This book presents a systematic review on traditional Arab herbal medicine including historical background, medical innovations introduced by Arab physicians, common roots of Arab medicine and ...western medicine, methodology of drug discovery and therapy in Arabic and Islamic medicine, a state-of-the-art description of traditional Arab herbal medicine, and evidence-based safety and efficacy of Arab and Islamic medicines. The usage of modern cell biological, biochemical, in vitro and in vivo techniques for the evaluation of medicinal plant safety and efficacy is also discussed. The toxicity of herbal formulations safety, quality assurances, and chemical analytical techniques are introduced in this book.
Health Promotion is a relatively new discipline and there is little in the way of practical help for students and practitioners in choosing and implementing appropriate evaluation methods. As the ...demands for rigorous evaluation and evidence-based decision-making increase, health promotion cannot ignore the need for accurate, reliable and valid methods to carry out evaluation. This book provides clear descriptions (with plentiful practical examples) of such methods, and the problems that can arise from their implementation. Both qualitative and quantitative methods that are commonly used are described and the problems and benefits that arise with their use are explained. Experiences in the practical implementation of evaluation are explained, with examples from a variety of different social, economic and cultural contexts. The third edition of this highly successful book has been fully revised and updated to reflect the ongoing developments in the field of health promotion. It will appeal to students and practitioners in health promotion and public health (including programme managers in both the government and the voluntary sector), and donors and funding agencies who commission health promotion interventions and evaluations. Available in OSO: http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/oso/public/content/publichealthepidemiolog9780199569298/toc.html Contributors to this volume - Virginia Berridge, Professor of History, Centre for History in Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK Annie Britton, Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology, Division of Population Health, University College London, UK Steven Chapman, Chief Technical Officer, Population Services International, Washington DC, USA Yolande Coombes, Consultant, Water and Sanitation Program, World Bank, Nairobi, Kenya Jane Cowl, Programme Manager, Patient & Public Involvement Programme, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, London, UK David Ellard, Senior Research Fellow, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, UK Melvyn Hillsdon, Associate Professor of Exercise and Health Behaviour, School of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Exeter, UK Rachel Jewkes, Director, Gender and Health Research Unit, Medical Research Council, Pretoria, South Africa Dalya Marks, Lecturer, Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK Suzanne Parsons, Senior Research Associate, Picker Institute Europe, Oxford, UK John Powell, Associate Clinical Professor in Epidemiology & Public Health, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, UK Warren Stevens, Health Policy Advisor, Population Services International, Washington DC, USA Carol Tannahill, Director, Glasgow Centre for Population Health, Scotland, UK Margaret Thorogood, Professor of Epidemiology, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, UK
This volume outlines a new approach for understanding China's treaty performance around international standards on trade and human rights, using the paradigms of selective adaptation and ...institutional capacity. Selective adaptation reveals how local interpretation and implementation of international treaty standards are affected by normative perspectives derived from perception, complementarity, and legitimacy. Institutional capacity explains how operational dimensions of legal performance are affected by structural and relational dynamics of institutional purpose, location, orientation, and cohesion. The author also offers policy suggestions for more effective engagement with China on trade and human rights issues.
Evaluating suicide prevention programs can be challenging because suicide is a rare event and prevention programs are often complex and multifaceted. The RAND Suicide Prevention Program Evaluation ...Toolkit uses checklists, worksheets, and templates to help program staff design an evaluation that is appropriate for their program type, available resources, and expertise and offers guidance on analyzing the resulting data to inform improvements.
Survivors of improvised explosive device attacks often have traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). Those recovering from TBIs often find they must coordinate services across multiple systems of care, ...something that would be difficult even without cognitive challenges. This report documents RAND’s assessment of a program designed to facilitate care coordination for such individuals.
Health Promotion Evaluation Practices in the Americas: Values and Research Practices from the Americas Edited by Louise Potvin, David V. McQueen, and Mary Hall More and more, health promotion is a ...crucial component of public health, to the extent that public health interventions are called on to prove their effectiveness and appraised for scientific validity, a practice many in the field consider self-defeating. Health Promotion Evaluation Practices in the Americas cogently demonstrates that scientific rigor and the goals of health promotion are less in conflict than commonly thought, synthesizing multiple traditions from countries throughout North, Central, and South America (and across the developed-to-developing-world continuum) for a volume that is both diverse in scope and unified in purpose. The book’s examples—representing robust theoretical and practical literatures as well as initiatives from Rio de Janeiro to American Indian communities—explain why health promotion evaluation projects require different guidelines from mainstream evaluative work. The editors identify core humanitarian principles associated with health promotion (participation, empowerment, equity, sustainability, intersectoral action, multistrategy, and contextualism), while chapters highlight challenges that must be mastered to keep these principles and scientific objectives in sync, including:Building health promotion values into evaluation research projects.Expanding the use of evaluation in health promotion.Developing meaningful evaluation questions.Distinguishing between community-based participation research and evaluation-based participation.Evaluating specifically for equity.Designing initiatives to foster lasting social change.
In this book, the authors provide readers with a straightforward approach to doing assessment in a way that is meaningful, manageable, and sustainable over time. Including a straightforward overview ...of assessment concepts and principles and practical, easy-to-follow instructions for multiple assessment tools and key steps in the assessment process, this book is a handy, all-in-one how-to guide. In addition, the text guides readers toward the development of a culture of assessment. Writing in a conversational tone that has helped the authors to successfully teach assessment principles and practices to faculty and administrators from a variety of academic disciplines and institutions, the book reads as if a friendly, supportive assessment professional is by your side.The book begins with an overview of the assessment process and key assessment concepts and principles. Subsequent modules provide detailed instructions and specific tips for carrying out each step of the process, including three modules focused on creating and implementing specific assessment measurement tools. The authors recommend readers begin by reading Module 1, which provides a framework that will enhance understanding of each of the steps of the process that are spelled out in detail in subsequent modules. However, after that, each of the modules is designed to stand alone. Readers need not read the modules in order nor do they need to read all of them in order to benefit from the authors guidance. In addition, the authors have created a video to accompany Module 10 in which they take readers step-by-step through the use of Excel spreadsheets to organize and present assessment data.
Impact evaluation has grown more popular as a method for identifying the causal links between interventions and outcomes. These kind of evaluations assess changes that can be attributed to a ...particular intervention. Both innovations in statistical methods and the demand for evaluations that can measure such development results are increasing. The World Bank Group is the largest producer of impact evaluations among all development institutions. Thus, IEG has evaluated the relevance, quality, and influence of World Bank and IFC impact evaluations. IEG finds that the World Bank Group portfolio of impact evaluations is largely aligned with sector strategies and project objectives. Selection and coordination of impact evaluations has been improving. Most World Bank impact evaluations meet either medium or high quality standards, and about half of IFC impact evaluations did. Issues related to funding, staff capacity, and incentives, however, constrain the scope and coverage of impact evaluations in the Bank Group. IEG makes five recommendations to strengthen the Bank Groups impact evaluation efforts, revolving around consistency, coordination, quality standards, and ensuring operational relevance. Both development and evaluation professionals will find valuable lessons in this evaluation. There are real benefits from impact evaluations, including their influence on development practices through contributions to project assessment and design of future projects. Thus, development practitioners engaged in designing projects, evaluators interestedin using similar methodology, and the general evaluation community will be able to use the lessons IEG sets out in this report.
