The politics and science of health and disease remain contested terrain among scientists, health practitioners, policy makers, industry, communities, and the public. Stakeholders in disputes about ...illnesses or conditions disagree over their fundamental causes as well as how they should be treated and prevented. This thought-provoking book crosses disciplinary boundaries by engaging with both public health policy and social science, asserting that science, activism, and policy are not separate issues and showing how the contribution of environmental factors in disease is often overlooked.
Exposed science Shostak, Sara Naomi
2013., 20130215, 2013, 2013-02-15
eBook
We rely on environmental health scientists to document the presence of chemicals where we live, work, and play and to provide an empirical basis for public policy. In the last decades of the 20th ...century, environmental health scientists began to shift their focus deep within the human body, and to the molecular level, in order to investigate gene-environment interactions. In Exposed Science, Sara Shostak analyzes the rise of gene-environment interaction in the environmental health sciences and examines its consequences for how we understand and seek to protect population health. Drawing on in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation, Shostak demonstrates that what we know – and what we don’t know – about the vulnerabilities of our bodies to environmental hazards is profoundly shaped by environmental health scientists’ efforts to address the structural vulnerabilities of their field. She then takes up the political effects of this research, both from the perspective of those who seek to establish genomic technologies as a new basis for environmental regulation, and from the perspective of environmental justice activists, who are concerned that that their efforts to redress the social, political, and economical inequalities that put people at risk of environmental exposure will be undermined by molecular explanations of environmental health and illness. Exposed Science thus offers critically important new ways of understanding and engaging with the emergence of gene-environment interaction as a focal concern of environmental health science, policy-making, and activism.
When people come first Biehl, Joao; Petryna, Adriana
2013., 20130707, 2013, 2013-07-07
eBook
When People Come Firstcritically assesses the expanding field of global health. It brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars to address the medical, social, political, ...and economic dimensions of the global health enterprise through vivid case studies and bold conceptual work. The book demonstrates the crucial role of ethnography as an empirical lantern in global health, arguing for a more comprehensive, people-centered approach.
Topics include the limits of technological quick fixes in disease control, the moral economy of global health science, the unexpected effects of massive treatment rollouts in resource-poor contexts, and how right-to-health activism coalesces with the increased influence of the pharmaceutical industry on health care. The contributors explore the altered landscapes left behind after programs scale up, break down, or move on. We learn that disease is really never just one thing, technology delivery does not equate with care, and biology and technology interact in ways we cannot always predict. The most effective solutions may well be found in people themselves, who consistently exceed the projections of experts and the medical-scientific, political, and humanitarian frameworks in which they are cast.
When People Come Firstsets a new research agenda in global health and social theory and challenges us to rethink the relationships between care, rights, health, and economic futures.
Inside national health reform McDonough, John E
2011., 20110813, 2011, 2011-09-12, 20110101, 20110901, Volume:
22
eBook
This indispensable guide to the Affordable Care Act, our new national health care law, lends an insider's deep understanding of policy to a lively and absorbing account of the extraordinary—and ...extraordinarily ambitious—legislative effort to reform the nation's health care system. Dr. John E. McDonough, DPH, a health policy expert who served as an advisor to the late Senator Edward Kennedy, provides a vivid picture of the intense effort required to bring this legislation into law. McDonough clearly explains the ACA's inner workings, revealing the rich landscape of the issues, policies, and controversies embedded in the law yet unknown to most Americans. In his account of these historic events, McDonough takes us through the process from the 2008 presidential campaign to the moment in 2010 when President Obama signed the bill into law. At a time when the nation is taking a second look at the ACA, Inside National Health Reform provides the essential information for Americans to make informed judgments about this landmark law.
After having successfully expanded health insurance coverage, China now faces the challenge of building an effective and efficient delivery system to serve its large and aging population. RAND ...researchers recommend that rather than emulate the models of Western countries, which have well-known limitations, China should create an innovative model based on population health management principles and sophisticated health information technology.
