Searching for Health

Searching for Health PDF Author: Kapil Parakh
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421440296
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Get Book Here

Book Description
An insider's guide to searching online, communicating with your physician, and maximizing your health from a doctor who works at Google. We've all been there. Late at night, staring into the glow of a phone trying to make sense of some health-related issue that we know nothing about. In Searching for Health, Dr. Kapil Parakh, with Anna Dirksen, brings to life knowledge he gained from working at Google and practicing medicine. Helping readers avoid common pitfalls, get the information they need, and partner effectively with their health team to figure out a path to good health together, the book distills decades of scientific research into a set of easy-to-follow tips. It also incorporates • firsthand accounts of common challenges on the path to good health; • an inside look at how doctors approach and assess health-related information; • techniques that consumers can use to locate evidence-based information online, whether in blogs, social media postings, forums, or news stories; • guidance on how individuals can make the best use of new technologies, such as health trackers and other applications; • recommendations to help patients assess health information for themselves and make decisions based on what they find; • brief summaries of the scientific studies underpinning the recommendations; and • online and offline resources—including handy checklists and worksheets—to help readers prepare for appointments, discuss tough topics with their doctors, and take control of their health. In addition to helping readers find evidence-based information online, the book provides insights into what you can expect from a visit to a doctor or hospital, how to make a decision about surgery or other treatment, what tests doctors will order, which symptom trackers are really effective, and what questions to ask about medications, supplements, and more. Searching for Health is a valuable resource for charting a healthier path through life.

Searching for Health

Searching for Health PDF Author: Kapil Parakh
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421440296
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 177

Get Book Here

Book Description
An insider's guide to searching online, communicating with your physician, and maximizing your health from a doctor who works at Google. We've all been there. Late at night, staring into the glow of a phone trying to make sense of some health-related issue that we know nothing about. In Searching for Health, Dr. Kapil Parakh, with Anna Dirksen, brings to life knowledge he gained from working at Google and practicing medicine. Helping readers avoid common pitfalls, get the information they need, and partner effectively with their health team to figure out a path to good health together, the book distills decades of scientific research into a set of easy-to-follow tips. It also incorporates • firsthand accounts of common challenges on the path to good health; • an inside look at how doctors approach and assess health-related information; • techniques that consumers can use to locate evidence-based information online, whether in blogs, social media postings, forums, or news stories; • guidance on how individuals can make the best use of new technologies, such as health trackers and other applications; • recommendations to help patients assess health information for themselves and make decisions based on what they find; • brief summaries of the scientific studies underpinning the recommendations; and • online and offline resources—including handy checklists and worksheets—to help readers prepare for appointments, discuss tough topics with their doctors, and take control of their health. In addition to helping readers find evidence-based information online, the book provides insights into what you can expect from a visit to a doctor or hospital, how to make a decision about surgery or other treatment, what tests doctors will order, which symptom trackers are really effective, and what questions to ask about medications, supplements, and more. Searching for Health is a valuable resource for charting a healthier path through life.

Searching for Health Information

Searching for Health Information PDF Author: Vicki S. Freimuth
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 9780812212723
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Get Book Here

Book Description
Searching for Health Information reviews the research on the process of seeking health information and contributes to that literature by analyzing the largest available database on health-information-seeking behavior, the Cancer Information Service (CIS), a referral service sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. But the book is not only about CIS. Vicki S. Freimuth, Judith A. Stein, and Thomas J. Kean describe the general context in which people search for health information about a variety of diseases and other health concerns. They then present a theoretical overview of the nature of information and the way people search for it. By analyzing data obtained from more than a million calls to CIS over a four-year period and by studying follow-up surveys of over 7500 of these callers, the authors contribute to our understanding of the process of information seeking. The communication of health information is increasingly important, and this book breaks new ground in its analysis of one successful system.

