The pace of globalization has significantly accelerated since the end of the Cold War Era in 1989. These changes profoundly affected health care systems worldwide. Health policy makers increasingly started facing new harsh challenges in their uneasy task to provide universal health coverage and decent equity of access to medical services. Among the most prominent demand-side issues are extended longevity joined with population aging, rise of non-communicable diseases, and growing patient expectations. Supply-side causes are gains in societal welfare and living standards, technological innovation in medicine and continuing rapid urbanization in developing world regions. Successful insurance-based risk sharing agreements made drug dispensing and medical service provision cheap or virtually free at the point of consumption in most OECD and many middle-income countries. Coupled with massive build-up of workforce capacities and strengthening of primary care and hospital networks, all these factors contributed to the “supplier induced demand” phenomenon. There is straightforward historical evidence of long-term growth in pharmaceutical and overall health spending both in absolute and GDP% terms worldwide. The accumulated constraints deriving from skyrocketing costs of care were felt in many areas of clinical medicine even among the richest societies. Cardinal examples of expensive and hardly affordable therapeutic areas are orphan drugs indicated to treat rare diseases and targeted biologicals used in autoimmune disorders and cancer. Last but not least, is troubled and frequently denied access to even essential generic pharmaceuticals still taking place in many nations. This appears to be particularly the case among the world's poor and under-served citizens residing in rural and suburban areas of low- and middle-income countries. To a large extent, these difficulties are worsened by lack of evidence-based resource allocation strategies and less sustainable financing strategies.

The pharmaceutical industry is almost boundless in its ability to supply new drug therapies, but how does one decide which are the best medicines to use within restricted budgets? With particular emphasis on modeling, methodologies, data sources, and application to real-world dilemmas, Pharmacoeconomics: From Theory to Practice provides an introduc

While much progress has been made on achieving the Millenium Development Goals over the last decade, the number and complexity of global health challenges has persisted. Growing forces for globalization have increased the interconnectedness of the world and our interdependency on other countries, economies, and cultures. Monumental growth in international travel and trade have brought improved access to goods and services for many, but also carry ongoing and ever-present threats of zoonotic spillover and infectious disease outbreaks that threaten all. Global Health and the Future Role of the United States identifies global health priorities in light of current and emerging world threats. This report assesses the current global health landscape and how challenges, actions, and players have evolved over the last decade across a wide range of issues, and provides recommendations on how to increase responsiveness, coordination, and efficiency â€" both within the U.S. government and across the global health field.

This User’s Guide is intended to support the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and quality evaluation of registries created to increase understanding of patient outcomes. For the purposes of this guide, a patient registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform data (clinical and other) to evaluate specified outcomes for a population defined by a particular disease, condition, or exposure, and that serves one or more predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purposes. A registry database is a file (or files) derived from the registry. Although registries can serve many purposes, this guide focuses on registries created for one or more of the following purposes: to describe the natural history of disease, to determine clinical effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of health care products and services, to measure or monitor safety and harm, and/or to measure quality of care. Registries are classified according to how their populations are defined. For example, product registries include patients who have been exposed to biopharmaceutical products or medical devices. Health services registries consist of patients who have had a common procedure, clinical encounter, or hospitalization. Disease or condition registries are defined by patients having the same diagnosis, such as cystic fibrosis or heart failure. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews.

Developing Global Health Programming: A Guidebook for Medical and Professional Schools, 2nd edition is an essential text for any academic institution, administrator, faculty, or student interested in developing or expanding global health education and international programs. This text expands on the 1st edition and provides a comprehensive view of global health education that is useful for medical, nursing, dental, public health, and other professional schools. This book provides evidence, theory, and practical information to guide astute program development and gold standard practices. Topics covered include ethics, pre-departure training, competencies, partnership structures, and much more. In addition, need-to-know resources and networking opportunities are detailed. This authoritative text has over 90 contributors, including trainee authors guided by faculty editors through a mentorship model. Foreword by Andre Jacques Neusy, Co-Founder & CEO, Training for Health Equity Network (THEnet)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare is more than a comprehensive introduction to artificial intelligence as a tool in the generation and analysis of healthcare data. The book is split into two sections where the first section describes the current healthcare challenges and the rise of AI in this arena. The ten following chapters are written by specialists in each area, covering the whole healthcare ecosystem. First, the AI applications in drug design and drug development are presented followed by its applications in the field of cancer diagnostics, treatment and medical imaging. Subsequently, the application of AI in medical devices and surgery are covered as well as remote patient monitoring. Finally, the book dives into the topics of security, privacy, information sharing, health insurances and legal aspects of AI in healthcare. - Highlights different data techniques in healthcare data analysis, including machine learning and data mining - Illustrates different applications and challenges across the design, implementation and management of intelligent systems and healthcare data networks - Includes applications and case studies across all areas of AI in healthcare data

This new fifth edition of Information Resources in Toxicology offers a consolidated entry portal for the study, research, and practice of toxicology. Both volumes represents a unique, wide-ranging, curated, international, annotated bibliography, and directory of major resources in toxicology and allied fields such as environmental and occupational health, chemical safety, and risk assessment. The editors and authors are among the leaders of the profession sharing their cumulative wisdom in toxicology's subdisciplines. This edition keeps pace with the digital world in directing and linking readers to relevant websites and other online tools.Due to the increasing size of the hardcopy publication, the current edition has been divided into two volumes to make it easier to handle and consult. Volume 1: Background, Resources, and Tools, arranged in 5 parts, begins with chapters on the science of toxicology, its history, and informatics framework in Part 1. Part 2 continues with chapters organized by more specific subject such as cancer, clinical toxicology, genetic toxicology, etc. The categorization of chapters by resource format, for example, journals and newsletters, technical reports, organizations constitutes Part 3. Part 4 further considers toxicology's presence via the Internet, databases, and software tools. Among the miscellaneous topics in the concluding Part 5 are laws and regulations, professional education, grants and funding, and patents. Volume 2: The Global Arena offers contributed chapters focusing on the toxicology contributions of over 40 countries, followed by a glossary of toxicological terms and an appendix of popular quotations related to the field.The book, offered in both print and electronic formats, is carefully structured, indexed, and cross-referenced to enable users to easily find answers to their questions or serendipitously locate useful knowledge they were not originally aware they needed. Among the many timely topics receiving increased emphasis are disaster preparedness, nanotechnology, -omics, risk assessment, societal implications such as ethics and the precautionary principle, climate change, and children's environmental health. - Opens with an overview of the international toxicology scene, organizations and activities involved with both the science and regulatory framework, and a specific look at the European Union's efforts - Offers an extensive collection of chapters covering over 40 countries and their toxicological infrastructure which includes listings of major books and journals, organizations, professional societies, universities, poison control centers, legislation, and online databases - Provides the Second Edition of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry's Glossary of Terms Used in Toxicology, a carefully constructed and peer reviewed collation of critical terms in the science - Concludes with a potpourri of quotes concerning toxicology and their use in the arts and popular culture - Paired with Volume One, which offers chapters on a host of toxicology sub-disciplines, this set offers the most comprehensive compendium of print, digital, and organizational resources in the toxicological sciences with over120 chapters contributions by experts and leaders in the field