Quality: Its Definition and Measurement As Applied to the Medically Ill - Hardcover

Barofsky, Ivan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1441998187 ISBN 13: 9781441998187

Verlag: Springer, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

Quality, as exemplified by Quality-of-life (QoL) assessment, is frequently discussed among health care professionals and often invoked as a goal for improvement, but somehow rarely defined, even as it is regularly assessed. It is understood that some medical patients have a better QoL than others, but should the QoL achieved be compared to an ideal state, or is it too personal and subjective to gauge? Can a better understanding of the concept help health care systems deliver services more effectively? Is QoL worth measuring at all? Integrating concepts from psychology, philosophy, neurocognition, and linguistics, this book  attempts to answer these complex questions. It also breaks down the cognitive-linguistic components that comprise the judgment of quality, including description, evaluation, and valuations, and applies them to issues specific to individuals with chronic medical illness. In this context, quality/QoL assessment becomes an essential contributor to ethical practice, a critical step towards improving the nature of social interactions. The author considers linear, non-linear, and complexity-based models in analyzing key methodology and content issues in health-related QoL assessment.  

This book is certain to stimulate debate in the research and scientific communities. Its forward-looking perspective takes great strides toward promoting a common cognitive-linguistic model of how the judgment of quality occurs, thereby contributing important conceptual and empirical tools to its varied applications, including QoL assessment.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ivan Barofsky is a former President of the International Society of Quality of Research. He is a retired Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Quality, as exemplified by Quality-of-life (QoL) assessment, is frequently discussed among health care professionals and often invoked as a goal for improvement, but somehow rarely defined, even as it is regularly assessed. It is understood that some medical patients have a better QoL than others, but should the QoL achieved be compared to an ideal state, or is it too personal and subjective to gauge? Can a better understanding of the concept help health care systems deliver services more effectively? Is QoL worth measuring at all? Integrating concepts from psychology, philosophy, neurocognition, and linguistics, this book attempts to answer these complex questions.

It also breaks down the cognitive-linguistic components that comprise the judgment of quality, including description, evaluation, and valuations, and applies them to issues specific to individuals with chronic medical illness. In this context, quality/QoL assessment becomes an essential contributor to ethical practice, a critical step towards improving the nature of social interactions. The author considers linear, non-linear, and complexity-based models in analyzing key methodology and content issues in health-related QoL assessment, including:

• Objective versus subjective indicators.
• Signs and symptoms, e.g., pain and fatigue.
• Categories and domains.
• Health status and quality of care.
• Functional status.
• Neurocognitive capacity/degeneration.
• Well-being and emotional regulation.
• Determinants of Valuation.
• The role of Fundamental Measurement.

This book is certain to stimulate debate in the research and scientific communities. Its forward-looking perspective takes great strides toward promoting a common cognitive-linguistic model of how the judgment of quality occurs,thereby contributing important conceptual and empirical tools to its varied applications, including QoL assessment.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Springer
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2011
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1441998187
• ISBN 13: 9781441998187
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 514
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Dt. Universitätsverlag; buchhandel-buch@springer.com; ; Abraham-Lincoln-Str. 46; Wiesbaden; 65198; Deutschland