How do policy and politics influence the social conditions that generate health outcomes?
Reduced life expectancy, worsening health outcomes, health inequity, and declining health care options--these are now realities for most Americans. However, in a country of more than 325 million people, addressing everyone's issues is challenging. How can we effect beneficial change for everyone so we all can thrive? What is the great equalizer?
In this book, Daniel E. Dawes argues that political determinants of health create the social drivers--including poor environmental conditions, inadequate transportation, unsafe neighborhoods, and lack of healthy food options--that affect all other dynamics of health. By understanding these determinants, their origins, and their impact on the equitable distribution of opportunities and resources, we will be better equipped to develop and implement actionable solutions to close the health gap.
Dawes draws on his firsthand experience helping to shape major federal policies, including the Affordable Care Act, to describe the history of efforts to address the political determinants that have resulted in health inequities. Taking us further upstream to the underlying source of the causes of inequities, Dawes examines the political decisions that lead to our social conditions, makes the social determinants of health more accessible, and provides a playbook for how we can address them effectively. A thought-provoking and evocative account that considers both the policies we think of as health policy and those that we don't, The Political Determinants of Health provides a novel, multidisciplinary framework for addressing the systemic barriers preventing the United States from becoming the healthiest nation in the world.
When you experience a medical emergency, you expect to be treated by a licensed physician with expertise in your condition. What happens when you look up from your hospital gurney to find that the doctor has been replaced by a non-physician practitioner with just a small fraction of the training and experience?
From the co-author of Patients at Risk: The Rise of the Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant in Healthcare, the first book to warn of the systematic replacement of physicians, comes Imposter Doctors, an even more frightening exposé of patient endangerment at the hands of for-profit corporate entities and healthcare conglomerates.
In the two years since Patients at Risk debuted, the employment of non-physician practitioners has continued to skyrocket. While advocates insist that nurse practitioners and physician assistants are 'just as good' as physicians, they are wrong. Despite over fifty years of scientific analysis, there is no conclusive evidence that non-physicians can provide safe and effective medical care without physician oversight. In fact, recent studies have shown the opposite: that the replacement of physicians puts patients at risk.
The only cure for today's healthcare crisis is for patients to become informed about who is providing their care. We must all know the difference in clinician education and training, and demand answers from those who would deprive us of physician-led care.
Our blood has stories to tell, and we are told stories about blood. Globally, blood is a story that is built -- whose blood counts, whose blood spills and whose blood is of use. The history of blood donation practices in Canada speaks to the larger blood story of anti-Black racism, evident since the country's founding. Through storytelling, theorizing and discourse analysis, Got Blood to Give examines how anti-Black homophobic nation-building policies became enshrined in blood donation systems.
OmiSoore H. Dryden, a Black queer femme academic and the foremost scholar on Canadian blood donation practices, examines contaminated blood crises in the 1980s and 1990s, Canadian Red Cross Society, and Canadian Blood Services. She contextualizes contemporary homonationalisms, medical anti-Black racism, homophobia and transphobia in blood-related practices, connecting blood stories with health disparities affecting Black and Black queer populations. From a BlaQueer disasporic theoretical lens, this book uses narrative as method to show how healthcare systems continue to propagate anti-Blackness.In Canary in a (Post) Covid World: Money, Fear, and Power (Volume 2 of the Canary series), 37 courageous voices-doctors, researchers, scientists, lawyers, journalists, ethicists, and creatives-reveal how powerful interests used the COVID-19 crisis as a tool to reshape our world. This is a rich, varied, and deeply disturbing story, told by some of the world's bravest and most qualified voices, of how our health care, information, and financial systems have been compromised in the name of profit and control.
Volume 1, Canary in a Covid World: How Censorship and Propaganda Changed Our (My) World-an Amazon #1 Best Seller-closely examined the pandemic and how we were fed a diet of propaganda while media blocked diverse perspectives. Now, Volume 2 takes us further, exploring the greater plays at hand. These Canaries offer fascinating insights and stories that will educate, shock, and anger many.
37 Contributors include:
This is a must-read for anyone questioning the power structures reshaping our world.
