The facts are alarming: Medical errors kill more people each year than AIDS, breast cancer, or car accidents. A doctor’s relationship with pharmaceutical companies may influence his choice of drugs for you. The wrong key word on an insurance claim can deny you coverage. Through real life stories, including her own, and shrewd advice, CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen shows you how to become your own advocate and navigate the minefield of today’s health-care system. But there’s good news. Discover how to • find a doctor who “gets” you and listens to you • ask the right questions for the best treatment • make the most out of a short office visit • cut out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs • harness the power of the Internet for medical issues • fight back when claims are denied Combining the personal stories of patients across America with crucial advice on receiving the best possible health care, this guide will enable you to confront an often confusing and perilous system—and come out ahead.

The constantly evolving digital world must be used in the practice of medicine to improve the care of patients. However, the only way to do so effectively is via evidence-based, meaningful and strategic use. Empowering the Connected Physician in the E-Patient Era provides practical guidance in this mission and is thus essential reading for all health stakeholders looking into approaching this. Drawing on the author’s research and consulting practice, as well as on the practical experience of managers in medium-large organizations worldwide, the book will provide a proven framework to improve the development and implementation of physicians’ empowering digital programs in these organizations, a step-by-step guide for how companies can develop and implement programs aiming at empowering physicians while empowering patients. It is an engaging how-to/how-not-to book which will include tips, advice and critical reviews that every stakeholder must have in order to participate in the evolving healthcare system and be more active in making strategic patient-centered choices. This book will help healthcare organizations chart a course within this new territory and thereby improve their ability to engage with empowered patients.

Patient-centered care for chronic illness is founded upon the informed and activated patient, but we are not clear what this means. We must understand patients as subjects who know things and as agents who do things. Bioethics has urged us to respect patient autonomy, but it has understood this autonomy narrowly in terms of informed consent for treatment choice. In chronic illness care, the ethical and clinical challenge is to not just respect, but to promote patient autonomy, understood broadly as the patients' overall agency or capacity for action. The primary barrier to patient action in chronic illness is not clinicians dictating treatment choice, but clinicians dictating the nature of the clinical problem. The patient's perspective on clinical problems is now often added to the objective-disease perspective of clinicians as health-related quality of life (HRQL). But HRQL is merely a hybrid transitional concept between disease-focused and health-focused goals for clinical care. Truly patient-centered care requires a sense of patient-centered health that is perceived by the patient and defined in terms of the patient's vital goals. Patient action is an essential means to this patient-centered health, as well as an essential component of this health. This action is not extrinsically motivated adherence, but intrinsically motivated striving for vital goals. Modern pathophysiological medicine has trouble understanding both patient action and health. The self-moving and self-healing capacities of patients can be understood only if we understand their roots in the biological autonomy of organisms. Taking the patient as the primary perceiver and producer of health has the following policy implications: 1] Care will become patient-centered only when the patient is the primary customer of care. 2] Professional health services are not the principal source of population health, and may lead to clinical, social and cultural iatrogenic injury. 3] Social justice demands equity in health capability more than equal access to health services.

The 6th edition of this established text is streamlined to a more manageable format, with the Appendices moved to the web-site and a significant shortening of the main text. There is a greater focus on the global analysis of industry and competition; and analysis of the internal environment. In consultation with feedback from their adopters, the authors have concentrated on the fundamentals of strategy analysis and the underlying sources of profit. This reflects waning interest among senior executives in the pursuit of short-term shareholder value. As ever students are provided with the guidance they need to strategic planning, analysis of the health services environment (internal and external) and lessons on implementation; with additional discussionssion of organizational capability, deeper treatment of sustainability and corporate social responsibility and more coverageof the sources of organizational inertia and competency traps. This edition is rich in new examples from real-world health care organizations. Chapters are brought to life by the 'Introductory Incidents', 'Learning Objectives', 'Perspectives', 'Strategy Capsules', useful chapter summaries; and questions for class discussion. All cases and examples have been updated or replaced. In this edition the teaching materials and web supplements have been greatly enhanced, with power-point slides, to give lecturers a unique resource.

This volume provides the theoretical, methodological, and praxis-driven issues in research on interpretive, critical, and cultural approaches to health communication. It includes an international collection of contributors, and highlights non-traditional (non-Western) perspectives on health communication.

