Dated December 2001.

"This volume is a textbook on linear control systems with an emphasis on stochastic optimal control with solution methods using spectral factorization in line with the original approach of N. Wiener. Continuous-time and discrete-time versions are presented in parallel.... Two appendices introduce functional analytic concepts and probability theory, and there are 77 references and an index. The chapters (except for the last two) end with problems.... [T]he book presents in a clear way important concepts of control theory and can be used for teaching." —Zentralblatt Math "This is a textbook intended for use in courses on linear control and filtering and estimation on (advanced) levels. Its major purpose is an introduction to both deterministic and stochastic control and estimation. Topics are treated in both continuous time and discrete time versions.... Each chapter involves problems and exercises, and the book is supplemented by appendices, where fundamentals on Hilbert and Banach spaces, operator theory, and measure theoretic probability may be found. The book will be very useful for students, but also for a variety of specialists interested in deterministic and stochastic control and filtering." —Applications of Mathematics "The strength of the book under review lies in the choice of specialized topics it contains, which may not be found in this form elsewhere. Also, the first half would make a good standard course in linear control." —Journal of the Indian Institute of Science

A comprehensive and granular insight into the challenges of promoting rational medicine, this book serves as an essential resource for health policy makers and researchers interested in national medicines policies. Country-specific chapters have a common format, beginning with an overview of the health system and regulatory and policy environments, before discussing the difficulties in maintaining a medicines supply system, challenges in ensuring access to affordable medicines and issues impacting on rational medicine use. Numerous case studies are also used to highlight key issues and each chapter concludes with country-specific solutions to the issues raised. Written by highly regarded academics, the book includes countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and South America.

A timely work describing how localized hospital-based health technology assessment (HB-HTA) complements general, ‘arms-length’ HTA agency efforts, and what has been the collective global impact of HB-HTA across the globe. While HB-HTA has gained significant momentum over the past few years, expertise in the field, and information on the operation and organization of HB-HTA, has been scattered. This book serves to bring this information together to inform those who are currently working in the field of HTA at the hospital, regional, national or global level. In addition, this book is intended for decision-makers and policy-makers with a stake in determining the uptake and decommissioning of new and established technologies in the hospital setting. HTA has traditionally been performed at the National/Regional level by HTA Agencies, typically linked to governments. Yet hospitals are the main entry door for most health technologies (HTs). Hospital decision-makers must undertake multiple high stakes investment and disinvestment decisions annually for innovative HTs, usually without adequate information. Despite the existence of arms-length HTA Agencies, inadequate information is available to hospital decision-makers either because relevant HTA reports are not yet released at the time of entry of new technologies to the field, or because even when the report exists, the information contained is insufficient to clarify the contextualized informational needs of hospital decision makers. Therefore, there has recently been a rising trend toward hospital-based HTA units and programs. These units/programs complement the work of National/Regional HTA Agencies by providing the key and relevant evidence needed by hospital decision makers in their specific hospital context, and within required decision-making timelines. The emergence of HB-HTA is creating a comprehensive HTA ecosystem across health care levels, which creates better bridges for knowledge translation through relevance and timeliness.

Both developing and developed countries face an increasing mismatch between what patients expect to receive from healthcare and what the public healthcare systems can afford to provide. Where there has been a growing recognition of the entitlement to receive healthcare, the frustrated expectations with regards to the level of provision has led to lawsuits challenging the denial of funding for health treatments by public health systems. This book analyses the impact of courts and litigation on the way health systems set priorities and make rationing decisions. In particular, it focuses on how the judicial protection of the right to healthcare can impact the institutionalization, functioning and centrality of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) for decisions about the funding of treatment. Based on the case study of three jurisdictions – Brazil, Colombia, and England – it shows that courts can be a key driver for the institutionalization of HTA. These case studies show the paradoxes of judicial control, which can promote accountability and impair it, demand administrative competence and undermine bureaucratic capacities. The case studies offer a nuanced and evidence-informed understanding of these paradoxes in the context of health care by showing how the judicial control of priority-setting decisions in health care can be used to require and control an explicit scheme for health technology assessment, but can also limit and circumvent it. It will be essential for those researching Medical Law and Healthcare Policy, Human Rights Law, and Social Rights.