What happens in health policy at local, state, and federal levels directly affects patients, nurses, and nursing practice. Some healthcare professionals, though, are intimidated by the complex and often nonlinear policy process or simply don't know how to take the first step toward implementing policy change. In the second edition of Evidence-Informed Health Policy, authors Jacqueline M. Loversidge and Joyce Zurmehly demystify health policymaking and equip nurses and other healthcare professionals with the knowledge, tools, and confidence to navigate the first of many steps into health policy. This book translates the EBP language of clinical decision-making into an evidence-informed health policy (EIHP) model-a foundation for integrating evidence into health policymaking and leveraging dialogue with stakeholders.
The goals of this book are threefold:
Audiences who can best benefit from this book include:
- Nurse leaders who are engaged in public policymaking
- Nurses who are members and staff of professional associations and organizations
- Nurse educators who are teaching public health policy to students at the graduate or undergraduate levels
- Healthcare regulatory agency members or staff
- Other healthcare professionals who are engaged in public policymaking
Explores the historical development and severe ramifications of America's strict abortion regulations.
Nearly one in four women in the United States undergoes an abortion during their life. In Regulating Abortion, Deborah R. McFarlane and Wendy L. Hansen uncover the history of the complex web of regulations surrounding abortion in the United States and shed light on the stark reality of this heavily regulated and politically divisive health care service.
McFarlane and Hansen delve into the historical development of abortion regulations since Roe v. Wade. They explore the underlying reasons for the extensive regulation of what they assert is a routine and safe medical procedure. The authors examine the multitude of factors that influence state-level abortion policies, including party affiliation, religion, the representation of women in legislatures, and political contributions. By demonstrating how these factors shape the landscape of abortion regulation across different states, they reveal the varying methods and justifications used to either restrict or protect abortion access, with a particular focus on the disproportionate impacts on women of color.
The recent landmark US Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned long-standing precedents. McFarlane and Hansen provide timely insights into the implications of this ruling and how it further amplifies the disparities among states in regulating abortion. An essential resource for understanding the influences driving this divide, Regulating Abortion offers a comprehensive analysis of US abortion policy contextualized by relevant Supreme Court decisions and a comparative exploration of abortion regulation in Western Europe.
Smarter Healthcare with AI by Dr. Hassan A. Tetteh offers a comprehensive look at the transformative power of artificial intelligence in healthcare, grounded in the author's extensive military medicine experience. Dr. Tetteh introduces the VP4 Framework--Purpose, Personalization, Partnership, and Productivity--as a model for integrating AI into medical practice effectively and ethically. This book explores how AI can revolutionize areas like medical imaging, health records analysis, and suicide prevention, presenting practical applications and real-world examples.
The narrative is enriched with personal anecdotes, including Dr. Tetteh's work at the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) leading the Warfighter Health Mission for the Department of Defense. He also shares insights from his time as Ship's Surgeon on the USS Carl Vinson, and combat surgery experience in Afghanistan to highlight where AI could improve medical logistics and patient care during deployments. The book emphasizes the importance of ethical AI and data diversity in advancing medical practice, making it a crucial read for healthcare professionals, military personnel, technology enthusiasts, and policy makers.
With Smarter Healthcare with AI, readers will gain valuable insights into the future of medicine and practical advice on leveraging AI to improve patient outcomes, streamline healthcare processes, and enhance the overall healthcare experience.
An ICU nurse reveals how private equity ownership leads to preventable deaths and negligence in hospitals.
In a country where health care is increasingly driven by profit, Margin over Mission exposes the dire consequences of corporate ownership in hospitals. James Kelly, an ICU nurse with over two decades of experience, narrates a gripping account of his final year at Lovelace Women's Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico--a year marred by preventable deaths, administrative changes, and the heartbreaking loss of a once-mission-driven institution to the clutches of Wall Street.
Kelly's poignant narrative takes readers on an emotional journey through the corridors of a hospital that once stood for community and care but became overshadowed by the relentless pursuit of profit. Through detailed anecdotes and critical analysis, Kelly reveals the stark reality of a health care system compromised by private equity, where decisions prioritize profit margins over the mission of saving lives.
Kelly's unique perspective as an ICU nurse provides an insider's look into how private equity is wreaking havoc in hospitals around the country. His story is also a powerful tribute to the countless health care workers who struggle to maintain their integrity and compassion in an increasingly inhumane system that prioritizes money over people.
A provocative chronicle of how US public health has strayed from its liberal roots.
The Covid-19 response was a crucible of politics and public health--a volatile combination that produced predictably bad results. As scientific expertise became entangled with political motivations, the public-health establishment found itself mired in political encampment.