Finding What Works in Health Care

Finding What Works in Health Care PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309164257
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Get Book Here

Book Description
Healthcare decision makers in search of reliable information that compares health interventions increasingly turn to systematic reviews for the best summary of the evidence. Systematic reviews identify, select, assess, and synthesize the findings of similar but separate studies, and can help clarify what is known and not known about the potential benefits and harms of drugs, devices, and other healthcare services. Systematic reviews can be helpful for clinicians who want to integrate research findings into their daily practices, for patients to make well-informed choices about their own care, for professional medical societies and other organizations that develop clinical practice guidelines. Too often systematic reviews are of uncertain or poor quality. There are no universally accepted standards for developing systematic reviews leading to variability in how conflicts of interest and biases are handled, how evidence is appraised, and the overall scientific rigor of the process. In Finding What Works in Health Care the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends 21 standards for developing high-quality systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research. The standards address the entire systematic review process from the initial steps of formulating the topic and building the review team to producing a detailed final report that synthesizes what the evidence shows and where knowledge gaps remain. Finding What Works in Health Care also proposes a framework for improving the quality of the science underpinning systematic reviews. This book will serve as a vital resource for both sponsors and producers of systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research.

In Search of the Perfect Health System

In Search of the Perfect Health System PDF Author: Mark Britnell
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1137496614
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Get Book Here

Book Description
A practical, succinct guide to the major health systems around the world and what lessons can be drawn from each about improving health worldwide. The essays are designed to give the reader essential knowledge of the history, strengths, weaknesses and lessons of each health system.

The walk without limbs: Searching for indigenous health knowledge in a rural context in South Africa

The walk without limbs: Searching for indigenous health knowledge in a rural context in South Africa PDF Author: Gubela Mji
Publisher: AOSIS
ISBN: 1928523110
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Get Book Here

Book Description
In a country as diverse as South Africa, sickness and health often mean different things to different people – so much so that the different health definitions and health belief models in the country seem to have a profound influence on the health-seeking behaviour of the people who are part of our vibrant, multicultural society. This book is concerned with the integration of indigenous health knowledge (IHK) into the current Western--orientated Primary Health Care (PHC) model. The first section of the book highlights the challenges facing the training of health professionals using a curriculum that is not drawing its knowledge base from the indigenous context and the people of that context. Such professionals will later recognise that they are walking without limbs in matters pertaining to health. The area that was chosen for conducting the research was KwaBomvana in Xhora (Elliotdale), Eastern Cape province, South Africa. The people who reside there are called AmaBomvana. The area where the Bomvana peoples reside is served by Madwaleni Hospital and eight surrounding clinics. Qualitative ethnographic, feminist methods of data collection supported the research done for Section 1 of the book. Section 2 comprises the translation and implementation of PhD study outcomes and had contributions from various researchers. In the critical research findings of the PhD study, older Xhosa women identify the inclusion of social determinants of health as vital to the health problems they managed within their homes. For them, each disease is linked to a social determinant of health, and the management of health problems includes the management of social determinants of health. For them, it is about the health of the home and not just about the management of disease. They believe that healthy homes make healthy villages, and that the prevention of the development of disease is related to the strengthening of the home. Health and illness should be seen within both physical and spiritual contexts; without health, there can be no progress in the home. When defining health, the older Xhosa women add three critical components to the WHO health definition, namely, food security, healthy children and families, and peace and security in their villages. Prof. Mji further proposes that these three elements should be included in the next revision of the WHO health definition because they are not only important for the Bomvana people where the research was conducted, but also for the rest of humanity. In light of the promise of National Health Insurance and the revitalisation of PHC, this book proposes that these two major national health policies should take cognisance of the IHK utilised by the older Xhosa women. In addtion to what this research implies, these policies should also take note of all IHK from the indigenous peoples of South Africa, Africa and the rest of the world, and that there should be a clear plan as to how the knowledge can be supported within a health care systems approach.

