Systems Thinking In Medicine And New Drug Discovery

Total Quality Management (TQM) and systems thinking are being used to improve all aspects of human health. This first book in a two-volume set details how the healthcare community is working with patients and their caregivers to improve healthcare and reduce its costs. Systems-based thinking encourages us to work together to look at the effects of new drugs on entire systems and not just single molecular targets. It also leads us to a better understanding of genetics and epigenetics, as well as the deep ecology of the human body. The healthcare community is developing targeted therapies that stimulate our own bodies to cure ourselves and eliminate the need for animal testing. This book will appeal to specialists, who will find recommendations on safer materials for 3D bioprinting and ways to analyze dietary supplements for toxic contaminants, and physicians, pharmacists and non-professionals, who will learn the important different ways that dietary supplements and prescription drugs are developed, sold and marketed.

This second book in a two-volume set tells how the healthcare community is working with patients and their caregivers to help improve health using P4 medicine, proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle. The healthcare community is finding ways to predict one’s susceptibility to diseases, so they can be prevented from occurring, when possible. When diseases do emerge, it is developing personalized therapies and ways for patients to participate in their own healthcare. At the same time, systems thinking dispels many misconceptions, such as ‘natural’ foods and ‘superfoods’. In fact, the only true superfood is mother’s breast milk. Also, dietary antioxidants prevent inflammation by activating our natural antioxidant system (Nrf2). However, environmental toxins can counteract our best efforts. Still, systems thinking encourages us to fix the problem and not the blame. This book will appeal to professionals, non-professionals and patients, who can learn how to improve healthcare and prevent diseases, while reversing the effects of global climate change.

This volume – for pharmacologists, systems biologists, philosophers and historians of medicine – points to investigate new avenues in pharmacology research, by providing a full assessment of the premises underlying a radical shift in the pharmacology paradigm. The pharmaceutical industry is currently facing unparalleled challenges in developing innovative drugs. While drug-developing scientists in the 1990s mostly welcomed the transformation into a target-based approach, two decades of experience shows that this model is failing to boost both drug discovery and efficiency. Selected targets were often not druggable and with poor disease linkage, leading to either high toxicity or poor efficacy. Therefore, a profound rethinking of the current paradigm is needed. Advances in systems biology are revealing a phenotypic robustness and a network structure that strongly suggest that exquisitely selective compounds, compared with multitarget drugs, may exhibit lower than desired clinical efficacy. This appreciation of the role of polypharmacology has significant implications for tackling the two major sources of attrition in drug development, efficacy and toxicity. Integrating network biology and polypharmacology holds the promise of expanding the current opportunity space for druggable targets.

Managing the Drug Discovery Process: How to Make It More Efficient and Cost-Effective thoroughly examines the current state of pharmaceutical research and development by providing chemistry-based perspectives on biomedical research, drug hunting and innovation. The book also considers the interplay of stakeholders, consumers, and the drug firm with attendant factors, including those that are technical, legal, economic, demographic, political, social, ecological, and infrastructural. Since drug research can be a high-risk, high-payoff industry, it is important to researchers to effectively and strategically manage the drug discovery process. This book takes a closer look at increasing pre-approval costs for new drugs and examines not only why these increases occur, but also how they can be overcome to ensure a robust pharmacoeconomic future. Written in an engaging manner and including memorable insights, this book is aimed at redirecting the drug discovery process to make it more efficient and cost-effective in order to achieve the goal of saving countless more lives through science. A valuable and compelling resource, this is a must-read for all students and researchers in academia and the pharmaceutical industry. Considers drug discovery in multiple R&D venues, including big pharma, large biotech, start-up ventures, academia, and nonprofit research institutes Analyzes the organization of pharmaceutical R&D, taking into account human resources considerations like recruitment and configuration, management of discovery and development processes, and the coordination of internal research within, and beyond, the organization, including outsourced work Presents a consistent, well-connected, and logical dialogue that readers will find both comprehensive and approachable

Patient safety in health systems has become more and more important as a theme in health research, and so it is not surprising to see a growing interest in applying systems thinking to healthcare. However there is a difficulty – health systems are very complex and constantly adapting to respond to core drivers and fit needs. How do you apply systems thinking in this situation, and what methods are available? National health authorities, international donors and research practitioners need to know the “how-to” of conducting health systems research from a systems thinking perspective. This book will fill this gap and provide a range of tools that give clear guidance of ways to carry out systems thinking in health. These methodologies include: System dynamics and causal loops Network analysis Outcome mapping Soft systems methodology Written by an international team of experts in health research, this handbook will be essential reading for those working in or researching public health, health policy, health systems, global health, service improvement and innovation in practice.

