Medical Century

Second in a series of publications from the Institute of Medicine's Quality of Health Care in America project Today's health care providers have more research findings and more technology available to them than ever before. Yet recent reports have raised serious doubts about the quality of health care in America. Crossing the Quality Chasm makes an urgent call for fundamental change to close the quality gap. This book recommends a sweeping redesign of the American health care system and provides overarching principles for specific direction for policymakers, health care leaders, clinicians, regulators, purchasers, and others. In this comprehensive volume the committee offers: A set of performance expectations for the 21st century health care system. A set of 10 new rules to guide patient-clinician relationships. A suggested organizing framework to better align the incentives inherent in payment and accountability with improvements in quality. Key steps to promote evidence-based practice and strengthen clinical information systems. Analyzing health care organizations as complex systems, Crossing the Quality Chasm also documents the causes of the quality gap, identifies current practices that impede quality care, and explores how systems approaches can be used to implement change.

Modern medicine in England as we know it today is chiefly the product of the scientific developments of the nineteenth century. These advances included improved sanitation, the acceptance of the germ theory of disease as a result of the emergence of microbiology, and the advent of painless and routine surgical procedures. How then did medicine evolve in Lancaster during the nineteenth century? The focus here is the history of medicine in Lancaster and a community of practice amongst a few medical professionals who shaped Lancaster’s medical landscape. The reader will be introduced to these remarkable medical men and their names will gradually become familiar. Many of these individuals were second and even third generation surgeons and physicians. Background to these pioneers, as well as their successes and failures, is sketched within the context of Lancaster’s socio-economic environment and growth as an industrial town. This volume also marks the main medical events in Lancaster, including the establishment of a Dispensary, which evolved into the Royal Lancaster Infirmary, the Public Health movement and the rise of the Asylums.

An eyewitness account of the founding of the Texas Medical Center.

This book examines the relationship of medicine to those intellectual and social changes which historians call the Renaissance. The contributors describe how the whole range of medicine, from practical therapeutics to surgery, anatomy and pharmacy, was developing. Some important questions about the nature of medicine as it was taught and practised are raised. These include the continuing vigour of Arabic and scholastic medicine, how this was reconciled with the renaissance love of all things Greek and the nature of medicine in different parts of Europe. The chapters are written by acknowledged experts in their subjects and are based on contributions read at a meeting called for the purpose in Cambridge and supported by the Wellcome Trust.

Patients Beyond Borders is pleased to announce the release of FOCUS ON: Kameda Medical Center (KMC), profiling one of Japans leading private healthcare facilities. FOCUS ON: KMC addresses Kamedas implementation of global trends, its Say Yes concierge services, and its top specialties: oncology, Breast Center, sports medicine, cardiology, interventional neuroradiology, spine surgery, and second-opinion services.Japans first and only JCI-accredited hospital, Kameda boasts a 350-year history through eleven generations of the Kameda family. The 925-bed medical center is one of the largest private hospitals in Japan and is nationally accredited as well as ISO certified. While principally serving citizens of Japan and the immediate region, KMC also serves the medical traveler, welcoming more than 200 international patients in 2009. More than 10% of its 450 fulltime physicians have had postgraduate training abroad, mostly in the United States."We look forward to participating in this dynamic new program," says John Wocher, executive vice president and director of International Patient Services at KMC. "This effort will allow us to proactively promote our facility to the international traveler with up-to-date, interactive information on our medical specialties, pricing, and the quality and safety of our medical services."About Kameda Medical Center: KMC is a 925-bed private healthcare facility located approximately 80 kilometers southeast of Tokyo, on the Boso Peninsula. Family owned, this fully modern medical center has an ocean-view restaurant, delicatessen, 24/7 convenience store, coffee shop, and more. Kamedas electronic medical information system has been totally paperless and filmless since 1994. KMCs Centers of Excellence offer a wide range of services, solutions, and technologies in a healing environment with hotel-like surroundings; 370 of the inpatient rooms are private and boast Pacific Ocean views (suites are also available).