Healthcare Overview

Just a few years ago, dire predictions of escalating technology costs and adverse demographics informed a downbeat view of the future of medicine in which struggling governments would fall behind in their public commitments to healthcare. This volume is part of today’s more optimistic assessment in which huge efficiencies can be wrought through ‘personalized’ medicine: patients, for example, have no need to visit clinics when biochemical monitoring can be achieved in the comfort of their own homes, the results sent wirelessly, in real time, to the specialist’s database.

With contributions spanning the experiences of 15 nations from the USA to Turkey, Taiwan and the UK, the contents of this book show what is possible in implementing personalized medicine in a heterogeneous set of contexts. Today’s burgeoning use of advanced early and predictive diagnostics, targeted prevention and personalized medical approaches will accelerate as advances in patient profiling and innovative bio/medical technologies come on stream. They could enable many of tomorrow’s elderly to reach 100 years of age in good physical and mental health, as actively contributing members of society. The scope of coverage in this volume provides a comprehensive and unrivaled review of historical, cultural, demographic, ethnic, socio-economic, political, and other aspects of personalized medicine. It shows that reaping the benefits of this kind of medical care requires careful regulations in healthcare and skilful political planning.