Guidelines are powerful instruments of assistance to clinicians capable of extending the clinical roles of nurses and pharmacists. Purchasers and managers perceive them as technological tools guaranteeing treatment quality. Guidelines also offer mechanisms by which doctors and other health care professionals can be made more accountable to their patients. But how can clinicians tell whether a guideline has authority and whether or not it should be followed? Does the law protect doctors who comply with guidelines? Are guideline developers liable for faulty advice? This timely book provides a comprehensive and accessible analysis of the many medical and legal issues arising from the current explosion of clinical guidelines. Featuring clear summaries of relevant UK US and Commonwealth case law it is vital reading for all doctors health care workers managers purchasers patients and lawyers.

This ideal, one-stop reference encapsulates all the important knowledge and skills required for primary care practice. Case-based chapters focus on the most frequently encountered outpatient problems. Coverage includes doctor-patient communication, health economics, medical ethics in the ambulatory arena, cultural concerns, cost-effective care, team approach, prevention, and much more!

Long regarded as "the book" in the field for in-depth learning as well as decision support at the point of care, Primary Care Medicine, 8th Edition, continues its tradition as a comprehensive, evidence-based, action-oriented information resource. Presented in companion electronic format updated quarterly, its problem-based orientation spans the full spectrum of problems encountered in adult primary care practice. Chapters address screening, diagnosis, prevention and management, including indications for referral and approaches to patient education and shared decision making. Clear, practical, bulleted recommendations and an extensive annotated bibliography of best references follow detailed discussions of pathophysiology, clinical presentation, differential diagnosis, and strategies for workup and treatment. Now with its 40th-anniversary edition, this exceptional text is a must-have resource for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, students, and residents- offering the most complete and up-to-date resource available for primary care education and practice. Included interactive eBook incorporates quarterly updates featuring critically reviewed important new evidence as well as a study guide for students and tables for shared decision making. Fully updated chapter content based on nearly 4,000 new references and real-world advice in bulleted form at the end of each chapter ensure current, easily accessible, evidence-based point-of-care decision support. Unique problem-based chapter organization covers the spectrum of adult primary care, highlighted by more than 400 tables, figures, and photographs, many in color. Chapters present actionable, scientifically validated guidance that allows physicians to go beyond standard consensus guidelines and provide highly personalized care. Best evidence is integrated with considerations of affordability, cost-effectiveness, convenience, and patient preference. Special consideration is given to team-based approaches of primary care delivery, recognizing its increasing importance to achieving high levels of practice performance. Enrich Your eBook Reading Experience Read directly on your preferred device(s), such as computer, tablet, or smartphone. Easily convert to audiobook, powering your content with natural language text-to-speech.

Noble'sTEXTBOOK OF PRIMARY CARE MEDICINE provides in-depth information on the full-range of medical problems, conditions and diseases encountered in the community practices of family physicians, general internists, medical and surgical subspecialists, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. The text serves as both a quick reference and an authoritative resource. Principles and guides for evidence-based decision making are included in all clinical chapters.

The medical specialty of primary care addresses the basic and fundamental healthcare needs of individuals, the family, and the larger community. Its reach starts at pre-conception and extends to global health and medical issues. Primary care issues include chronic medical problems, surgery, and community-wide health threats such as worldwide global pandemics, terrorism in all of its forms, and domestic violence. This book reviews eight topics including chronic medical issues like chronic fatigue syndrome, the response of primary care clinicians to global pandemics, and how patients and physicians are symbolized in comics. From top experts in the field, this book will improve your ability to practice primary care and to appreciate the broad demands placed upon primary care clinicians.