Overcoming Obstacles in Drug Discovery and Development uses real-world case studies to illustrate how critical thinking and problem solving skills are applied in the discovery and development of drugs. It also shows how developing critical thinking to overcome issues plays an essential role in the process. Modern drug discovery and development is a highly complex undertaking that requires scientific and professional expertise to be successful. After the identification of a molecular entity for treating a medical condition, challenges inevitably arise during the subsequent development to understand and characterize the biological profile; feedback from scientists is used to fine-tune the molecular entity to obtain an effective and safe product. In this process, the discovery team may identify unexpected safety issues and new medical disorders for treatment by the molecular entity. Invariably inherent in this complex undertaking are miscues, mistakes, and unexpected problems that can derail development and throw timetables into disarray, potentially leading to failure in the development of a medically useful drug. Addressing critical unexpected problems during development often requires scientists to utilize critical thinking and imaginative problem-solving skills. Overcoming Obstacles in Drug Discovery and Development will be essential to young scientists to help learn the skills to successfully face challenges, learn from mistakes, and further develop critical thinking skills. It will also be beneficial to experienced researchers who can learn from the case studies of successful and unsuccessful drug development. Provides real-world case studies in drug discovery and the development of drugs Illustrates the use of critical thinking and problem solving in approaching preclinical and clinical problems in drug discovery and development Illustrates and analyses examples of successes and failures in drug discovery and development that have not previously been reported

Medicinal Chemistry - Fusion of Traditional and Western Medicine is a textbook intended for students taking courses in the various fields of medicinal chemistry, pharmacy, medical and dental programs. Moreover, people working in the pharmaceutical industry and doctors preparing for Medical Board Exams will also find it useful. Since, new drugs are being developed by multi-disciplinary teams; this E-Book describes new paradigms that are emerging in modern biology, biochemistry and medicine. It is therefore a fusion of traditional and western medicine and between systems thinking and reductionist thinking. The 3rd edition attempts to explain the predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory (P4) paradigm of medicinal chemistry. This edition features new chapters focusing on personalized medicinal chemistry and the endocrine system (with a discussion of bioidentical hormone therapy). Other chapters cover the disease mechanism and associated pharmacology of drugs for several diseases including cancer, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, neurodegenerative diseases, the immune system and much more. The new edition also includes an overview of emergent medical problems and possible solutions (such as the flu, ebola virus, global climate change, a shortage of medicines, genetic engineering and stem cell therapy). Drugs that have been approved by the FDA since the 1st edition was written are also included. The book concludes with an explanation of systems thinking in medicinal chemistry, an important, yet rarely explored topic in other medicinal chemistry text books.

Patient safety in health systems has become more and more important as a theme in health research, and so it is not surprising to see a growing interest in applying systems thinking to healthcare. However there is a difficulty - health systems are very complex and constantly adapting to respond to core drivers and fit needs. How do you apply systems thinking in this situation, and what methods are available? National health authorities, international donors and research practitioners need to know the "how-to" of conducting health systems research from a systems thinking perspective. This book will fill this gap and provide a range of tools that give clear guidance of ways to carry out systems thinking in health, with real-world examples. These methodologies include: - System dynamics and causal loops - Network analysis - Outcome mapping - Soft systems methodology And many more. Written by an international team of experts in health research, this handbook will be essential reading for those working in or researching public health, health policy, health systems, global health, service improvement and innovation in practice.. "For those working in the health sector, the relevance and value of systems thinking as a concept is evident. However, operationalization of this concept has been a challenge. With this new book, health researchers have a detailed guide for applying system thinking tools in day-to-day operations to identify and solve issues related to health policy and systems." Ghaffar Abdul, Executive Director of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, Switzerland "This book is the first to present practical options for applying systems thinking to understand complexity in health systems. The editors compile an essential collection of practical tools for understanding complex problems and framing research questions, as well as for determining and managing related solutions. Each tool is presented through an accessible summary of the method and the theory upon which it is based, as well as a real-world example. It will be a valuable resource for teaching and practice." Ligia Paina, PhD, Assistant Professor, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, USA "This keenly-awaited book offers a lucid and comprehensive discussion on how to research complex health systems. Health systems are facing a rapid change and increased complexity, with well-designed solutions often leading to unintended consequences. The book provides invaluable help in navigating this complexity and applying rigorous as well as pragmatic approaches to capturing dynamic interactions between system elements and causal loops. The authors op