Future Of Intelligent And Extelligent Health Environment

The technology on our body, in our body and all around us enhances our health and well-being from conception to death. This environment is emerging now with intelligent caring machines, cyborgs, wireless embedded continuous computing, healthwear, sensors, healthons, nanomedicine, adaptive process control, mathematical modeling and common sense systems. The human body and the world in which it functions is a continuously changing complex adaptive system. We are able to collect more and more data about it but the real challenge is to infer local dynamics from that data. Intelligent Caring Biomechatronic Creatures and Healthmaticians (mathematicians serving human health) have a better chance of inferring the dynamics that needs to be understood than human physicians. Humans can only process comfortably three dimensions while computers can see infinite number of dimensions. We will need to trust the distributed network of healthons, Intelligent Caring Creatures, and NURSES (New Unified Resource System Engineers) to create Health Extelligence. We need new vocabulary to push forward in a new way. For instance; healthons are tools combining prevention with diagnosis and treatment, based on continuous monitoring and analyzing of our vital signs and biochemistry. The 'Healthon Era' is just beginning. We are closer and closer to the world with healthons on your body, in your body and all around you; where not a doctor but your primary care healthmatician warns you about an approaching headache; and where NURSE programs your intelligent caring creatures so they can talk to your cells and stop disease in its tracks.

Human body and the world in which it functions is a changing complex adaptive system. We are able to collect data about it, but the challenge is to infer local dynamics from that data. Intelligent Caring Biomechatronic Creatures and Healthmaticians have a better chance of inferring the dynamics that needs to be understood than human physicians.

Examines the horizon of ideas and technologies which must be addressed by decision makers involved in health-related resource allocation. This book addresses the technological revolution in healthcare which is manifesting itself in the convergence of molecular biology, computer and medical science, mechanical, genetic and biomedical engineering.

Health Behavior, Education, & Promotion

Intended for nurses and informatics experts working with informatics applications in nursing care, administration, research and education. This book's theme - 'Consumer-Centered Computer-Supported Care for Healthy People' - emphasizes the central role of the consumer and the function of information technology in health care.

Aims and Scope Patients are more empowered to shape their own health care today than ever before. Health information technologies are creating new opportunities for patients and families to participate actively in their care, manage their medical problems and improve communication with their healthcare providers. Moreover, health information technologies are enabling healthcare providers to partner with their patients in a bold effort to optimize quality of care, improve health outcomes and transform the healthcare system on the macro-level. In this book, leading figures discuss the existing needs, challenges and opportunities for improving patient engagement and empowerment through health information technology, mapping out what has been accomplished and what work remains to truly transform the care we deliver and engage patients in their care. Policymakers, healthcare providers and administrators, consultants and industry managers, researchers and students and, not least, patients and their family members should all find value in this book. "In the exciting period that lies just ahead, more will be needed than simply connecting patients to clinicians, and clinicians to each other. The health care systems that will be most effective in meeting patients' needs will be those that can actually design their 'human wares' around that purpose. This book provides deep insight into how information technology can and will support that redesign." Thomas H. Lee, MD, MSc, Chief Medical Officer, Press Ganey Associates; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Professor of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health The Editors: Drs. Maria Adela Grando, Ronen Rozenblum and David W. Bates are widely recognized professors, researchers and experts in the domain of health information technology, patient engagement and empowerment. Their research, lectures and contributions in these domains have been recognized nationally and internationally. Dr. Grando is affiliated with Arizona State University and the Mayo Clinic, and Drs. Rozenblum and Bates are affiliated with Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard University.

Machine intelligence will eclipse human intelligence within the next few decades - extrapolating from Moore’s Law - and our world will enjoy limitless computational power and ubiquitous data networks. Today’s iPod® devices portend an era when biology and information technology will fuse to create a human experience radically different from our own. Already, our healthcare system now appears on the verge of crisis; accelerating change is part of the problem. Each technological upgrade demands an investment of education and money, and a costly infrastructure more quickly becomes obsolete. Practitioners can be overloaded with complexity: therapeutic options, outcomes data, procedural coding, drug names etc. Furthermore, an aging global population with a growing sense of entitlement demands that each medical breakthrough be immediately available for its benefit: what appears in the morning paper is expected simultaneously in the doctor’s office. Meanwhile, a third-party payer system generates conflicting priorities for patient care and stockholder returns. The result is a healthcare system stressed by scientific promise, public expectation, economic and regulatory constraints and human limitations. Change is also proving beneficial, of course. Practitioners are empowered by better imaging methods, more precise robotic tools, greater realism in training simulators, and more powerful intelligence networks. The remarkable accomplishments of the IT industry and the Internet are trickling steadily into healthcare. The Medicine Meets Virtual Reality series can readily see the progress of the past fourteen years: more effective healthcare at a lower overall cost, driven by cheaper and better computers.

The theme of Medinfo2007 is “Building Sustainable Health Systems”. Particular foci are health challenges for the developing and developed world, the social and political context of healthcare, safe and effective healthcare, and the difficult task of building and maintaining complex health information systems. Sustainable health information systems are those that can meet today’s needs without compromising the needs of future generations. To build a global knowledge society, there needs to be an increased cooperation between science and technology and access to high-quality knowledge and information. The papers presented are refereed and from all over the world. They reflect the breadth and depth of the field of biomedical and health informatics, covering topics such as; health information systems, knowledge and data management, education, standards, consumer health and human factors, emerging technologies, sustainability, organizational and economic issues, genomics, and image and signal processing. As this volume carries such a wide collection, it will be of great interest to anyone engaged in biomedical and health informatics research and application.