Health & Social Care eBooks

Dr Stewart is is the founding Emergency Ultrasound Director and Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship Director for Riverside Medical Group.  As a practicing Emergency Physician in North Carolina, USA; Dr Stewart is also working as Assistant Professor for Eastern Virginia Medical School. Point-of-care ultrasound This educational resource is designed to provide clinicians with practical knowledge of point-of-care ultrasound that translates...

The Belgium-based Anticancer Fund (ACF) is a not-for-profit foundation established with the aim of expanding the range of options for treatment available to cancer patients. Combining support for scientific research with public engagement, the ACF has an international reach belying its small size. As well as advancing research on...

Multiple streams of change are impacting the provision of healthcare services in the United States and beyond. First is a renewed focus on the importance of addressing the social determinants of health on par with clinical care. Second is an increasing recognition of the negative consequences of failing to...

Mathematics pathology is a research branch of pathology in which mathematics and physical principals are applied to the study of diseases. In this field of cancer research, the objective of mathematical pathology is to explain the structural and functional mechanisms that control cancer. By understanding these mechanisms, we can provide...

Tying down the number of steps kids take is not a simple thing to do and poses more than just a few challenges. Yet, the measure of physical activity has the potential to be a very useful tool in countering the obesity epidemic. The ebook highlights how the University of...

Norway has more than 30,000 new cancer cases per year, and the number is rising. Advances in cancer care have led to more patients being cured or living longer with their disease. Still, the country has close to 11,000 cancer deaths per year. With the country’s first national cancer plan...

The Circumpolar North is one of the most rapidly-changing places on earth, warming at over twice the global average, and in some regions at excess of 3ºC. This has led to disruptions for the indigenous people living in the Circumpolar North, including Inuit in North Canada.

There is widespread recognition today that lifestyle behaviours play a significant role in health, accounting for upwards of 50% of many diseases. The Heart & Mind Research Unit in Behavioural and Complimentary Medicine at the Montreal Heart Institute seeks to understand what and how psychosocial and psychophysiological factors impact...

In the municipality of Esbjerg there are 2,000-3,000 people with a physical, social, mental or sensory impairment which impacts on their everyday life. Under the Danish Act on Social Services, the municipality must provide support and assistance to these individuals to enable them to lead fulfilling lives alongside their...

There are many problems with the design of existing ambulances that may impact negatively on patients’ care and frontline ambulance clinicians alike.  The Smart Ambulance European Procurers Platform (SAEPP) is comprised of ambulance services, healthcare research bodies, hospitals and other healthcare organisations who formed a consortium with the aim...

Mental health disorders are major causes of disability worldwide, ranking among the 10 major risk factors for disease. Professor Dr Chantal Martin-Soelch’s team in the Department of Psychology at the University of Fribourg specialise in the search for risk and vulnerability factors for mental illness, the development of preventive...

Disability is a crucial problem for society: it excludes individuals from full participation in society, education, and employment, and increases their dependency on social security and care. Persons with disabilities have lower participation rates in the labour force than those without. Work is important: good work keeps you healthy, good health keeps you working. Since older adults...

High content screening (HCS) is a remarkable technology that allows fully automated cellular imaging on a truly high-throughput scale. In the life and biomedical sciences it is now widely employed to solve questions in fundamental science, providing the research community with novel views on how cells function. In parallel, HCS...

In this second AG – Health Analysis we give thought to a number of key areas in healthcare throughout Europe. Topics that are given thought include: cancer research: chemistry for drug discovery; and diabetes. This ebook includes excellent and topical analysis from organisations such as NHS England, as they discuss...

Healthcare providers are challenged daily to rapidly diagnose and treat life threatening respiratory illness. Ultrasound is a non-invasive, rapid bedside tool that enables providers to quickly identify and treat undifferentiated shortness of breath. The BRIPPED project is a rapid, acute approach to using ultrasound in the evaluation of shortness...

The economic crisis forced healthcare budgets to be reduced throughout Europe, putting pressure on officials trying to tackle major health challenges. With an ever growing population, addressing these challenges has become a key priority. Health and social care is a key policy throughout Europe, and whether it be the...

Non-chemical cell communication (NCCC) refers to cellular communication that is not based on chemical signals (such as e.g. neuro-transmitters, hormones, or kairomones) but on physical signals like electric current, electrostatic fields, and acoustic or electromagnetic waves. Why is there so little known about NCCC in life sciences? Has it to...

The combination of a sight and hearing impairment (deafblindness) is a disability with little understanding.  In the UK alone, there are currently around 250,000 deafblind people, yet public awareness of what deafblindness is can be low. Deafblindness affects a person’s ability to communicate, to access all kinds of information, and to get around. Deafblindness...

Safe behaviour in a workplace is critical in order for an organisation to run effectible and efficiently. Research by the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) has shown that up to 80% of work related accidents are caused by employees’ behaviour.  Behavioural safety is a tool that aims...

Physicians have long been aware of the subtle differences between patients and their responses to medications. The recognition that a part of this variation is inherited, and therefore predictable, created the field of pharmacogenetics several years ago. Pharmacogenetics studies the influence of genetic variation on drug response. Genetic variation is...