their contexts, and where participation efforts facilitate positive change in the social and political context. We considered community-based programs to be programs where individuals and families actively participate in their own therapy (rehabilitation) and take responsibility for their own health or that of a family/community member.

Each case study chapter depicts a program chosen on its extraordinary merits to provide community participation to its clients. The chapters are cowritten by the stakeholder and a researcher, giving a complete perspective of how the program was established and continues to operate, and provides evidence of excellence.

Acquired brain injury (ABI) describes damage to the brain that occurs after birth, caused by traumatic injury such as an accident or fall, or by non-traumatic cause such as substance abuse, stroke, or disease. Today’s medical techniques are improving the survival rate for people of all ages diagnosed with ABI, and current trends in rehabilitation are supporting these individuals returning to live, attend school, and work in their communities. Yet strategies on the best way of providing community participation vary among rehabilitation experts. Because many of survivors of ABI do not and will not return to the status quo of their former lives it is important to examine what constitutes best and promisingpractices in this area.

This casebook is the world’s first compilation of evidence-informed programs that foster community participation for people of all ages with brain injury. With thisreview, we elicited and carefully examined existing programmatic efforts that combine emphasis on the individual, the social, and the service systems in a way that captures community participation as a complex process of interactive change in the person-environment relationship – programs that do not divorce ABI survivors from their contexts, and where participation efforts facilitate positive change in the social and political context. We considered community-based programs to be programs where individuals and families actively participate in their own therapy (rehabilitation) and take responsibility for their own health or that of a family/community member.

Each case study chapter depicts a program chosen on its extraordinary merits to provide community participation to its clients. The chapters are cowritten by the stakeholder and a researcher, giving a complete perspective of how the program was established and continues to operate, and provides evidence of excellence.

This book highlights views on responsive, participatory and democratic approaches to evaluation from an ethos of care. It critically scrutinizes and discusses the invisibility of care in our contemporary Western societies and evaluation practices that aim to measure practices by external standards. Alternatively, the book proposes several foci for evaluators who work from a care perspective or wish to encourage a caring society. This is a society that sees evaluation and care as a continuously unfolding relational practice of moral-political learning contributing to life-sustaining webs.

‘At one level is the evaluator’s immediately responsive and interpersonal encounter with the personal troubles of social actors, most visible, as Mills originally pointed out, in an individual’s biography and in those social settings directly open to the individual’s lived experience. (...) At another level, the sociological and political level, the evaluator operates at what Mills called the arena of public issues where immediate personal troubles are seen not only as problems encountered by individuals but as the result of structural and political arrangements in society (...) evaluation for a caring society is thought to operate at both levels’ (Thomas A. Schwandt, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

‘The intricate relationship between evaluation and care is hardly addressed by evaluators or caregivers. This book fills a gap, as it focuses on the relationship between evaluation and care and provides a multitude of examples of evaluation as a caring practice (...) the book can serve as an antidote to the present-day haste in social practices, and contribute, in form and content, to developing an evaluation practice which may foster a caring society’ (Guy Widdershoven, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine and head of the Department of Medical Humanities at VU University Medical Center, VU University Amsterdam).

The book deals with current issues, pertinent every healthcare relationship. Changes in medicine as well as some constant aspects over time arise within a cultural ground and generate new questions and issues that are not only purely medical, but also bioethical, social, political, economic and psychological of course.

On the one hand, changes in medicine generate new questions for society, on the other hand, the society poses new questions to the medicine, new challenges, and in some cases they can conflict with consolidated models and practices. Never the progress of Western medicine and its therapeutic practices have been as significant as in the last decades but the increase of specific competence and effectiveness of medical treatments are not linearly translated into an increase of consensus, dialogue and alliance between medicine and society. How does psychology take on a position of interlocutor towards medicine and its transformations? How does Cultural Psychology, Health Psychology, Clinical Psychology confront themselves with the processes of meaning making generated by medicine?

The interest of the book is aimed to grasp the construction of processes of cultural, relational and subjective meaning in the dialogical encounter between medicine and society, between doctor and patient. The book intends to focus in particular on two specific plans: on the one hand, to present a reflection and analysis on contemporary medicine and its on-going transformations of the healthcare relationship; on the other hand, to present and discuss experiences of intervention and possible models of intervention addressed to healthcare and doctor-patient relationships during its crucial steps (consultation, formulation and communication of diagnosis, therapy, conclusion). The book’s purposes are aimed to discuss crucial and current issues on the borders between medicine and psychology: consensus and sharing, decision-making and autonomy, subjectivity and narration, emotions and affectivity, medical semeiotics and cultural semiotics, training of physicians, and epistemological, theoretical and methodological issues.

This book highlights views on responsive, participatory and democratic approaches to evaluation from an ethos of care. It critically scrutinizes and discusses the invisibility of care in our contemporary Western societies and evaluation practices that aim to measure practices by external standards. Alternatively, the book proposes several foci for evaluators who work from a care perspective or wish to encourage a caring society. This is a society that sees evaluation and care as a continuously unfolding relational practice of moral-political learning contributing to life-sustaining webs.

