Books by Institute of Medicine

Offers an overview of the public health education, assessing its readiness to provide the training and education needed to prepare men and women to face 21st century challenges. This work examines areas of public health education such as: informatics, communication, cultural competence, community-based participatory research, and others.

Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are known to reflect access to care and other issues that arise from differing socioeconomic conditions. This book explores how persons of color experience the health care environment. It offers recommendations for improvements in medical care financing, allocation of care, and other arenas.

Outlines an approach to ensure the protection of participants through the establishment of effective Human Research Participant Protection Programs. Topics covered in this book include improved research review processes, recognition and integration of research participants contributions to the system, and vigilant maintenance of HRPPP performance.

Offers an evaluation of the relative importance of zoonotic diseases against the overall backdrop of emerging infections. This book provides research findings related to the state of our understanding of zoonotic diseases; and surveillance and response strategies to detect, prevent, and mitigate the impact of zoonotic diseases on human health.

Divided into two parts, Part I of this book explores relationships between weight gain during pregnancy and a variety of factors, and places this in the context of the health of the infant and the mother. Part II addresses vitamin and mineral supplementation during pregnancy.

It sounds simple: Women who drink while pregnant may give birth to children with defects, so women should not drink during pregnancy. This volume discusses fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and other possibly alcohol-related effects from two perspectives: diagnosis and surveillance, and prevention and treatment.

Discusses the state of the nation's blood supply. This book covers such topics as studies of blood availability, ways of enhancing blood collection and distribution, frozen red cell technology, logistical concerns in prepositioning frozen blood, extended liquid storage of red cells, and blood substitutes.

Offers an examination of drug abuse issues in the United States, describing findings and outlining research needs in the areas of behavioral and neurobiological foundations of drug abuse. This book covers the epidemiology and etiology of drug abuse and discusses several of its most troubling health and social consequences.

Reviewing the research pertaining to nutrient requirements for working in cold or in high-altitude environments, this work states recommendations regarding the application of this information to military operational rations. It addresses whether cold or high-altitude environments elicit an increased demand or requirement for specific nutrients.

Does radiation medicine need more regulation or better-coordinated regulation? This book addresses this and other questions of importance to public health and safety. It is useful for federal and state policymakers and regulators, health professionals involved in radiation treatment, developers and producers of radiation equipment, and more.

Offers an examination of isotope production and availability, including the education and training of those who will be needed to sustain the flow of radioactive and stable materials from their sources to the laboratories and medical care facilities in which they are used.

Reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of the coverage and adoption practices, this work highlights opportunities for improving both the decision making processes and the underlying information base. It also considers approaches to instituting a much-needed increase in financial support for evaluative research.

Establishes a framework for assessing health care reform proposals and their implementation. This book presents a discussion and analysis of issues essential to achieving fundamental goals of health care reform. It is a useful resource for those developing or assessing options for reform.

Identifies the opportunities for progress in basic and clinical research in the biological sciences, food science and technology, and public health. This volume highlights the importance of technology and instrumentation and is useful for investigators, administrators, and funding decisionmakers in government and industry.

Like many other agencies of the federal government, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) relies extensively on external advisory committees for independent scientific and technical advice. This volume recommends ways of enhancing the use of these committees in the evaluation of drugs, biological materials, and medical devices.

Part of the "Medical Innovation at the Crossroads" series, this book examines how economic incentives for innovation change and what that means for the future of health care. It is of interest to economists, policymakers, health administrators, health care practitioners, and the concerned public.

Offering an examination of contemporary nutrition labelling practices, this volume proposes implementing a food labelling reform program. It addresses key issues, such as requiring mandatory nutrition labelling on most packaged foods, expanding nutrition labelling to foods that do not provide this information, and more.

Answers the US Congress' call for the Institute of Medicine to design a strategic plan for assessing and assuring the quality of medical care for the elderly. This book presents a proposed strategic plan for improving quality assurance in the Medicare program, along with steps and timetables for implementing the plan.

Presents a monograph that addresses some of the gaps in understanding health status and quality of life, such as the use of quality-of-life measures in technology assessment, organ transplantation, and pharmaceutical trials. This title provides basic references for the technical attributes of many established measures and some lesser known ones.

The elderly constitute a special and vulnerable patient population. This book discusses the appropriate use of technology to minimize risks posed to the elderly patient in the delivery of health care services. It covers home and community care as well as acute hospital care, and system resources and constraints.

Utilization Management has become a strong trend in health care cost containment. Under UM, some decisions are not strictly made by the doctor and patient alone. This book presents findings about how UM is faring in practice and how it compares with other cost containment approaches, with recommendations for improving UM program administration.

States that there is no consistent evidence between sodium intake and either a beneficial or adverse effect on direct health outcomes other than some CVD outcomes and all-cause mortality. This book offers the findings and conclusions on evidence for associations between sodium intake and risk of Cardiovascular disease.