It was, as Sandro Galea argues, a crisis of liberalism: a retreat from the principles of free speech, open debate, and the pursuit of knowledge through reasoned inquiry that should inform the work of public health.
Across fifty essays, Within Reason chronicles how public health became enmeshed in the insidious social trends that accelerated under Covid-19. Galea challenges this intellectual drift towards intolerance and absolutism while showing how similar regressions from reason undermined social progress during earlier eras. Within Reason builds an incisive case for a return to critical, open inquiry as a guiding principle for the future public health we want--and a future we must work to protect.
Can American health insurance survive?
In The Transformation of American Health Insurance, Troyen A. Brennan traces the historical evolution of public and private health insurance in the United States from the first Blue Cross plans in the late 1930s to reforms under the Biden administration. In analyzing this evolution, he finds long-term trends that form the basis for his central argument: that employer-sponsored insurance is becoming unsustainably expensive, and Medicare for All will emerge as the sole source of health insurance over the next two decades.
After thirty years of leadership in health care and academia, Brennan argues that Medicare for All could act as a single-payer program or become a government-regulated program of competing health plans, like today's Medicare Advantage. The choice between these two options will depend on how private insurers adapt and behave in today's changing health policy environment.
This critical evolution in the system of financing health care is important to employers, health insurance executives, government officials, and health care providers who are grappling with difficult strategic choices. It is equally important to all Americans as they face an inscrutable health insurance system and wonder what the future might hold for them regarding affordable coverage.
Our fear of cancer causes great harm to individual health and to society.
The fear of cancer is understandable. But that fear is in some ways outdated, as it fails to account for the medical progress made against this family of diseases. In Curing Cancerphobia, David Ropeik reveals the fascinating historical and psychological roots of our fear of cancer and documents the dramatic health and financial harms caused when that fear exceeds the risk.
Fear of cancer drives millions for whom screening is not recommended to screen for the disease anyway, producing tens of thousands of emotionally damaging false positives and costing the US health care system an estimated $9.2 billion a year. At the same time, fear of cancer also causes many people for whom screening is recommended to avoid it altogether.
Modern screening technologies often identify cancers that do not spread or that grow so slowly they almost certainly will never cause harm in a person's lifetime. Yet many of these people, frightened by the word cancer in their diagnosis, understandably choose more aggressive and risky treatments than their clinical conditions require. These unnecessary treatments kill hundreds of people, cause severe side effects in thousands, and cost the health care system at least $5.2 billion a year.
Additionally, consumers spend billions of dollars on vitamins and supplements, organic food, and other products that promise to reduce our risk of cancer but do not actually reduce it. And an excessive fear of cancer causes resistance to potentially beneficial technologies like nuclear power and fluoridation of tap water. After documenting these harms, Ropeik offers tools and suggestions to help reduce the negative impacts of cancerphobia. Based on extensive research including interviews with experts and cancer patients, Curing Cancerphobia confronts our emotional relationship with the disease we fear more than any other.
Written by a well-respected health and public policy expert, this book provides a comprehensive exploration of the under-appreciated role of public health policy in the United States' medical care industry.
The book offers students:
- an introduction to the fundamentals of health policy, with comparative perspectives from other countries;
- analysis of major health care programmes, including Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and regulatory programs;
- reflections on issues around access, quality, cost, and the ethics of provision.
By drawing comparisons between the US and other countries, it deepens our understanding of health policy in the US, where it is headed next, and what it might learn from other systems.
Deeply felt, deftly rendered, stunningly informative and often enraging (Publishers Weekly), Hooked appears as we are finally waking up to the inadequacies of our current drug-rehab policies. With court-mandated rehab being debated across the country, Shavelson's in-depth look at the struggles of five addicts as they travel through the treatment maze makes a powerful case for reform.
Highly readable and shaped by Shavelson's experience as a journalist and physician, Hooked takes us through the anguishing intake and controversial House meetings, inside counselors' and judges' offices where many treatment decisions are made, and to prison cells where, under current policies, many addicts end up. It explores the links between drug addiction, mental illness, and trauma, including child abuse--links often ignored by current rehab efforts--and argues for an integrated approach that treats the roots of drug abuse, not just the behavior itself.
Hailed as compelling and heartbreaking (Time Out), Hooked offers a provocative, honest look at the seemingly intractable issue of drug addiction, and offers powerful alternatives to our current policies.