8/31/2011

Writing on the Edge: Great Contemporary Writers on the Front Line of Crisis Review

Writing on the Edge: Great Contemporary Writers on the Front Line of Crisis
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An excellent but somewhat depressing read. The essays highlights the worldwide work of Medecines sans Frontiers (Doctors without Borders). The writers document the struggles and strengths of people coping with poverty, lack of education, and the lack of resources, all through no fault of the own. The accompaning photos makes the text come to life by personalizing the people and the events. The book, while a tribute to MSF, can be read on several levels, such as the universal struggle against life's oppressions, the damaging of people due to war, the resilence of many when adversity strikes, and the hopes and desires of people to survive.

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The Black Digital Elite: African American Leaders of the Information Revolution Review

The Black Digital Elite: African American Leaders of the Information Revolution
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John T. Barber profiles "26 outstanding African American cyberelites." Black Digital Elite is divided into six parts, each of which addresses a different aspect of what he calls the Information Revolution.
Part I: Scientists and Innovator, introduces four visionaries whose work with computers revolutionized the way we use computers and the internet. Part II: Policy Makers and Power Brokers presents eight forward thinkers who developed plans, policies and programs that made access to new technologies in computing and communication easier for African Americans. Part III: Educators and Professionals features three people in academia who have taught and encouraged African American students to pursue degrees and careers in high tech industries. Part IV: Cybercommunity Developers discusses three Information Technology (IT) professionals who have focused on digital access and computer literacy in the African American community. Part V: Masters of the World Wide Web examines four masters of the internet who have created web sites and web portals geared towards African Americans. Part VI: Chief Executive Officers, Entrepreneurs and Big Money Makers, profiles four leaders in Corporate America who are using their money and businesses to introduce and/or upgrade communication and computer technologies in the African American community and under-served communities around the world.
This was a very informative read. I was unaware of the number of prominent African Americans who have been on the leading edge of the Information Revolution, inventors, educators, politicians, and business leaders who have worked tirelessly to bridge the digital gap that exists between the African American community and the rest of the world. As an IT professional, I am thrilled to learn of the accomplishments of my elders and contemporaries in the high tech arena. I encourage young people to use this book as both a reference book for writing about innovative elders and as a career planning manual.


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The Caregiver's Tale: Loss and Renewal in Memoirs of Family Life Review

The Caregiver's Tale: Loss and Renewal in Memoirs of Family Life
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This is a wonderful example of bibliotherapy. The author drew on dozens of medical memoirs and related writing to discuss care and caregiving in families with members facing medical challenges. She extends traditional definitions of caregivers by examples from the many volumes she read and
reviewed for their insights on care in families. I highly recommend this book.

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8/30/2011

How to Analyze Data (CSE Program Evaluation Kit) Review

How to Analyze Data (CSE Program Evaluation Kit)
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I like having the volume around for reference and find it a good addition to the series.

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Here is a basic introduction to a variety of elementary statistical techniques, including those for summarizing data, for examining differences between groups, and for examining relationships between two measures. Analyses of Effect Size--a relatively recent and simple approach for examining differences between groups and for conducting meta-analysis is shown. Only the most basic and useful statistical techniques that are appropriate for answering essential evaluation questions have been included. Worksheets and practical examples are given throughout the volume to support the use of each technique. Guidance is provided on the use of statistical techniques for constructing tests and questionnaires, on methods for choosing appropriate statistics on using meta-analytic techniques, and on using statistical packages - particularly SPSS (a statistical package for microcomputers) - giving readers all the information needed to properly analyze their data.


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PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine Review

PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine
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The author of this book has done a very excellent job in revealing how the almost cult like mentalities of political correctness, alternative medicine, and paranormal healing have crept into mainstream medicine. She uses logic and a mountain of research data to support her claim that the patient's best interest and scientific research are beginning to take second priority to political correctness and what some would call quackery.
Although the message is disturbing, I actually found reading this book to be very enjoyable. Where else will you find illogical and deceptive assertions made by politically correct advocates actually challenged? For example, a feminist group claims that only 14 percent of NIH (federal) research funds go to women's health issues. And it turns out that this is actually true. But, as the author discovers, you are not told that less than 7 percent goes to research on male diseases and the rest goes to research on diseases that are not gender specific. The book is full of examples like this, where claims made by the so-called experts don't hold up under further scrutiny.
I strongly recommend this book because it discusses controversial issues that truly are a matter of life and death. Cures for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Diabetes will almost certainly be delayed, at best, because of political correctness and other problems mentioned in this book. On the other hand, its hard to read this book and not take some comfort in knowing that there are still many people in the medical profession like Dr. Sally Satel who have the intelligence and courage to stand up for the truth!

