Western nations are worried about the problems of an ageing population. But if we take into account the health trends in younger generations, we arrive at a frightening prediction: for the first time in history, we have produced a generation that may not outlive its parents. Like a growing number of doctors throughout the developed world, general practitioner Carole Hungerford became concerned about these trends, and began to question a health industry based on a model of ‘curing disease’. The result is Good Health in the 21st Century, an encyclopaedic health guide that provides an extraordinary amount of easily understood information and a radically different way of maintaining well-being. Rejecting the routine cocktails of medication, with their complicated interactions and side effects, Dr Hungerford shows how to provide a chance for minerals, vitamins, and essential fatty acids to do their health-giving work. The subjects covered in Good Health in the 21st Century include asthma, arthritis, cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular disease; mental health and neurological disorders; hormone-replacement therapy and vaccination; and macronutrients and minerals, vitamins, and essential fatty acids. This monumental work will be used by parents, patients, and doctors for years to come.
The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.
“This is a remarkable, much-needed book that fills a significant gap in the health and social care literature in the early decades of the 21st century—public, global, clinical, ecological. It is powerful, ambitious, comprehensive, and sweeping at the same time that it is visionary, focused, and deep. Its power and passion are about the potential of population health and well-being optimally applied around the globe to help in creating a world that is healthier, safer, more just, and more sustainable.” —Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH, Alumni Distinguished Professor and Dean UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (From the Foreword) Drawing on current research and the expertise of world-recognized leaders in public, global, clinical, and social health in both developed and developing nations, this book delivers an evidence-based examination of 21st-century challenges in global population health and well-being. With special attention given to major initiatives of the United Nations, especially its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2016–2030, and the priorities of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank, Dr. Lueddeke articulates an imperative to adopt a “One World, One Health” view that recognizes the interdependence of humans, animals, plants, and the environment. The book/text promotes innovative and transformative paradigms for global public health practice, curricula, workforce training, and leadership. Intended for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in global public health, it will also be a welcome addition to the libraries of practitioners and policy-makers at all levels in the public/population/global health continuum. KEY CONTENT AREAS INCLUDE: The historical context of public health from early medicine to present day Exemplary educational initiatives: WHO education guidelines; curriculum commentaries from China, South Africa, and Cuba; a proposed Global Framework for Public Health Services and Functions; and case studies from South America (PAHO/ WHO), India (IPHF), and South Africa (PHASA) The changing roles and educational expectations of public and global health professionals in the early decades of the 21st century The complex interdependence of natural, socioeconomic, and political systems at local, national, regional, and global levels The causes of interstate conflicts and longer-term challenges Leading change in a new era, transforming mind-sets, and improving and sustaining the health and well-being of the planet and its people An epilogue on global health, governance, and education with contributions from a think tank of 35 practitioners from 27 nations Supplemental materials, including text aims and objectives and a guide to research and learning resources developed by experts in the United States, Brazil, and the Netherlands, are available as digital downloads ALSO HIGHLIGHTED: 65 profiles of leading global health (and health-related) organizations 15 profiles of highly recognized schools and institutes of public health
Perhaps no other public policy issue has greater potential to affect some of the most significant economic, political, social, and ethical changes of the 21st century than global health. In this book, a scholar/physician team authors a comprehensive introduction to global health issues and emphasises the potential of public health intervention to improve the longevity and quality of human life across the globe. The authors have lived and worked in Africa as well as in medically underserved areas of the United States, so they write with firsthand experience and authority. Using themes of interconnectedness, globalisation, and united concern from citizens, this book encourages readers to consider the role that they might play as engaged citizens in taking on the global public health challenges of the 21st century including everything from AIDs and flu to tobacco, obesity, and threats in conflict zones.
This report explores how data and digital technology can help achieve policy objectives and drive positive transformation in the health sector while managing new risks such as privacy, equity and implementation costs. It examines the following topics: improving service delivery models; empowering people to take an active role in their health and their care; improving public health; managing biomedical technologies; enabling better collaboration across borders; and improving health system governance and stewardship. It also examines how health workforces should be equipped to make the most of digital technology. The report contains findings from surveys of OECD countries and shares a range of examples that illustrate the potential benefits as well as challenges of the digital transformation in the health sector. Findings and recommendations are relevant for policymakers, health care providers, payers, industry as well as patients, citizens and civil society.