‘At one level is the evaluator’s immediately responsive and interpersonal encounter with the personal troubles of social actors, most visible, as Mills originally pointed out, in an individual’s biography and in those social settings directly open to the individual’s lived experience. (...) At another level, the sociological and political level, the evaluator operates at what Mills called the arena of public issues where immediate personal troubles are seen not only as problems encountered by individuals but as the result of structural and political arrangements in society (...) evaluation for a caring society is thought to operate at both levels’ (Thomas A. Schwandt, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign).

‘The intricate relationship between evaluation and care is hardly addressed by evaluators or caregivers. This book fills a gap, as it focuses on the relationship between evaluation and care and provides a multitude of examples of evaluation as a caring practice (...) the book can serve as an antidote to the present-day haste in social practices, and contribute, in form and content, to developing an evaluation practice which may foster a caring society’ (Guy Widdershoven, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Medicine and head of the Department of Medical Humanities at VU University Medical Center, VU University Amsterdam).

The book deals with current issues, pertinent every healthcare relationship. Changes in medicine as well as some constant aspects over time arise within a cultural ground and generate new questions and issues that are not only purely medical, but also bioethical, social, political, economic and psychological of course.

On the one hand, changes in medicine generate new questions for society, on the other hand, the society poses new questions to the medicine, new challenges, and in some cases they can conflict with consolidated models and practices. Never the progress of Western medicine and its therapeutic practices have been as significant as in the last decades but the increase of specific competence and effectiveness of medical treatments are not linearly translated into an increase of consensus, dialogue and alliance between medicine and society. How does psychology take on a position of interlocutor towards medicine and its transformations? How does Cultural Psychology, Health Psychology, Clinical Psychology confront themselves with the processes of meaning making generated by medicine?

The interest of the book is aimed to grasp the construction of processes of cultural, relational and subjective meaning in the dialogical encounter between medicine and society, between doctor and patient. The book intends to focus in particular on two specific plans: on the one hand, to present a reflection and analysis on contemporary medicine and its on-going transformations of the healthcare relationship; on the other hand, to present and discuss experiences of intervention and possible models of intervention addressed to healthcare and doctor-patient relationships during its crucial steps (consultation, formulation and communication of diagnosis, therapy, conclusion). The book’s purposes are aimed to discuss crucial and current issues on the borders between medicine and psychology: consensus and sharing, decision-making and autonomy, subjectivity and narration, emotions and affectivity, medical semeiotics and cultural semiotics, training of physicians, and epistemological, theoretical and methodological issues.

The concept of health is a challenge of great complexity in terms of theoretical, methodological and intervention within the idiographic frame.

Health cannot be considered an abstract condition, but a means, a resource aimed at achieving objectives that relate to the ability of people to lead their lives in a productive way - individually, socially, and economically. Health is a process that is not based on the definition of standards and categories on the basis of which typifying the states of health. Rather, it has to be considered a process, on a large scale and on many entangled levels, aimed at generating a culture of the health as a resource for individuals and communities and to promote skills needed to transform these resources into developmental goals.

The notion of health, indeed, defined and interpreted in terms of "state" and not of process, meets the immediate paradox of being an indicator of normativity by reason of which we risk a proliferation of new and potentially infinite forms of "deviation". The approach of the idiographic sciences (see previous volumes of the Yearbook Idiographic Science Series, by same publisher IAP) considers that every psychological process (but in general every process, from organic to the social and cultural ones) is characterized by a contextual, situated and contingent dynamics. That dynamics is always characterized by a never-ending opening of its cycles and great variability. Conditions of stagnation and hypostatization are characteristic of all forms of disease (physical, mental and social) that sclerotize relational links between people and their environments. Health is therefore a process that presents oscillation in the same way of any developmental process that has moments of crisis and rupture in order to re-organize new forms of relationship with the social and cultural environment.

This book represent a fruitful way to deep many cogent issues and to dialogue with an idiographic perspective in order to discuss the concept of health, to define its cultural meanings and possible polysemy (e.g., wellness, care, hygiene, quality of life, resilience, prevention, healing, deviation/normality, subjective potentiality for development, etc.), its areas of pertinence and intervention (somatic, psychological, social) trying to offer possible alternatives to the "normalization" of health and creating new incentives for the reflection.

The concept of health is a challenge of great complexity in terms of theoretical, methodological and intervention within the idiographic frame.

Health cannot be considered an abstract condition, but a means, a resource aimed at achieving objectives that relate to the ability of people to lead their lives in a productive way - individually, socially, and economically. Health is a process that is not based on the definition of standards and categories on the basis of which typifying the states of health. Rather, it has to be considered a process, on a large scale and on many entangled levels, aimed at generating a culture of the health as a resource for individuals and communities and to promote skills needed to transform these resources into developmental goals.

