検索キーワード： 政策・行政

Our health care system is crippled by desperate efforts to prevent the inevitable. A third of the national Medicare budget - nearly $175 billion - is spent on the final year of life, and a third of that amount on the final month, often on expensive (and futile) treatments. Such efforts betray a fundamental flaw in how we think about healthcare: we squander resources on hopeless situations, instead of using them to actually improve health.

Because of rapidly aging populations, the number of people worldwide experiencing dementia is increasing and the projections are grim. Despite hundreds of millions of dollars invested in medical research, no effective treatment has been discovered for Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia. The Alzheimer Conundrum exposes the predicaments embedded in current efforts to slow down or halt Alzheimer's disease through early detection of presymptomatic biological changes in healthy individuals.

The ability to heal is not reserved for a gifted few. Anyone aching to ease the suffering of a sick friend or loved one can learn to become unconditionally present to the sick person rather than to the disease. Through stories filled with compassion, wisdom, and gentle humor, Dr. Jeff Kane shows readers how to use mindful attention, therapeutic listening, and truthful speech to help others heal.

At a time when many Americans may be seeking alternatives to current health care choices, Dr. Knope offers an option that allows patients to directly contract with healthcare providers for individualized care. Using first-hand accounts and plenty of examples of how concierge medicine works, Knope offers a plan for patients looking to make a change to a medical system that is negotiated between doctor and patient, rather than through insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

Technological innovation is deeply woven into the fabric of American culture, and is no less a basic feature of American health care. Medical technology saves lives and relieves suffering, and is enormously popular with the public, profitable for doctors, and a source of great wealth for industry. Yet its costs are rising at a dangerously unsustainable rate. The control of technology costs poses a terrible ethical and policy dilemma. How can we deny people what they may need to live and flourish?

Caring for a loved one at home. What's really involved? And what does it mean for your family and future? Tens of millions of Americans have had these questions and more as they prepare for this unsettling yet necessary task. The Family Caregiver's Guide fills in the gaps, connecting the dots between research and real life. Drawing on the author's extensive caregiving experience, this book provides strategies to care for your loved one, inside and out, as well as for yourself - including how to use your natural skills in your new role, and which skills you may need to add.

You work in a profession where, despite your best efforts to plan your working week, your daily activities are often dictated by circumstance rather than strategy. You are sick of the constant juggle and live with an ever-present undercurrent of stress. Smart Time Management for Doctors provides a proven five-step process along with practical and easy-to-implement productivity strategies to help you identify and harness 30 hours of lost time a month.

Pinter and Martin's Why it Matters series offer succinct, balanced and evidence-based introductions to the topics that affect family life in the 21st century. The Politics of Breastfeeding, first published in 1988, described how big business and vested interests influence the intimate relationship between mothers and their babies to the detriment of all, rich or poor, in the West or in the developing world. In Why the Politics of Breastfeeding Matter, the central ideas of the politics of breastfeeding are distilled into a concise form, making it the perfect introduction to understanding the complex forces that govern what many think of as a simple choice to breastfeed or not.

Is drug addiction a disease that can be treated, or is it a crime that should be punished? In her probing study, Illness or Deviance?, Jennifer Murphy investigates the various perspectives on addiction, and how society has myriad ways of handling it - incarcerating some drug users while putting others in treatment. Illness or Deviance? highlights the confusion and contradictions about labeling addiction.

This book describes how bad habits contribute to ill health. The habits the author refers to that so negatively impact patients by leading to significant illness and mortality include alcohol and tobacco abuse, obesity, and more.

Mintzberg begins in part one by confronting myths about health care, including that we have a system of health care, health care institutions can be fixed with more heroic leadership, the health care system can be fixed by more administrative engineering, and more.

Medical care is one of the most pressing issues of our time. How do we choose our doctors? What are our rights? What do we do when there is a problem? These questions, and many more, are addressed by the author, who is both physician and patient.

Life and Death in Intensive Care offers a unique portrait of the surgical intensive care unit (SICU), the place in medical centers and hospitals where patients with the gravest medical conditions - from comas to terminal illness - are treated. Author Joan Cassell employs the concept of moral economies to explain the dilemmas that patients, families, and medical staff confront in treatment.

How can you protect yourself against an enemy that you can't see? How can you meet the regulations of a policy you aren't aware of? If you are involved in the medical industry, you know that today's technology often complicates patient-record confidentiality. You also know that regulations meant to protect patient records, like the Health Insurance Portability and Affordability Act (HIPAA), grow more stringent on a daily basis. Yet each day, the cyberthreats that impede your ability to meet those regulatory standards increase.

David M. Craig traveled across the US to assess its health care access, delivery, and finance. He interviewed religious hospital administrators and interfaith activists, learning how they balance the values of economic efficiency and community accountability. He discovered that health care in the US is not a private good or a public good, but a shared social good. This book argues that as escalating health costs absorb more and more of family income and government budgets, we need to take stock of the full range of health care values.

Andy Lazris, MD, is a practicing primary care physician who experiences the effects of Medicare policy on a daily basis. As a result, he believes that the way we care for our elderly has taken a wrong turn and that Medicare is complicit in creating the very problems it seeks to solve. Aging is not a disease to be cured; it is a life stage to be lived. Lazris argues that aggressive treatments cannot change that fact but only get in the way and decrease quality of life.

Therapists are struggling to carve out a fulfilling, profitable niche, an event that has left many discouraged and even disheartened. In Cash Therapy Practice, Paul Potter, PT, looks at the private practice model and turns it on its head. Most therapists follow the cash-based model not for the money, but for patient connection, something that is decidedly lacking in modern healthcare. Potter diligently outlines in this manifesto how every therapist can benefit from the advantages of a cash-based practice.

The 2015 winner of the Brown Democracy Medal, Joan C. Tronto, argues in Who Cares? that we need to rethink American democracy, as well as our own fundamental values and commitments, from a caring perspective. Asserting that Americans are facing a "caring deficit" - that there are simply too many demands on our time to care adequately for children, elderly people, and ourselves - she asks us to reconsider how we allocate care responsibilities.

Paul Potter, PT, provides an honest discussion and practical direction to help providers chart a new course. The audiobook includes a candid evaluation of the changing environment and the alternatives available for the future. He discusses direct access to clients, and what newly empowered healthcare consumers expect and are willing to pay for.

Have you ever thought about working in medical records? Do you want to know more about what a job in medical records entails? If so, this is the audiobook for you.