This open access book is a valuable resource for students in health and other professions and practicing professionals interested in supporting effective change in self-management behaviors in chronic disease, such as medication taking, physical activity and healthy eating. Developed under the auspices of the Train4Health project, funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union, the book contains six chapters written by international contributors from different disciplines. Chapter one introduces the competencies necessary for delivering effective behavior change support, based on an established program of work, and related learning outcomes. The four following chapters describe how these competencies can be acquired, focusing on concepts and theories, assessing self-management behaviors, implementing change strategies and person-centered communication, using a practical approach. The last chapter points out supplementary learning resources, developed as part of the Train4Health project.

Dr. Creagan's prescription for prevention and survival teaches readers how to take control of their health care, their medical records and their decision making and shows patients how to wisely select and build partnerships with their doctors.

This Element considers health misinformation and the problems it presents. The evolving communication context—changing doctor-patient relationships and developments in information technology—presents patients with a vastly enriched information landscape and new challenges to patients navigating it. These challenges are magnified as growing patient empowerment and autonomy have increased expectations for patient involvement in medical decisions. In this context, the ways people approach presented information, learn from it, understand it, and use it, exacerbate the risk that they become misinformed—believing things that are inimical to improved health. Moreover, these same processes make it difficult to correct such beliefs. Approaches building on trust between patient and professional exemplify improved communication to increase accurate patient knowledge and understanding in the service of better health. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Social changes in European societies place migration and cultural diversity on the European political agenda. The European initiative Migrant Friendly Hospitals (MFH) aims to identify, develop and evaluate models of effective interventions. It has the following objectives: To strengthen the role of hospitals in promoting the health of migrants and ethnic minorities in the European Union and to improve hospital services for these groups. This report reviews models of effective intervention in the medical literature and provides the background information needed to enable partner hospitals taking part in the MFH initiative to select and implement suitable interventions. The interventions reviewed in this study are grouped in four areas: Communication, Responsiveness Empowerment of migrant and minority patients and communities. Monitoring of the health of migrants and minorities and the health care they receive. [Ed.]

“It is my belief that this book should be included on the reading list of all ODP programmes and Perioperative HEI Programmes.” John Dade RODP, PGCMedEd, Immediate Past President – The Association for Perioperative Practice “This book is suitable for both pre-registration learners and post registration practitioners to explore theory and concepts which are related directly to the role of the ODP and the broader scope of professional practice in contemporary healthcare.” Helen Lowes, National AHP Education and Training Lead for Operating Department Practitioners, NHS England, UK “This book is different to others, as it celebrates being an Operating Department Practitioner by staying focused on the things that matter to ODPs in providing patients with a high standard of safe and dignified care. Will be recommended to my Student ODPs!” John Tarrant, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health & Social Sciences, Bournemouth University, UK Written by Operating Department Practitioners (ODPs) for Operating Department Practitioners this book is key reading for all ODP students, qualified professionals, practitioners, theatre managers and even surgeons and anaesthetists who wish to better understand the modern role of the ODP. Thoroughly revised and updated, Foundations for Operating Department Practice, 2nd edition supports both pre- and post-registration ODPs throughout their academic studies and beyond in their professional careers, it covers: • Working in the Perioperative Team • Research and Evidence Based Practice • Patient Safety • Psychosocial Aspects of Operating Department Practice • Ethics and Legal Frameworks • Reflection, Leadership and Management • Professional Practice, Lifelong Learning and Continued Professional Development Each chapter gives examples of case studies and pedagogy designed to help ODP students see the relevance of these issues to their everyday practice and enhance learning and study. This book is the first of its kind to bring together the fundamental professional knowledge that supports and underpins the ODPs practice to enable them to deliver effective, compassionate and evidence-based care to the patient. Hannah Abbott is President of the College of Operating Department Practitioners (CODP) and an ODP with clinical and academic experience. She is currently Head of College of Health and Care Professions at Birmingham City University, UK. Helen Booth is an ODP with many years experience and was a former senior lecturer and specialised in bioethics. She is currently collaborating with the College of Operating Department Practitioners as a professional advisor and has been instrumental in driving the profession forward.