The notion of health, indeed, defined and interpreted in terms of "state" and not of process, meets the immediate paradox of being an indicator of normativity by reason of which we risk a proliferation of new and potentially infinite forms of "deviation". The approach of the idiographic sciences (see previous volumes of the Yearbook Idiographic Science Series, by same publisher IAP) considers that every psychological process (but in general every process, from organic to the social and cultural ones) is characterized by a contextual, situated and contingent dynamics. That dynamics is always characterized by a never-ending opening of its cycles and great variability. Conditions of stagnation and hypostatization are characteristic of all forms of disease (physical, mental and social) that sclerotize relational links between people and their environments. Health is therefore a process that presents oscillation in the same way of any developmental process that has moments of crisis and rupture in order to re-organize new forms of relationship with the social and cultural environment.

This book represent a fruitful way to deep many cogent issues and to dialogue with an idiographic perspective in order to discuss the concept of health, to define its cultural meanings and possible polysemy (e.g., wellness, care, hygiene, quality of life, resilience, prevention, healing, deviation/normality, subjective potentiality for development, etc.), its areas of pertinence and intervention (somatic, psychological, social) trying to offer possible alternatives to the "normalization" of health and creating new incentives for the reflection.

In this volume, Hugo Letiche tackles the all-important question, is there “care” in healthcare? If, as Klaus Krippendorff(2006) argues, “meaning is a structured space, a network of expected senses, a set of possibilities…[that] emerges in the use of language,” then within the healthcare systems of today, the meaning of “care” has been defined to be the eradication of a problem. We must recognize that patients do not wish to regarded merely as a problem requiring eradication.

Letiche is opposed to the very idea that complexity reduction can address the humanity of each individual healthcare situation. He argues that, through narratives and through complexity based social theory, the complexity of each individual situation must be transcended through mindful listening and engaged dialogue. Letiche suggests that in the absence of such mindfulness, the lack of time for true listening, and the inability of providers and systems to allow for patients and family to engage in dialogue lies both the roots of the problem and the potential for its solution. If complexity theory has a role in the analysis understanding and betterment of social systems, then approaches such as the one Letiche undertakes herein will become essential tools of the trade.

Marketing in Healthcare-Related Industries captures the concepts and complexities of marketing healthcare in today’s environment. The book provides detailed conceptual and practical insights that will be of great benefit to healthcare scholars and practitioners. Topics on healthcare marketing have been carefully selected to provide wide coverage and are illustrated by mini-cases with a highly practical marketing tool kit for healthcare managers included.

The healthcare sector in the 21st century face a multiplicity of challenges, which include changing disease patterns, more technology-driven health interventions, a more assertive and quality conscious clientele, as well as a rapidly growing for-profit segment of the industry. This places more responsibilities on healthcare service providers in both the public and private sectors, to deliver value-for-money services at competitive costs. To respond to the changing business environment, a carefully crafted marketing approach is needed by all players in the industry to create value and sustain the confidence of clientele and stakeholders.

Marketing in Healthcare-Related Industries captures the concepts and complexities of marketing healthcare in today’s environment. The book provides detailed conceptual and practical insights that will be of great benefit to healthcare scholars and practitioners. Topics on healthcare marketing have been carefully selected to provide wide coverage and are illustrated by mini-cases with a highly practical marketing tool kit for healthcare managers included.

The healthcare sector in the 21st century face a multiplicity of challenges, which include changing disease patterns, more technology-driven health interventions, a more assertive and quality conscious clientele, as well as a rapidly growing for-profit segment of the industry. This places more responsibilities on healthcare service providers in both the public and private sectors, to deliver value-for-money services at competitive costs. To respond to the changing business environment, a carefully crafted marketing approach is needed by all players in the industry to create value and sustain the confidence of clientele and stakeholders.

In this volume, Hugo Letiche tackles the all-important question, is there “care” in healthcare? If, as Klaus Krippendorff(2006) argues, “meaning is a structured space, a network of expected senses, a set of possibilities…[that] emerges in the use of language,” then within the healthcare systems of today, the meaning of “care” has been defined to be the eradication of a problem. We must recognize that patients do not wish to regarded merely as a problem requiring eradication.

Letiche is opposed to the very idea that complexity reduction can address the humanity of each individual healthcare situation. He argues that, through narratives and through complexity based social theory, the complexity of each individual situation must be transcended through mindful listening and engaged dialogue. Letiche suggests that in the absence of such mindfulness, the lack of time for true listening, and the inability of providers and systems to allow for patients and family to engage in dialogue lies both the roots of the problem and the potential for its solution. If complexity theory has a role in the analysis understanding and betterment of social systems, then approaches such as the one Letiche undertakes herein will become essential tools of the trade.

As a result of the AIDS epidemic, many nations around the world have faced the demands of caring for a particularly vulnerable population of children, the orphans of parents who have died of AIDS or whose caregivers are terminally ill from the disease. Overcoming AIDS: Lessons Learned from Uganda offers an in-depth exploration of this global issue and provides a broad focus on evolving a constructive response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

This collaborative resource is the fourth in the Research in Global Child Advocacy book series, and it offers readers a glimpse into the experience of HIV/AIDS infected and affected people from the perspective of researchers, policy makers, and professionals who diligently work toward crafting a framework for action that is integrated across disciplines. Despite the enormity and intensity of the problem, chapter authors share a commitment to advocate for a better world in which social and economic disparities do not preclude children from experiencing a future that is bright with potential opportunities and hope.