Second in a series of publications from the Institute of Medicine's Quality of Health Care in America project Today's health care providers have more research findings and more technology available to them than ever before. Yet recent reports have raised serious doubts about the quality of health care in America. Crossing the Quality Chasm makes an urgent call for fundamental change to close the quality gap. This book recommends a sweeping redesign of the American health care system and provides overarching principles for specific direction for policymakers, health care leaders, clinicians, regulators, purchasers, and others. In this comprehensive volume the committee offers: A set of performance expectations for the 21st century health care system. A set of 10 new rules to guide patient-clinician relationships. A suggested organizing framework to better align the incentives inherent in payment and accountability with improvements in quality. Key steps to promote evidence-based practice and strengthen clinical information systems. Analyzing health care organizations as complex systems, Crossing the Quality Chasm also documents the causes of the quality gap, identifies current practices that impede quality care, and explores how systems approaches can be used to implement change.
How can it be that even with all the advances modern healthcare has made, we're experiencing record levels of ill health – from diabetes, heart disease and cancer, to osteoporosis, dementia and depression? We're more health conscious than ever before, and no matter which way we turn we're bombarded with promises of the best thing for living longer and healthier lives. But the truth is, the messages are flawed and if we follow them, we won't achieve the good health we long for. Something, somewhere, has gone horribly wrong. At last, cutting through the misinformation, The Health Delusion has the answers, all backed by hard science. It exposes the shocking truths behind our diet, health and pharmaceutical industries – and how they consistently put our health in jeopardy in favour of boosting their profits, as well as showing how the media makes things even worse by misleading us at every turn. So how can we put things right? Providing a complete 21st-century guide to optimal health at every stage of life, The Health Delusion gives us the real story, and offers us a detailed plan of the foods, supplements and lifestyle changes needed for total wellness.
Bioterrorism, drug-resistant disease, transmission of disease by global travel . . . there's no shortage of challenges facing America's public health officials. Men and women preparing to enter the field require state-of-the-art training to meet these increasing threats to the public health. But are the programs they rely on provide the high caliber professional training they require? Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? provides an overview of the past, present, and future of public health education, assessing its readiness to provide the training and education needed to prepare men and women to face 21st century challenges. Advocating an ecological approach to public health, the Institute of Medicine examines the role of public health schools and degree-granting programs, medical schools, nursing schools, and government agencies, as well as other institutions that foster public health education and leadership. Specific recommendations address the content of public health education, qualifications for faculty, availability of supervised practice, opportunities for cross-disciplinary research and education, cooperation with government agencies, and government funding for education. Eight areas of critical importance to public health education in the 21st century are examined in depth: informatics, genomics, communication, cultural competence, community-based participatory research, global health, policy and law, and public health ethics. The book also includes a discussion of the policy implications of its ecological framework.
Public health has moved to the forefront of national interest and scrutiny in the light of present day events. Public health professionals are now regulars in all forms of media, something unheard of just a few years ago. The issues are well known - bioterrorism, SARS, West Nile Virus - and they are enough to panic a population without skillful leadership. Public Health for the 21st Century: The Prepared Leader examines public health leadership in terms of emergency preparedness and specific skills and tools. As modern-day threats force leaders to look at how they address disasters and drive communities to prepare themselves, this book provides tools and real life cases to hone management skills to prepare agencies to deal with large scale events.
Turning the World Upside Down is a search to understand what is happening and what it means for us all. It is based on Nigel Crisp's own journey from running the largest health system in the world to working in some of the poorest countries, and draws upon his own experiences to explore new ideas and innovations around the world. The book has three unique features: Describes what rich countries can learn from poorer ones, as well as the other way round Deals with health in rich and poor countries in the same way, not treating them as totally different, and suggests that instead of talking about international development we should talk about co-development Sets out a new vision for global health, and our rights and accountabilities as citizens of the world There is an unfair import export business in people and ideas that flourishes between rich and poor countries. Rich countries import trained health workers and export their ideas and ideology about health in poorer ones, whether or not they are appropriate or useful. What, Nigel Crisp asks, if we were to turn the world upside down - so the import export business was reversed and poorer countries exported their ideas and experience whilst richer ones exported their health workers? Health leaders in poorer countries, without the resources or the baggage of rich countries, have learned to innovate, to build on the strengths of the population and their communities and develop new approaches that are relevant for the rich and poor alike. At the same time, richer countries and their health workers could help poorer countries to train, in their own country, the workers they need for the future. They would help pay a debt for all the workers who have migrated and learn themselves the new ways of working, which they will need in the 21st Century. We could stop talking about international development - as something the rich world does to the poor - and start talking about co-development, our shared learning and shared future. There is already a movement of people and ideas travelling in this direction. Young people get this intuitively. Many thousands of young professionals want a different professional education for themselves - in global health. Together with the leaders from poorer countries and the innovators around the world, they are creating a new global vision for health. Turning the World Upside Down is a search for understanding that helps us to see how Western Scientific Medicine, which has served us so well in the 20th Century, needs to adapt and evolve to cope with the demands of the 21st Century. It sets our a new vision and concludes by describing the actions we need to take to accelerate the change.