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Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison Review

Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison
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I looked up the negative New York Times book review to see what Higbie's problem was. She thinks Hornblum is biased because he supports "prison reform." The book sticks quite close to the issue of medical experiments in prison, which must be at the very least something in prison in need of "reform". Higbie is also offended by the comparison to Nazi medical practices. But that's not exaggeration by Hornblum. As the book relates, the Nazi doctors at Nuremberg successfully avoided the death penalty by arguing that their own pointless torture experiments were similar to that conducted by U.S. doctors in U.S. prisons.
It's an excellent book. The book focuses on the specific prison, but has a lengthy chapter on experiments on prisoners throughout the U.S.
My only real criticism is the optimistic ending of chapter 3 that the FDA banned prisoner experimentation in the 1980s. As far as I can tell, the regulation was suspended at passage and then repealed in 1997. Fifty years after Nuremberg, experiments on prisoners unable to give informed consent continues.

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8/29/2011

Project Management in Health and Community Services Review

Project Management in Health and Community Services
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I like this book and plan to use it as a text in a class I'm teaching next Spring. It's practical, and it has the right depth (not too much, not too superficial). The class is for public health graduate students, who don't need to understand the whole logistics/PMBOK framework, and this is the only book I found that hit the mark. I'll use it in conjunction with cases and a budgeting textbook.

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Freedom to Die: People, Politics, and the Right-to-Die Movement Review

Freedom to Die: People, Politics, and the Right-to-Die Movement
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Great book. Our society makes it a "sin" to help terminally ill people end their lives without further pain. Thats the sin! When you're well, a book such as this might seem ridiculous but when you're walking in death's shoes from a painful, degenerating disease, its complete inhumane torture to allow the patient to suffer past his/her wishes.

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License to Steal: Why Fraud Plagues America's Health Care System Review

License to Steal: Why Fraud Plagues America's Health Care System
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The first edition of License to Steal woke up the people in charge of healthcare payment in America. Sparrow brought attention to the scope and nature of the healthcare fraud problem. And the scope is huge--he estimates that hundreds of billions of dollars are lost to healthcare fraud each year.
In the wake of Sparrow's book, Medicare, Medicaid, HMOs and insurers started to take fraud more seriously. Sparrow's 2000 edition of License to Steal includes information on fraud efforts since the first edition and how they are still falling far short of what is needed to limit fraud to an acceptable level. Spend the extra few dollars to get the updated hardcover edition.
Robin Mathias, MPA, Fraud Bulldog
Mathias Consulting
http://www.....com

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Criminal fraud must be factored into the current debates about health care reform, budget deficits, and proposed Medicare/Medicaid cutbacks. As a polity, how can we make good public policy if we don't know how much of the nation's one trillion dollar health care budget is being lost to fraud? The amounts are staggering, measured in hundreds of billions of dollars, but nobody knows for sure exactly how much is being lost. Malcolm Sparrow, an expert on fraud control, reviews how the health care industry approaches the problem and concludes that fraud is rampant, largely uncontrolled, and mostly invisible to policymakers. The problem will only get worse, he says, unless the industry at all levels changes its priorities, its strategies for uncovering and preventing fraud, and its technological approach.

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8/28/2011

The Heart Behind the Hero Review

The Heart Behind the Hero
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The Heart Behind The Hero is a compelling anthology of true life stories, essays and poems contributed by firefighters and paramedics across the country. Touching, inspiring, heartwarming, dramatic, superbly written and presented, The Heart Behind The Hero reveals the emotions, feelings, and spirit of today's American firefighters and rescue workers in their own words. The humor, pathos, heartbreak, and hard work is clearly evident as the contributors pay tribute to their colleagues and comrades who sacrificed their lives doing a job they loved in service to the communities in which they lived. Here is a fascinating "window" into the lifestyles and thoughts of brave men and women whose heroism is routine and whose sacrifices are the stuff of which legends are made.