In a world saturated with the “how tos” of OD, there is a void of evidence-based resources for both organizational leaders and OD scholar-practitioners to use as a guide while navigating the complex and chaotic environment of healthcare. This handbook has been created to fill this space and provide a resource for this vital audience at a time of great change and greater potential in the healthcare arena.

The handbook will focus on the critical nature of OD in healthcare and how it applies in this unique environment; examining its broad use from hospitals to corporate offices and from small systems to multinational corporations. The book will provide research-based, practical processes and methods, while sharing compelling cases of how the compassion and care associated with healthcare is wound tightly with the OD work it encompasses.The handbook will also offer a comprehensive look at the role OD plays in the critical issues and significant changes facing healthcare today.

The handbook overall is a small part history and a small part predictions surrounding very practical and applicable uses of OD In healthcare. Through the sharing of engagement processes, revealing outcomes and connecting each concept to a living case of how OD has impacted the healthcare field, this handbook provides a unique resource for OD and HR professionals, healthcare executives, MHA students and the academic community.

In a world saturated with the “how tos” of OD, there is a void of evidence-based resources for both organizational leaders and OD scholar-practitioners to use as a guide while navigating the complex and chaotic environment of healthcare. This handbook has been created to fill this space and provide a resource for this vital audience at a time of great change and greater potential in the healthcare arena.

The handbook will focus on the critical nature of OD in healthcare and how it applies in this unique environment; examining its broad use from hospitals to corporate offices and from small systems to multinational corporations. The book will provide research-based, practical processes and methods, while sharing compelling cases of how the compassion and care associated with healthcare is wound tightly with the OD work it encompasses.The handbook will also offer a comprehensive look at the role OD plays in the critical issues and significant changes facing healthcare today.

The handbook overall is a small part history and a small part predictions surrounding very practical and applicable uses of OD In healthcare. Through the sharing of engagement processes, revealing outcomes and connecting each concept to a living case of how OD has impacted the healthcare field, this handbook provides a unique resource for OD and HR professionals, healthcare executives, MHA students and the academic community.

The purpose of this book is to convince administrators and providers of health care that scientific research has produced numerous tools, techniques, and approaches for managing health services that are most effective and most efficient. Convincing the managers and administrators of this fact is accomplished by presenting numerous easy-to-understand summaries of the research reported in the scientific research journals available at University and main city libraries.

This book is intended for four intersecting groups of readers. If you are a philosopher, closet or sanctioned, then you cannot ponder the nature of being without due consideration for vision, and cannot contemplate the role of seeing in our lives without listening to the stories of those who are blind. The tales within this text are particularly contemporaneous because they are contextualized by the cyber-phenomena of online learning. This segues to the second group of readers, as the described empirical research was originally intended to bring greater depth and breadth of understanding to the field of educational technology, particularly as it intersects with disability studies. There is a paucity of published literature that has inquired into disabled online learners, and this research study responds to that call. Third, this book may be used as a textbook on approaches to interpretive empirical research. It is as close as one may come to a recipe, walking students through a specific example.

Because it is situated in actual empirical research, the intention was that it avoid the trap of being prescriptive or formulaic. Finally, the text is intended for readers interested in the field of blindness. The text reviews some of the seminal and contemporary research on blindness, and then presents an elaborated example of what we can and should expect to emerge in the knowledge production industry, changing what it means to be blind.

As a result of the AIDS epidemic, many nations around the world have faced the demands of caring for a particularly vulnerable population of children, the orphans of parents who have died of AIDS or whose caregivers are terminally ill from the disease. Overcoming AIDS: Lessons Learned from Uganda offers an in-depth exploration of this global issue and provides a broad focus on evolving a constructive response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

This collaborative resource is the fourth in the Research in Global Child Advocacy book series, and it offers readers a glimpse into the experience of HIV/AIDS infected and affected people from the perspective of researchers, policy makers, and professionals who diligently work toward crafting a framework for action that is integrated across disciplines. Despite the enormity and intensity of the problem, chapter authors share a commitment to advocate for a better world in which social and economic disparities do not preclude children from experiencing a future that is bright with potential opportunities and hope.

Transformative Learning in Healthcare and Helping Professions Education: Building Resilient Professional Identities is a co-edited book (Carter, Boden, and Peno) with invited chapters from educators who share our passion for learning in healthcare and the helping professions. The purpose of the book is to introduce professional learners (students, residents, and others in professional training) to transformative learning for building resilient professional identities amid practice environments that include widespread burnout and compassion fatigue. With a diverse set of authors engaged in clinical and educational practice in academic medicine, nursing, dentistry, physical therapy, mental health counseling, science education, psychology, social work, and inter-professional collaborative practice, we offer strategies for building resilience throughout the years of professional training and into professional practice. We do so through the experiences of authors involved in healthcare and the helping professions to illustrate how some are coping with the challenges of burnout and compassion fatigue through learning that can be transformative.

This book explores the nature of professional identity formation by examining ways that professionals in training can thrive amid the challenges of today’s stressful practice environments. First-hand stories of resilience illustrate how learners, as well as educators in these professions, are addressing adversity, career decision-making, service to the underserved, and the self-care needed to provide excellent care for others. The prominence of transformative learning within adult learning theory is illustrated for its potential to revise the meaning that learners make of their experiences and open up new possibilities for renewed vitality in professional education and practice environments.

