With rapidly rising healthcare costs directly impacting the economy and quality of life, resolving improvement challenges in areas such as safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency, and equity has become paramount. Using a system engineering perspective, Handbook of Healthcare Delivery Systems offers theoretical foundation
Uwe Reinhardt was a towering figure and moral conscience of health care policy in the United States and beyond. Famously bipartisan, he advised presidents and Congress on health reform and originated central features of the Affordable Care Act. In Priced Out, Reinhardt offers an engaging and enlightening account of today's U.S. health care system, explaining why it costs so much more and delivers so much less than the systems of every other advanced country, why this situation is morally indefensible, and how we might improve it.
Setting out the debates and reviewing the evidence that links health outcomes with social and physical environments, this new edition of the well-established text offers an accessible overview of the theoretical perspectives, methodologies, and research in the field of health geography Includes international examples, drawn from a broad range of countries, and extensive illustrations Unique in its approach to health geography, as opposed to medical geography New chapters focus on contemporary concerns including neighborhoods and health, ageing, and emerging infectious disease Offers five new case studies and an fresh emphasis on qualitative research approaches Written by two of the leading health geographers in the world, each with extensive experience in research and policy
Using cross-country analysis and case studies, this book provides new insights and potential policy responses for the key fiscal policy challenges that both advanced and emerging economies will be facing.
For fifty years, Medicare and Medicaid have stood at the center of a contentious debate surrounding American government, citizenship, and health care entitlement. In Medicare and Medicaid at 50, leading scholars in politics, government, economics, health policy, and history offer a comprehensive assessment of the evolution of these programs and their impact on society -- from their origins in the Great Society era to the current battles over the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"). These highly accessible essays examine Medicare and Medicaid from their origins as programs for the elderly and poor to their later role as a safety net for the middle class. Along the way, they have served as touchstones for heated debates about economics, social welfare, and the role of government. Medicare and Medicaid at 50 addresses key questions for understanding the past and future of health policy in America, including: · What were the origins for these initiatives, and how were they transformed over time? · What marks have Medicare and Medicaid left on society? · In what ways have these programs produced innovation, even in eras of retrenchment? · How did Medicaid, once regarded as a poor person's program, expand its benefits and coverage over the decades to become the platform for the ACA's future expansion? The volume's contributors go on to examine the powerful role of courts in these transformations, along with the shifting roles of Congress, public opinion, and state governors in the programs' ongoing evolution. From Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama on the left, and from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush on the right, American political leaders have tied their political fortunes to the fate of America's entitlement programs; Medicare and Medicaid at 50 helps explain why, and how those ongoing debates are likely to shape the future of the Affordable Care Act.
This sixth edition is enriched by over 300 figures, 150 tables and a video-companion collecting more than 100 cases also presented in the format of short movies and teaching cartoons. This extensively revised and enlarged edition of this long-seller documents the very significant advances made since the fifth (2009) edition and is entirely written by Eugenio Picano, a pioneer in the field sharing his lifetime experience with the help of an international panel of 50 contributors from 22 countries representing some of the best available knowledge and expertise in their respective field. In a societal and economic climate of increasing pressure for appropriate, justified and optimized imaging, stress echocardiography offers the great advantages of being radiation-free, relatively low cost, and with a staggering versatility: we can get more (information) with less (cost and risk). For a long time, the scope and application of stress echo remained focused on coronary artery disease. In the last ten years, it has exploded in its breadth and variety of applications. From a black-and-white, one-fits-all approach (wall motion by 2D-echo in the patient with known or suspected coronary artery disease) now we have moved on to a omnivorous, next-generation laboratory employing a variety of technologies (from M-Mode to 2D and pulsed, continuous, color and tissue Doppler, to lung ultrasound and real time 3D echo, 2D speckle tracking and myocardial contrast echo) on patients covering the entire spectrum of severity (from elite athletes to patients with end-stage heart failure) and ages (from children with congenital heart disease to the elderly with low-flow, low-gradient aortic stenosis).
An Essential Guide to the Processes and Operational Complexities of the U.S. Healthcare System The U.S. Healthcare Ecosystem serves as an expert navigator through the complicated and often confusing environment where healthcare payers, healthcare providers, and producers of healthcare technologies all interact. This thorough resource provides expert insight and analysis of employer-based health insurance, pharmacy benefits, the major professions, healthcare consolidation, drug discovery and development, biotechnology, and much more. Packed with timely examples and filled with illustrations, The U.S. Healthcare Ecosystem will inspire you to think more critically about the business of healthcare and make informed assessments. Features: Includes often neglected topics impacting healthcare delivery such as employer-based health insurance, pharmacy benefits, healthcare consolidation, and biotechnology Highly readable and single-authored by a Wharton Professor who has taught health care delivery and management for over 20 years Filled to the brim with helpful diagrams, charts and tables - nearly 350 figures complement the text Every chapter ends with a helpful Summary and Questions to Ponder
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, published by the U.S. Government and the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in early 2011, is the official government report on the United States financial collapse and the review of major financial institutions that bankrupted and failed, or would have without help from the government. The commission and the report were implemented after Congress passed an act in 2009 to review and prevent fraudulent activity. The report details, among other things, the periods before, during, and after the crisis, what led up to it, and analyses of subprime mortgage lending, credit expansion and banking policies, the collapse of companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the federal bailouts of Lehman and AIG. It also discusses the aftermath of the fallout and our current state. This report should be of interest to anyone concerned about the financial situation in the U.S. and around the world.THE FINANCIAL CRISIS INQUIRY COMMISSION is an independent, bi-partisan, government-appointed panel of 10 people that was created to "examine the causes, domestic and global, of the current financial and economic crisis in the United States." It was established as part of the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009. The commission consisted of private citizens with expertise in economics and finance, banking, housing, market regulation, and consumer protection. They examined and reported on "the collapse of major financial institutions that failed or would have failed if not for exceptional assistance from the government."News Dissector DANNY SCHECHTER is a journalist, blogger and filmmaker. He has been reporting on economic crises since the 1980's when he was with ABC News. His film In Debt We Trust warned of the economic meltdown in 2006. He has since written three books on the subject including Plunder: Investigating Our Economic Calamity (Cosimo Books, 2008), and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street Is Not Too Big to Jail (Disinfo Books, 2011), a companion to his latest film Plunder The Crime Of Our Time. He can be reached online at www.newsdissector.com.
Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are needed in a number of forensic science disciplines to ensure the reliability of work, establish enforceable standards, and promote best practices with consistent application. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward provides a detailed plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community. The benefits of improving and regulating the forensic science disciplines are clear: assisting law enforcement officials, enhancing homeland security, and reducing the risk of wrongful conviction and exoneration. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States gives a full account of what is needed to advance the forensic science disciplines, including upgrading of systems and organizational structures, better training, widespread adoption of uniform and enforceable best practices, and mandatory certification and accreditation programs. While this book provides an essential call-to-action for congress and policy makers, it also serves as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies, criminal prosecutors and attorneys, and forensic science educators.