Guidelines for conducting health economic evaluations have become increasingly standardized, however they don't address the unique concerns of the paediatric population. The challenges of measuring ...costs and consequences in children, from neonate to late adolescence, are numerous and complex. With the growing acceptance of economic evidence to guide decisions in health systems facing economic constraints, it is imperative that these challenges be considered so that this population is not left out of evidence-based decisions. The time has come for a textbook to address economic evaluation in child health. This book is divided into three sections: Methods, Applications, and Using evidence for decision-making, with chapters contributed by international experts. The Methods section presents detailed discussions of measuring lifetime costs and consequences, capturing productivity losses, obtaining unbiased self- and proxy reports, incorporating externalities, choosing valid outcome measures, assessing utility, and designing studies using value of information. The Applications section reviews economic evidence in common childhood conditions and areas of investigation, including newborn screening, harm prevention, mental health services, brain injury, asthma, and immunization. The final section explores the use of economic evidence in decision-making, and includes a description of the WHO-CHOICE approach, the role of clinical research, how to value health gains by children, and the emerging field of health technology assessment. In addition to an emphasis on methods, a deliberate effort was made to include issues relevant to developing countries, where the burden of childhood disease is greatest, and for whom high quality economic evidence is critical. Available in OSO: http://www.oxschol.com/oso/public/content/publichealthepidemiology/9780199547494/toc.html Contributors to this volume - Moses Aikins, Senior Lecturer, School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy, Planning and Management, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana Philippe Beutels, Senior Lecturer, Health Economics, Centre for Health Economics Research and Modeling Infectious Diseases (CHERMID), Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination (CEV), Vaccine & Infectious Disease Institute (VAXINFECTIO), University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium Katherine B. Bevans, Assistant Research Professor, Division of General Pediatrics, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, USA Robert E. Black, Edgar Berman Professor and Chair, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA Werner B.F. Brouwer, Department of Health Policy & Management and Institute for Medical Technology Assessment, Erasmus University Medical Centre / Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Sarah Byford, Senior Lecturer, King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London, UK Jonathan D. Campbell, Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow, Pharmaceutical Outcomes, Research and Policy Program, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington, Seattle, USA Vania Costa, Research Associate, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada Gillian Currie, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Departments of Paediatrics and Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada Sarah Curtis, Assistant Professor, Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Kim Dalziel, Senior Research Fellow, Health Economics and Policy Group, Division of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia David B. Evans, Director, Department of Health Systems Financing, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland Christopher B. Forrest, Mary D. Ames Professor of Pediatrics and Advocacy, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, USA Tessa Tan-Torres Edejer, Coordinator, Costs, Effectiveness, Expediture and Priority Setting (CEP), Health System Financing, Health Systems and Services, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland E. Michael Foster, Professor, Maternal and Child Health and Health Policy and Administration, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA Andreas Gerber, Institute for Health Economics and Clinical Epidemiology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany Y. Ingrid Goh, Department of Pharmaceutical Science, University of Toronto, Division of Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada Scott D. Grosse, Senior Health Economist, Office of the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Atlanta, USA Raymond Hutubessy, Economist, Initiative for Vaccine Research (IVR), World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, Switzerland Terry Klassen, Professor and Chair, Regional Program Clinical Director Child Health, Capital Health, Department of Pediatrics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada Gideon Koren, Senior Scientist and Director, The Motherisk Program, Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics and Physiology/Pharmacology, The University of Toronto, Ivey Chair in Molecular Toxicology, The University of Western Ontario, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada Stavros Petrou, Health Economist, National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford (Old Road Campus), Oxford, England Ali I. Raja, Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, USA Leonie Segal, Professor, Health Economics, Health Economics and Policy Group, Division of Health Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia Donald S. Shepard, Professor, Schneider Institutes for Health Policy, Heller School, Brandeis University, Waltham, USA Jose A. Suaya, Schneider Institutes for Health Policy, Heller School, Brandeis University, Waltham, USA Sean D. Sullivan, Professor of Pharmacy, Public Health and Medicine; Director, Pharmacetical Outcomes Research and Policy Program, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington, Seattle, USA Lillian Sung, Scientist and Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatrics, University of Toronto, Department of Paediatric Haematology/Oncology, Division of Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada J. Mick Tilford, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Health Policy Management, College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Center for Applied Research and Evaluation, Little Rock, USA Wendy J. Ungar, Senior Scientist, Associate Professor, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, University of Toronto, Division of Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada N. Job A. van Exel, MSc, Health Economist, Department of Health Policy & Management and Institute for Medical Technology Assessment, Erasmus University Medical Centre / Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands Damian G. Walker, Professor, Health Economics, Health Systems Program, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA Andrew R. Willan, Senior Scientist and Professor, Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada Lara J. Wolfson, Scientist, Initiative for Vaccine Research, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
Does health promotion have a lasting and positive effect on people?
With mounting pressure to reduce costs to the NHS and increasing scepticism of the so-called nanny state, health promotion ...initiatives are increasingly being criticised as costly and ineffective, with many arguing that health inequalities can only be reduced through radical political and economic change.
This book examines the methods used to evaluate the value of health promotion projects and determines whether attempts to change people's lifestyles have proved successful. Taking into account the practical and ethical issues involved in deciding the appropriate approach to take in efforts to reduce health inequalities, the book assesses what might be the best path forward for health promotion.
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