The book has two primary audiences: professional learners in healthcare and helping professions education, and their educators who are often professional practitioners themselves. These educators have a significant role in influencing the next generation of professionals by serving as mentors, role models, and teachers. The importance of fostering learning that is transformative has never been more important than it is today for those who will work in these demanding professions. We invite readers to discover experiences and strategies for achieving individual wellbeing, as well as opportunities for building a culture within professional education and practice settings that will foster resilience.

The purpose of this book is to convince administrators and providers of health care that scientific research has produced numerous tools, techniques, and approaches for managing health services that are most effective and most efficient. Convincing the managers and administrators of this fact is accomplished by presenting numerous easy-to-understand summaries of the research reported in the scientific research journals available at University and main city libraries.

This book is intended for four intersecting groups of readers. If you are a philosopher, closet or sanctioned, then you cannot ponder the nature of being without due consideration for vision, and cannot contemplate the role of seeing in our lives without listening to the stories of those who are blind. The tales within this text are particularly contemporaneous because they are contextualized by the cyber-phenomena of online learning. This segues to the second group of readers, as the described empirical research was originally intended to bring greater depth and breadth of understanding to the field of educational technology, particularly as it intersects with disability studies. There is a paucity of published literature that has inquired into disabled online learners, and this research study responds to that call. Third, this book may be used as a textbook on approaches to interpretive empirical research. It is as close as one may come to a recipe, walking students through a specific example.

Because it is situated in actual empirical research, the intention was that it avoid the trap of being prescriptive or formulaic. Finally, the text is intended for readers interested in the field of blindness. The text reviews some of the seminal and contemporary research on blindness, and then presents an elaborated example of what we can and should expect to emerge in the knowledge production industry, changing what it means to be blind.

Healthcare and technology are at a convergence point where significant changes are poised to take place. The vast and complex requirements of medical record keeping, coupled with stringent patient privacy laws, create an incredibly unwieldy maze of health data needs. While the past decade has seen giant leaps in AI, machine learning, wearable technologies, and data mining capacities that have enabled quantities of data to be accumulated, processed, and shared around the globe. Transforming Healthcare with Big Data and AI examines the crossroads of these two fields and looks to the future of leveraging advanced technologies and developing data ecosystems to the healthcare field.

This book is the product of the Transforming Healthcare with Data conference, held at the University of Southern California. Many speakers and digital healthcare industry leaders contributed multidisciplinary expertise to chapters in this work. Authors’ backgrounds range from data scientists, healthcare experts, university professors, and digital healthcare entrepreneurs. If you have an understanding of data technologies and are interested in the future of Big Data and A.I. in healthcare, this book will provide a wealth of insights into the new landscape of healthcare.

Transformative Learning in Healthcare and Helping Professions Education: Building Resilient Professional Identities is a co-edited book (Carter, Boden, and Peno) with invited chapters from educators who share our passion for learning in healthcare and the helping professions. The purpose of the book is to introduce professional learners (students, residents, and others in professional training) to transformative learning for building resilient professional identities amid practice environments that include widespread burnout and compassion fatigue. With a diverse set of authors engaged in clinical and educational practice in academic medicine, nursing, dentistry, physical therapy, mental health counseling, science education, psychology, social work, and inter-professional collaborative practice, we offer strategies for building resilience throughout the years of professional training and into professional practice. We do so through the experiences of authors involved in healthcare and the helping professions to illustrate how some are coping with the challenges of burnout and compassion fatigue through learning that can be transformative.

This book explores the nature of professional identity formation by examining ways that professionals in training can thrive amid the challenges of today’s stressful practice environments. First-hand stories of resilience illustrate how learners, as well as educators in these professions, are addressing adversity, career decision-making, service to the underserved, and the self-care needed to provide excellent care for others. The prominence of transformative learning within adult learning theory is illustrated for its potential to revise the meaning that learners make of their experiences and open up new possibilities for renewed vitality in professional education and practice environments.

The book has two primary audiences: professional learners in healthcare and helping professions education, and their educators who are often professional practitioners themselves. These educators have a significant role in influencing the next generation of professionals by serving as mentors, role models, and teachers. The importance of fostering learning that is transformative has never been more important than it is today for those who will work in these demanding professions. We invite readers to discover experiences and strategies for achieving individual wellbeing, as well as opportunities for building a culture within professional education and practice settings that will foster resilience.

Healthcare and technology are at a convergence point where significant changes are poised to take place. The vast and complex requirements of medical record keeping, coupled with stringent patient privacy laws, create an incredibly unwieldy maze of health data needs. While the past decade has seen giant leaps in AI, machine learning, wearable technologies, and data mining capacities that have enabled quantities of data to be accumulated, processed, and shared around the globe. Transforming Healthcare with Big Data and AI examines the crossroads of these two fields and looks to the future of leveraging advanced technologies and developing data ecosystems to the healthcare field.