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Rethinking Abortion Review

Rethinking Abortion
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Mark Graber writes an excellent, in-depth analysis on the issue of abortion. To start with, I have to mention over 30 pages of well-researched bibliography with which Mr. Graber supports his argument. What I like about this book is its pragmatism and a realistic analysis of the issue: enough of the philosophical/constitutionality debates, let us see how abortion law on the books differs from abortion law in practice then let us arrive at a solution. Mr. Graber analyses pro-life and pro-choice positions showing their strengths and weaknesses, and then goes for the kill with his equal choice position.

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Mark Graber looks at the history of abortion law in action to argue that the only defensible, constitutional approach to the issue is to afford all women equal choice--abortion should remain legal or bans should be strictly enforced. Steering away from metaphysical critiques of privacy, Graber compares the philosophical, constitutional, and democratic merits of the two systems of abortion regulation witnessed in the twentieth century: pre-Roe v. Wade statutory prohibitions on abortion and Roe's ban on significant state interference with the market for safe abortion services. He demonstrates that before Roe, pro-life measures were selectively and erratically administered, thereby subverting our constitutional commitment to equal justice. Claiming that these measures would be similarly administered if reinstated, the author seeks to increase support for keeping abortion legal, even among those who have reservations about its morality.

Abortion should remain legal, Graber argues, because statutory bans on abortion have a history of being enforced in ways that intentionally discriminate against poor persons and persons of color. In the years before Roe, the same law enforcement officials who routinely ignored and sometimes assisted those physicians seeking to terminate pregnancies for their private patients too often prevented competent abortionists from offering the same services to the general public. This double standard violated the fundamental human and constitutional right of equal justice under law, a right that remains a major concern of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.


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Child Safety: A Pediatric Guide for Parents, Teachers, Nurses, & Caregivers Review

Child Safety: A Pediatric Guide for Parents, Teachers, Nurses, and Caregivers
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Child Safety is a "must read" for anyone coming in contact with children, be it parents, teachers, daycare workers, boy scout or girls scout leaders, or anyone else working with children. This book is informative on so may levels, be it administering punishment in a constructive way, recognizing behaviors that signal trouble, preventing accidental injuries, and many more subjects. For the Mandated Reporter (daycare workers, teachers, nurses, social workers, law enforcement agents, etc) I would also recommend Recognition of Child Abuse for the Mandated Reporter, Third Edition

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8/27/2011

The Twenty-Four-Hour Society: Understanding Human Limits in a World That Never Stops Review

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Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars Review

Articles of Faith: A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars
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As an adult convert to Catholicism struggling for now five years with infertility, a non-American and the daughter of a founder of my hometown's Family Planning Association, I ordered this book wondering if it would help me sort out my mixed feelings about abortion. When it arrived my heart sank: though I had been interested in the topic, it looked long enough to remind me of the first-grader's book report, ``This told me more than I wanted to know about penguins.'' But it's so well-written, well-peopled and thoughtful it's a joy to read. When Cynthia Gorney describes a pro-choice activist she does it so carefully you feel certain she's pro-choice, and certain you must be. But when she describes a pro-life activist, you realize she might be pro-life -- and so might you be. If we were all be so generous and balanced, so readily able to enter into the subtleties of other people's positions, abortion might never have become a ``war.''

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The Ascendance of Israel's Radical Right Review