With chapters revolving around practical issues and real-world contexts, this Handbook offers much-needed insights into the ethics of primary healthcare. An international set of contributors from a broad range of areas in ethics and practice address a challenging array of topics. These range from the issues arising in primary care interactions, to working with different sources of vulnerability among patients, from contexts connected with teaching and learning, to issues in relation to justice and resources. The book is both interdisciplinary and inter-professional, including not just ‘standard’ philosophical clinical ethics but also approaches using the humanities, clinical empirical research, management theory and much else besides. This practical handbook will be an invaluable resource for anyone who is seeking a better appreciation and understanding of the ethics ‘in’, ‘of’ and ‘for’ primary healthcare. That includes clinicians and commissioners, but also policymakers and academics concerned with primary care ethics. Readers are encouraged to explore and critique the ideas discussed in the 44 chapters; whether or not readers agree with all the authors’ views, this volume aims to inform, educate and, in many cases, inspire. Chapter 4 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

The second edition of this pocket-sized handbook places greater emphasis on outpatient care and on physical diagnosis, and includes new tables on everyday concerns of the primary care physician, such as primary (non-obstetrics) care of pregnant patients and pre-operative and peri-operative evaluation and management of patients.

Directly addressing the specific needs of psychiatrists and other mental health professionals, this pioneering book is a first response guide to medical, surgical, neurological, and special psychiatric problems that may be encountered in clinical practice. The text features both the expert contributions of medical specialists and the guidance of board-certified psychiatrists. Quick and practical, it may be searched either by specific diseases or symptoms. Internal medicine, neurology, chronic pain, surgery, pediatrics, and preventive health care are all addressed.

American medicine attracts some of the brightest and most motivated people the country has to offer, and it boasts the most advanced medical technology in the world, a wondrous parade of machines and techniques such as PET scans, MRI, angioplasty, endoscopy, bypasses, organ transplants, and much more besides. And yet, writes Dr. Eric Cassell, what started out early in the century as the exciting conquest of disease, has evolved into an overly expensive, over technologized, uncaring medicine, poorly suited to the health care needs of a society marked by an aging population and a predominance of chronic diseases. In Doctoring: The Nature of Primary Care Medicine, Dr. Cassell shows convincingly how much better fitted advanced concepts of primary care medicine are to America's health care needs. He offers valuable insights into how primary care physicians can be better trained to meet the needs of their patients, both well and sick, and to keep these patients as the focus of their practice. Modern medical training arose at a time when medical science was in ascendancy, Cassell notes. Thus the ideals of science--objectivity, rationality--became the ideals of medicine, and disease--the target of most medical research--became the logical focus of medical practice. When clinicians treat a patient with pneumonia, they are apt to be thinking about pneumonia in general--which is how they learn about the disease--rather than this person's pneumonia. This objective, rational approach has its value, but when it dominates a physician's approach to medicine, it can create problems. For instance, treating chronic disease--such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, stroke, emphysema, and congestive heart failure--is not simply a matter of medical knowledge, for it demands a great deal of effort by the patients themselves: they have to keep their doctor appointments, take their medication, do their exercises, stop smoking. The patient thus has a profound effect on the course of the disease, and so for a physician to succeed, he or she must also be familiar with the patient's motivations, values, concerns, and relationship with the doctor. Many doctors eventually figure out how to put the patient at the center of their practice, but they should learn to do this at the training level, not haphazardly over time. To that end, the training of primary care physicians must recognize a distinction between doctoring itself and the medical science on which it is based, and should try to produce doctors who rely on both their scientific and subjective assessments of their patients' overall needs. There must be a return to careful observational and physical examination skills and finely tuned history taking and communication skills. Cassell also advocates the need to teach the behavior of both sick and well persons, evaluation of data from clinical epidemiology, decision making skills, and preventive medicine, as well as actively teaching how to make technology the servant rather than the master, and offers practical tips for instruction both in the classroom and in practice. Most important, Doctoring argues convincingly that primary care medicine should become a central focus of America's health care system, not merely a cost-saving measure as envisioned by managed care organizations. Indeed, Cassell shows that the primary care physician can fulfill a unique role in the medical community, and a vital role in society in general. He shows that primary care medicine is not a retreat from scientific medicine, but the natural next step for medicine to take in the coming century.