This book is the product of the Transforming Healthcare with Data conference, held at the University of Southern California. Many speakers and digital healthcare industry leaders contributed multidisciplinary expertise to chapters in this work. Authors’ backgrounds range from data scientists, healthcare experts, university professors, and digital healthcare entrepreneurs. If you have an understanding of data technologies and are interested in the future of Big Data and A.I. in healthcare, this book will provide a wealth of insights into the new landscape of healthcare.

Voices of Oncology is a groundbreaking exploration of the evolving landscape in cancer treatment development. Beyond scientific advancements, the field is being reshaped by societal and cultural forces that are redefining what it takes to bring new therapies to patients.

Through exclusive interviews with leading experts from across oncology, this book captures the complexity of a multidisciplinary approach. Each chapter highlights the challenges and breakthroughs that arise from collaboration between pharmaceutical leaders, academic researchers, patient advocates, and healthcare innovators. Together, these voices underscore a powerful message: only by breaking down silos and sharing insights can we accelerate progress and ultimately, conquer cancer.

To go beyond the book and be a voice in a dynamic collaboration of stakeholders in oncology today, we invite you to join the Oncology Voice Network (OVN), an online community for those committed to transforming oncology through shared knowledge and collective action.

An inside look at how patients living with terminal illness created one of the country’s first medical marijuana collectives

Marijuana as medicine has been a politically charged topic in this country for more than three decades. Despite overwhelming public support and growing scientific evidence of its therapeutic effects (relief of the nausea caused by chemotherapy for cancer and AIDS, control over seizures or spasticity caused by epilepsy or MS, and relief from chronic and acute pain, to name a few), the drug remains illegal under federal law.

In Dying to Get High, noted sociologist Wendy Chapkis and Richard J. Webb investigate one community of seriously-ill patients fighting the federal government for the right to use physician-recommended marijuana. Based in Santa Cruz, California, the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) is a unique patient-caregiver cooperative providing marijuana free of charge to mostly terminally ill members. For a brief period in 2004, it even operated the only legal non-governmental medical marijuana garden in the country, protected by the federal courts against the DEA.

Using as their stage this fascinating profile of one remarkable organization, Chapkis and Webb tackle the broader, complex history of medical marijuana in America. Through compelling interviews with patients, public officials, law enforcement officers and physicians, Chapkis and Webb ask what distinguishes a legitimate patient from an illegitimate pothead, good drugs from bad, medicinal effects from just getting high. Dying to Get High combines abstract argument and the messier terrain of how people actually live, suffer and die, and offers a moving account of what is at stake in ongoing debates over the legalization of medical marijuana.

Winner, 2025 Thomas & Znaniecki Best Book Award, given by the American Sociological Association International Migration Section

Reveals the presence of an informal system of valuable support and care for marginalized migrants

The United States’ health care system not only consists of a formal safety net, but also an informal and disjointed network of organizations that offer basic care to millions of migrants. This “Third Net” provides free or low-cost health care for the undocumented, low-income, and uninsured migrants who are excluded from the formal system. This groundbreaking study sheds light on the existence of the Third Net and its implications for the overall inequalities in the US health care system.

The Third Net is made up of diverse providers with varying levels of service, organizational culture, and mission. These providers operate in unconventional settings, such as mobile clinics on wheels; pop-up clinics in repurposed spaces; and unlicensed, makeshift clinics run by health activists. Despite their unassuming appearances, these clinics are vital resources for marginalized populations that often go unnoticed by the general public, revealing the shortcomings of our formal health care system.

By examining these alternative health care spaces, the authors expose the inequities entrenched in the broader health care system and urge a reevaluation of it entirely in order to address these injustices.

An important analysis of the difference class makes in reproductive health choices

Can you run a marathon, drink coffee, eat fish, or fly on a plane while pregnant? Such questions are just the tip of the iceberg for how most pregnant women’s bodies are managed, surveilled, and scrutinized during pregnancy. The Reproduction of Inequality examines the intense social pressure that expectant and new mothers face when it comes to their health and body-care choices.

Drawing on interviews with dozens of pregnant women and new mothers from poor, middle-class, and mixed-class backgrounds, Katherine Mason paints a vivid picture of the immense weight of expectation that comes with the early stages of motherhood. The women in Mason’s study universally sought to give their children a healthy start in life; however, their chosen approaches varied based on their socio-economic class. Whereas middle-class mothers attempted a complete lifestyle change and absolute devotion to the achievement and maintenance of “the healthy pregnant body,” poorer women made strategic choices about which health goals to prioritize on a limited budget, lacking the economic and cultural capital required to speak and perfectly adhere to the language of “good health.” The unfortunate result is that middle-class mothers are more likely to be seen by others and by themselves as “good” parents, whereas the efforts of working-class mothers are often misread as displaying inadequate concern about their health and that of their child. This in turn contributes to longstanding stereotypes about poor families and communities, and limits their children's chances for upward mobility. The Reproduction of Inequality is a compelling analysis of the impact of class on new mothers’ approaches to health and wellness, and a sobering examination of how inequality shapes mothers’ efforts to maximize their own health and that of their children.

Jim Decker’s gentle storytelling empowers the reader to embrace a greater challenge, as healthcare is at a point of no return in America.