The Ascendance of Israel's Radical Right
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This book does supply us with some interesting material about the history and nature of some Israeli political groups. In addition, it discusses whether or not there is a risk that such groups will bring about a civil war in Israel (as if groups on the radical left constitute no such threat).
There is a big mix of attitudes that this book attacks. They include religious fanaticism, vigilantism, disrespect for civil law, conservative politics, willingness to support Jewish towns in the West Bank, cynicism, paranoia, opposition to left-wing intellectuals, anti-democratic tendencies, threats of ethnic cleansing of Arabs (there are even concerns that the presumably politically correct ethnic transfer of Jews might get some folks in the Israeli radical right to engage in violence), and Jewish threats to claim rights on the Temple Mount.
I think Sprinzak is often reasonable in his descriptions of the various groups. And sometimes he's reasonably fair in explaining their arguments. But I think he could have done a better job here. In addition, many of the people who support the right of Jews to live in the West Bank are not members of the political Right, and I think Sprinzak is weak at explaining their arguments. Finally, a big problem that Sprinzak practically ignores is the enormous threat from many very right-wing Arabs, in Israel, in the West Bank, and in neighboring nations. Arab aggression and lies, as well as international support for such aggression and lies, have a big effect on the attitudes of moderate and liberal Israelis. Sprinzak implies that the Israeli Right Wing uses Arab aggression as an excuse to pursue improper policies. But I think we ought to ask ourselves just what policies do make sense when dealing with Arab violence.

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8/26/2011

Conflicts of Interest and the Future of Medicine: The United States, France, and Japan Review

Conflicts of Interest and the Future of Medicine: The United States, France, and Japan
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This is the most compelling book exposing conflicts of interest, usurpation of a whole profession by money & a total disregard for the code of honor of medical professionals.The systems of Japan & France are also scrutinized. Medicine & the allied professions in the USA were bought off by industry long ago and what we have now is a mendacious medical industrial complex where whole systems no longer have the integrity they used to. Billions are spent on medical futility or therapeutic obstinacy on those past all cures, all remissions, all reprieves from advanced age or dementia. Sadly, just follow the money. The capitalistic model is only interested in the bottom line- even industry controls the message of the medical student to buy this brand or that brand. No wonder the system is bankrupt: financially, morally, ethically. The medical industrial complex has sown rewards for generations to come, rewards for itself. For this work of major importance I give Dr. Rodwin 5 stars. Damiano de Sano Iocovozzi MSN FNP CNS, CEO of the Thomas Edwin Walls Foundation (scholarship to medical, nursing, social work and respiratory care students who learn biomedical ethics, advocate for sooner hospice placements & learn the signs that a patient has less than 6 months of life)

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As most Americans know, conflicts of interest riddle the US health care system. They result from physicians practicing medicine as entrepreneurs, from physicians' ties to pharma, and from investor-owned firms and insurers' influence over physicians' medial choices. These conflicts raise questions about physicians' loyalty to their patients and their professional and economic independence. The consequences of such conflicts of interest are often devastating for the patients--and society--stuck in the middle. In Conflicts of Interest and the Future of Medicine, Marc Rodwin examines the development of these conflicts in the US, France, and Japan. He shows that national differences in the organization of medical practice and the interplay of organized medicine, the market, and the state give rise to variations in the type and prevalence of such conflicts. He then analyzes the strategies that each nation employs to cope with them. Unfortunately, many proposals to address physicians' conflicts of interest do not offer solutions that stick. But drawing on the experiences of these three nations, Rodwin demonstrates that we can mitigate these problems with carefully planned reform and regulation. He examines a range of measures that can be taken in the private and public sector to preserve medical professionalism--and concludes that there just might be more than one prescription to this seemingly incurable malady.

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The Retail Revolution in Health Care Review

The Retail Revolution in Health Care
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The Retail Revolution in Health Care provides an excellent overview of enterprise initiatives that are consumer-oriented. The authors present a solid analysis of factors and incentives in health care that are driving disruptive innovation. They also detail strategy implications for health care providers that face the challenge of enhancing access to economically savvy consumers.
Perhaps best of all, the timing of this book couldn't be better given recent passage of health care reform legislation which emulates Medicare, Medicaid, and the recent Massachusetts Healthcare Reform Program. All of these are in the process of going broke due to a failure to incorporate cost containment incentives. By contrast, the growth of retail health clinics represents an innovative, market-based, entrepreneurial, and successful initiative which is adapting to different markets using a variety of collaborative models between retailers and clinic providers. The book indicates how and why such clinics have enhanced access, maintained quality, and contained costs in the provision of basic primary health care services for both the insured and the uninsured.
Without question The Retail Revolution in Health Care will be seen as the "go to" book about developing innovative service delivery. It should be required reading by Congress as well as by all health field professionals who aspire to design and execute accessible, cost-conscious and high quality service delivery.


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