An American Sickness

An American Sickness PDF Author: Elisabeth Rosenthal
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698407180
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 434

Get Book Here

Book Description
A New York Times bestseller/Washington Post Notable Book of 2017/NPR Best Books of 2017/Wall Street Journal Best Books of 2017 "This book will serve as the definitive guide to the past and future of health care in America.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene At a moment of drastic political upheaval, An American Sickness is a shocking investigation into our dysfunctional healthcare system - and offers practical solutions to its myriad problems. In these troubled times, perhaps no institution has unraveled more quickly and more completely than American medicine. In only a few decades, the medical system has been overrun by organizations seeking to exploit for profit the trust that vulnerable and sick Americans place in their healthcare. Our politicians have proven themselves either unwilling or incapable of reining in the increasingly outrageous costs faced by patients, and market-based solutions only seem to funnel larger and larger sums of our money into the hands of corporations. Impossibly high insurance premiums and inexplicably large bills have become facts of life; fatalism has set in. Very quickly Americans have been made to accept paying more for less. How did things get so bad so fast? Breaking down this monolithic business into the individual industries—the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and drug manufacturers—that together constitute our healthcare system, Rosenthal exposes the recent evolution of American medicine as never before. How did healthcare, the caring endeavor, become healthcare, the highly profitable industry? Hospital systems, which are managed by business executives, behave like predatory lenders, hounding patients and seizing their homes. Research charities are in bed with big pharmaceutical companies, which surreptitiously profit from the donations made by working people. Patients receive bills in code, from entrepreneurial doctors they never even saw. The system is in tatters, but we can fight back. Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal doesn't just explain the symptoms, she diagnoses and treats the disease itself. In clear and practical terms, she spells out exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. She takes you inside the doctor-patient relationship and to hospital C-suites, explaining step-by-step the workings of a system badly lacking transparency. This is about what we can do, as individual patients, both to navigate the maze that is American healthcare and also to demand far-reaching reform. An American Sickness is the frontline defense against a healthcare system that no longer has our well-being at heart.

Turning the World Upside Down

Turning the World Upside Down PDF Author: Nigel Crisp
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1853159336
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Get Book Here

Book Description
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.

Unequal Treatment

Unequal Treatment PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030908265X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 781

Get Book Here

Book Description
Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are known to reflect access to care and other issues that arise from differing socioeconomic conditions. There is, however, increasing evidence that even after such differences are accounted for, race and ethnicity remain significant predictors of the quality of health care received. In Unequal Treatment, a panel of experts documents this evidence and explores how persons of color experience the health care environment. The book examines how disparities in treatment may arise in health care systems and looks at aspects of the clinical encounter that may contribute to such disparities. Patients' and providers' attitudes, expectations, and behavior are analyzed. How to intervene? Unequal Treatment offers recommendations for improvements in medical care financing, allocation of care, availability of language translation, community-based care, and other arenas. The committee highlights the potential of cross-cultural education to improve provider-patient communication and offers a detailed look at how to integrate cross-cultural learning within the health professions. The book concludes with recommendations for data collection and research initiatives. Unequal Treatment will be vitally important to health care policymakers, administrators, providers, educators, and students as well as advocates for people of color.

Commercialization of Health Care

Commercialization of Health Care PDF Author: M. Mackintosh
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230523617
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 341

Get Book Here

Book Description
Based on original research and analysis by a group of health policy experts and economists from across the world, this book analyzes the causes and consequences of the expanding global and local commercialization of health care. It argues for the necessity and possibility of effective policy responses to develop good quality, universally inclusive health systems worldwide. The book aims to contribute to a shift in the international 'common sense' in health policy towards a more humane, inclusive, egalitarian, and ethical framework for policy formulation.

Beyond the HIPAA Privacy Rule

Beyond the HIPAA Privacy Rule PDF Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309124999
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 334

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the realm of health care, privacy protections are needed to preserve patients' dignity and prevent possible harms. Ten years ago, to address these concerns as well as set guidelines for ethical health research, Congress called for a set of federal standards now known as the HIPAA Privacy Rule. In its 2009 report, Beyond the HIPAA Privacy Rule: Enhancing Privacy, Improving Health Through Research, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Health Research and the Privacy of Health Information concludes that the HIPAA Privacy Rule does not protect privacy as well as it should, and that it impedes important health research.