Written for corporate leaders in every field, Jim calmly offers the basics of compassion and servant leadership as a better way. His non-healthcare friends say that the pressures he has experienced in his forty-seven year career are significantly more intense than those in the typical corporate world. Considering the notion “that which does not kill me, only makes me stronger,” he tells the story of his journey.

Immersed in healthcare for five decades, Jim is hearing more frequent complaints from friends and neighbors about how difficult it is to navigate the healthcare maze. Everything from understanding the health insurance quagmire and watching healthcare costs continue to rise, to the impersonal feeling of just being a “number” and being shuffled through the system in assembly line fashion.

Something is wrong.

And the problem, Jim suggests, is that these well-meaning leaders may not realize the damage of an authoritarian style of leadership. Talk to nurses. Talk to long-term employees. They are not happy. They are unfulfilled. Company loyalty is gone.

Exercising good “judgment in administration” is a trait that all good leaders should possess. But Jim asks if that is always the case. He fears that some of the problems the US healthcare system is experiencing today result from poor judgment by key decision-makers.

Me too, he notes. He has been in pressure-filled situations where he felt no escape from brutal management decisions. “Twenty-twenty hindsight would suggest that I should have handled certain situations differently. Hopefully, I learned from those experiences.”

Jim seeks to get the attention of Board leadership as well. The local business leaders serving on boards across America need to ask themselves the same questions. They make decisions without regard to their employee morale and failing loyalty, the vast majority of which have lost respect for their company leadership.

It is time for those in leadership positions to change course before we reach the point of no return. A different focus might be the best remedy for what ails us. Could a healthy dose of compassion, servant leadership, and better judgment be just what the doctor has ordered?

Jim Decker adds that the price we are paying is impacting the healthcare quality in America.

In Unvendor: Innovate Healthcare with a Diverse IT Stack, Dr. Harm Scherpbier challenges the healthcare industry’s reliance on single-vendor IT systems. While single-vendor solutions offer ease of maintenance, they often stifle innovation, hinder agility, and result in costly monopolies. In this timely and thought-provoking book, Dr. Scherpbier argues for a return to diversity in healthcare IT—a “best-of-breed” approach that integrates advanced technologies from multiple vendors to power a more dynamic, competitive, and resilient healthcare ecosystem.

Drawing on decades of experience as a health IT strategist, physician, and CMIO, Dr. Scherpbier explores the history of healthcare IT dominance, its limitations, and the pressing need for change. He outlines actionable steps for organizations to embrace modular, interoperable technologies, enabling faster adoption of AI, machine learning, and patient-centric tools.

Unvendor is a call to action for healthcare leaders—CIOs, CMIOs, CEOs, and CFOs—to create flexible, future-ready IT environments that improve care delivery, clinician satisfaction, and organizational efficiency. Practical, insightful, and forward-looking, this book provides the framework to transform healthcare IT, ensuring organizations can adapt to a rapidly evolving landscape.

It’s Not What You’re Thinking by Dr. Rick van Pelt addresses the deep-rooted crises in healthcare—escalating costs, persistent safety issues, and the overwhelming burnout of caregivers. In this groundbreaking work, van Pelt introduces "Precision Problem Solving," a fresh, no-hypothesis approach that reveals how entrenched problem-solving methods have failed to transform the healthcare landscape. His methodology rejects conventional thinking and instead focuses on addressing conflict to create safe learning conditions, objective observation, and sustained solutions through comprehensive understanding of core functional problems.

With over thirty years of clinical experience, van Pelt outlines practical solutions for navigating the chaotic intricacies of healthcare. For example, he discusses how misaligned approaches to patient safety have hindered progress and why fragmented management systems continue to exacerbate burnout. He also explores the importance of interprofessional collaboration, offering insights into how healthcare systems can foster empowerment and ownership by eliminating conflict and focusing on comprehensive understanding.

This book offers a much-needed alternative for healthcare leaders, professionals, and administrators seeking to enact lasting, transformative change. It provides a methodology along with tools designed for practical implementation in complex environments where the stakes are high. It’s Not What You’re Thinking is essential reading for anyone ready to challenge the status quo and build a more reliable, sustainable system.

Volume II in the Ben cao gang mu series offers a complete translation of chapters 5 through 11, devoted to waters, fires, soils, metals, jades, stones, minerals, and salts.

The Ben cao gang mu is a sixteenth-century Chinese encyclopedia of medical matter and natural history by Li Shizhen (1518–1593). The culmination of a sixteen-hundred-year history of Chinese medical and pharmaceutical literature, it is considered the most important and comprehensive book ever written in the history of Chinese medicine and remains an invaluable resource for researchers and practitioners. This nine-volume series reveals an almost two-millennia-long panorama of wide-ranging observations and sophisticated interpretations, ingenious manipulations, and practical applications of natural substances for the benefit of human health. Paul Unschuld's annotated translation of the Ben cao gang mu, presented here with the original Chinese text, opens a rare window into viewing the people and culture of China's past.

Volume VIII in the Ben cao gang mu series offers a complete translation of chapters 38 through 46, devoted to clothes, utensils, worms, insects, amphibians, animals with scales, and animals with shells.

