Critical Pathways In Cardiology

Full-text medical e-book.

A collection of the most current and innovative presentations in path-based collaborative practices, this second of two volumes focuses on the design, implementation and analysis of outcomes in cardiovascular care. As in Health Care Outcomes, the authors present two to three standard clinical pathways for each DRG, and then show how those pathways can be manipulated to alter outcomes. Cardiovascular Outcomes covers a full range of medical and surgical cardiovascular outcomes. A comprehensive collection of critical pathways and outcomes maps being used by leading hospitals and health care agencies around the country, this is an important reference for developing path-based care models or revising critical paths and outcomes maps.

Inside this book, you'll find the essentials for administering heart disease management programs, with detailed information on developing and implementing clinical pathways and guidelines, measuring and managing outcomes, and reinforcing patient satisfaction. Including treatment strategies for unstable angina, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure and more, Coronary Artery Disease and Related Conditions Management: Clinical Pathways, Guidelines, and Patient Education is an ideal resource for health care providers working to provide more cost-effective and outcome-oriented care. In addition, you'll find a host of large-print patient education handouts, including Spanish-language patient information sheets, designed for clinicians across the care continuum to distribute freely to patients.

In the four pages committed to a discussion of myocardial infarction in the first edition of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, published in 1950, there was no mention of use of the laboratory for management of patients. Thirty years later, when the first edition of Braunwald’s Heart Disease, A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine was published, 2 out of the 1943 pages in the text contained a discussion of the laboratory examinations in acute myocardial infarction. Our knowledge base of the multitude of ways that physicians can and should use the clinical chemistry laboratory has expanded dramatically since these classic texts were published. The nomenclature has changed: terms such as “cardiac enzymes” have given way to “cardiac biomarkers. ” The number of assays has multiplied, and the operating characteristics of available assays are impr- ing at a gratifying but dizzying rate. We now use biomarkers to diagnose cardiovascular diseases and also to frame our treatment strategies. Thus, there is a clear need for a scholarly compilation of the state of the art of cardiac biomarkers. Dr. David Morrow has expertly edited an authoritative book that answers this need. The 34 chapters in Cardiovascular Biomarkers: Pathophysiology and Disease Mana- ment were written by a group of individuals who are internationally recognized thought leaders and experts in clinical and laboratory medicine.

This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) uses a screening tool called the Listing of Impairments to identify claimants who are so severely impaired that they cannot work at all and thus immediately qualify for benefits. In this report, the IOM makes several recommendations for improving SSA's capacity to determine disability benefits more quickly and efficiently using the Listings.