David Peters - Böcker

The placebo elicits more passionate debate, scepticism and personal belief than almostany other aspect of medicine. As yet there are no concrete answers - but many challenging observations and powerful effects occur daily in healthcare which need to be examined. This book will stimulate and inform every reader from the experienced practitioner to the new student who has ever asked, What is the placebo really, and why should it matter to me?Written in an accessible and engaging style with contributions from leading figures in healthcare, it tackles issues of the placebo effect in complementary medicine.

This book is a practical and readable guide to the integration of complementary therapies into mainstream primary care. Based on the successful experiences of the authors' clinical setting, it offers clinicians, therapists, and other healthcare professionals a realistic routemap of the key issues, as well as practical ways in which to ensure close working, appropriate referrals, advice and treatment decisions. Patient information sheets and clinical guidance sheets for key conditions are included in full.The text covers:Practical steps to how complementary therapies may be integrated into mainstream caremodels and issues of research in complementary therapieshow to design an integrated service, with clear examplesfunding, resource and legal issuesissues related to economic evaluationadaptation of the service through a reflective approachclinical treatment option sheetspatient self-help and diet information sheetsOf interest and practical help to a wide range of healthcare professionals, this book will be especially valuable to those currently working in primary care, family practice, and any complementary therapy field.

There has been a dramatic spread of health markets in much of Asia and Africa over the past couple of decades. This has substantially increased the availability of health-related goods and services in all but the most remote localities, but it has created problems with safety, efficiency and cost. The effort to bring order to these chaotic markets is almost certain to become one of the greatest challenges in global health. This book documents the problems associated with unregulated health markets and presents innovative approaches that have emerged to address them. It outlines a framework that researchers, policy makers and social entrepreneurs can use to analyse health market systems and assess the likely outcome of alternative interventions. The book presents a new way of understanding highly marketised health systems, applies this understanding to an analysis of health markets in countries across Asia and Africa and identifies some of the major new developments for making these markets perform better in meeting the needs of the poor. It argues that it is time to move beyond ideological debates about the roles of public and private sectors in an ideal health system and focus more on understanding the operation of these markets and developing practical strategies for improving their performance. This book is ideal reading for researchers and students in public health, development studies, public policy and administration, health economics, medical anthropology, and science and technology studies. It is also a valuable resource for policy makers, social entrepreneurs, and planners and managers in public and private sector health systems, including pharmaceutical companies, aid agencies, NGOs and international organisations.

There has been a dramatic spread of health markets in much of Asia and Africa over the past couple of decades. This has substantially increased the availability of health-related goods and services in all but the most remote localities, but it has created problems with safety, efficiency and cost. The effort to bring order to these chaotic markets is almost certain to become one of the greatest challenges in global health. This book documents the problems associated with unregulated health markets and presents innovative approaches that have emerged to address them. It outlines a framework that researchers, policy makers and social entrepreneurs can use to analyse health market systems and assess the likely outcome of alternative interventions. The book presents a new way of understanding highly marketised health systems, applies this understanding to an analysis of health markets in countries across Asia and Africa and identifies some of the major new developments for making these markets perform better in meeting the needs of the poor. It argues that it is time to move beyond ideological debates about the roles of public and private sectors in an ideal health system and focus more on understanding the operation of these markets and developing practical strategies for improving their performance. This book is ideal reading for researchers and students in public health, development studies, public policy and administration, health economics, medical anthropology, and science and technology studies. It is also a valuable resource for policy makers, social entrepreneurs, and planners and managers in public and private sector health systems, including pharmaceutical companies, aid agencies, NGOs and international organisations.