The Ben cao gang mu is a sixteenth-century Chinese encyclopedia of medical matter and natural history by Li Shizhen (1518–1593). The culmination of a sixteen-hundred-year history of Chinese medical and pharmaceutical literature, it is considered the most important and comprehensive book ever written in the history of Chinese medicine and remains an invaluable resource for researchers and practitioners. This nine-volume series reveals an almost two-millennia-long panorama of wide-ranging observations and sophisticated interpretations, ingenious manipulations, and practical applications of natural substances for the benefit of human health. Paul Unschuld's annotated translation of the Ben cao gang mu, presented here with the original Chinese text, opens a rare window into viewing the people and culture of China's past.

Choosing Unsafe Sex focuses on the ways in which condom refusal and beliefs regarding HIV testing reflect women's hopes for their relationships and their desires to preserve status and self-esteem. Many of the inner-city women who participated in Dr. Sobo's research were seriously involved with one man, and they had heavy emotional and social investments in believing or maintaining that their partners were faithful to them.

Uninvolved women had similarly heavy investments in their abilities to identify or choose potential partners who were HIV-negative. Women did not see themselves as being at risk for HIV infection, and so they saw no need for condoms. But they did recommend that other women, whom they saw as quite likely to be involved with sexually unfaithful men, use them.

In der medizinischen Versorgung der HIV-Infektion wurden große Erfolge erzielt. Dennoch bleiben große Probleme, da nicht nur die Zahl der Erkrankten zunimmt, sondern auch neue Herausforderungen erkennbar werden. Hierzu gehört das Analkarzinom, das bis zu 100-mal häufiger im Vergleich zur HIV-negativen Bevölkerung auftritt.

Marko Schünemann widmet sich in dem vorliegenden Band der Diagnostik von Vorstufen des Analkarzinoms, der analen intraepithelialen Neoplasie. Mit Hilfe einer neuen endoskopischen Methode wird versucht, die anorektale Bildgebung zu optimieren und hierdurch die Effektivität der Karzinomvorsorge für HIV-Infizierte zu verbessern.

Infektionskrankheiten wie AIDS, Tuberkulose oder Malaria gehören zu den Haupttodesursachen weltweit. Sie sind nicht nur verantwortlich für das Leid von Millionen Menschen, sondern auch für Schäden an Wirtschaft und Sozialgefüge.

Die Schriftenreihe Infektiologie versucht, einen Beitrag zur Bekämpfung dieser Krankheiten zu leisten. Ergebnisse der Grundlagenforschung, klinische Anwendungen sowie gesundheitspolitische Bezüge kommen zur Darstellung.

Dieses Buch ist eine Schritt-für-Schritt-Anleitung zur evidenzbasierten Durchführung von Interventionen an der Wirbelsäule. Es unterstützt beim gesamten Vorgehen: von der Anamnese über die Diagnostik bis zur klaren Beschreibung der einzelnen Pathologie und der Injektionstechniken in der Hals-, Brust- und Lendenwirbelsäule sowie am Iliosakralgelenk. Die Techniken werden ausführlich dargestellt mit Durchleuchtungskontrolle und mit Ultraschall.

Beschrieben wird auch der grundlegende Umgang mit dem C-Bogen, Nutzen und Risiko der notwendigen Medikamente sowie Risiken und Komplikationen und das Notfallmanagement. Schwerpunkt des Buches ist die farblich hervorgehobene Schritt-für-Schritt Anleitung, welche sich direkt im Kurs und im Alltag umsetzen lässt.

In der zweiten Auflage wurden alle Kapitel überarbeitet, neue Evidenzen wurden eingefügt und sehr viele Abbildungen wurden verbessert. Es gibt nun einen eigenen Teil zu Injektionen mit Ultraschall sowie ein Kapitel zu Risiken und Komplikationen und ein Kapitel über Radiofrequenzdenervationen.

Komplikationen und die daraus oftmals resultierenden Vorwürfe eines Behandlungsfehlers sind unbestreitbar Teil des unfallchirurgischen Alltags. Umso wichtiger ist es, diese schnell zu erkennen und optimal zu behandeln, um sekundäre Schäden zu minimieren.

Zugeschnitten auf die speziellen Herausforderungen der Unfallchirurgie im Rahmen des Komplikationsmanagements bietet dieses Buch Antworten auf häufige Fragen: Was ist überhaupt eine Komplikation, was ein Behandlungsfehler? Wie kläre ich meine Patienten optimal auf? Was muss ich tun, wenn ein Haftungsfall eingetreten ist, wie kann ich mich absichern? Im speziellen Teil werden die relevanten Komplikationen anhand von zahlreichen Fallbeispielen beschrieben – von der falschen Indikation und missverstandenen Aufklärung über verbliebene Fremdkörper, Fehlstellungen oder übersehenen Frakturen bis hin zu Wundinfekten und Nachbetreuung – jeweils mit medizinischer Einschätzung und haftungsrechtlicher Bewertung. Im Fokus sind konkrete Entscheidungshilfen und praktische Anleitungen, die direkt im Alltag umgesetzt werden können.