Medical informatics and electronic healthcare have many benefits to offer in terms of quality of life for patients, healthcare personnel, citizens and society in general. But evidence-based medicine needs quality information if it is to lead to quality of health and thus to quality of life. This book presents the full papers accepted for presentation at the MIE2012 conference, held in Pisa, Italy, in August 2012. The theme of the 2012 conference is ‘Quality of Life through Quality of Information’. As always, the conference provides a unique platform for the exchange of ideas and experiences among the actors and stakeholders of ICT supported healthcare. The book incorporates contributions related to the latest achievements in biomedical and health informatics in terms of major challenges such as interoperability, collaboration, coordination and patient-oriented healthcare at the most appropriate level of care. It also offers new perspectives for the future of biomedical and health Informatics, critical appraisal of strategies for user involvement, insights for design, deployment and the sustainable use of electronic health records, standards, social software, citizen centred e-health, and new challenges in rehabilitation and social care informatics. The topics presented are interdisciplinary in nature and will be of interest to a variety of professionals; physicians, nurses and other allied health providers, health informaticians, engineers, academics and representatives from industry and consultancy in the various fields.

This handbook reflects on quality-of-life in societies on the continent of Africa. It provides a widely interdisciplinary text with insights on quality-of-life from a variety of scientific perspectives. The handbook is structured into sections covering themes of social context, culture and community; the environment and technology; health; education; and family. It is aimed at scholars who are working towards sustainable development at the intersections of multiple scientific fields and it provides measures of both objective and subjective quality-of-life. The scholarly contributions in the text are based on original research and it spans fields of research such as cultures of positivity, wellbeing, literacy and multilinguism, digital and mobile technologies, economic growth, food and nutrition, health promotion, community development, teacher education and family life. Some chapters take a broad approach and report on research findings involving thousands, and in one case millions, of participants. Other chapters zoom in and illustrate the importance of specificity in quality-of-life studies. Collectively, the handbook illuminates the particularity of quality-of-life in Africa, the unique contextual challenges and the resourcefulness with which challenges are being mediated. This handbook provides empirically grounded conceptualizations about life in Africa that also encapsulate the dynamic, ingenious ways in which we, as Africans, enhance our quality-of-life.

Commentator: Ruth Anna Putnam

Quality of Life: An Interdisciplinary Perspective presents the Quality of Life using a contemporary and interdisciplinary approach. Various socio-cultural, spiritual, technological, and human factors aspects, which have an immense bearing on our lives, are an integral part of this book. This book highlights cultural differences in terms of Quality of Life. It recognizes the presence of cultural differences resulting from the social status attributed to an individual’s age, gender, class, race, and ethnicity. It can be used as a guide in the field of global well-being and for future research. It presents clues to complex problems and empirical materials, and attempts to bring out a more comprehensive picture of global and contemporary Quality of Life and well-being. This book can also fill a gap in teaching and research. Those who will find this book useful are researchers, academicians, practitioners, and students of management, behavioral science, human factors, psychology, health economics, sociology, public health, and politics.

Quality of life studies form an essential part of the evaluation of any treatment. Written by two authors who are well respected within this field, Quality of Life: The Assessment, Analysis and Interpretation of Patient-reported Outcomes, Second Edition lays down guidelines on assessing, analysing and interpreting quality of life data. The new edition of this standard book has been completely revised, updated and expanded to reflect many methodological developments emerged since the publication of the first edition. Covers the design of instruments, the practical aspects of implementing assessment, the analyses of the data, and the interpretation of the results Presents all essential information on Quality of Life Research in one comprehensive volume Explains the use of qualitative and quantitative methods, including the application of basic statistical methods Includes copious practical examples Fills a need in a rapidly growing area of interest New edition accommodates significant methodological developments, and includes chapters on computer adaptive testing and item banking, choosing an instrument, systematic reviews and meta analysis This book is of interest for everyone involved in quality of life research, and it is applicable to medical and non-medical, statistical and non-statistical readers. It is of particular relevance for clinical and biomedical researchers within both the pharmaceutical industry and practitioners in the fields of cancer and other chronic diseases. Reviews of the First Edition – Winner of the first prize in the Basis of Medicine Category of the BMA Medical Book Competition 2001: “This book is highly recommended to clinicians who are actively involved in the planning, analysis and publication of QoL research.” CLINICAL ONCOLOGY “This book is highly recommended reading.” QUALITY OF LIFE RESEARCH

This volume brings together a number of scholarly studies on the definition, assessment and measurement of human quality of life. The book contains fundamental analyses of basic concepts such as welfare, wellbeing, happiness and quality of life itself, but contains also discussions on the application of such concepts for measuring purposes mainly in a health care context. Although the approach to these problems in the book is predominantly philosophical, there are also some studies which take a different, mainly sociological and medical, point of view. Most of the authors have a Scandinavian origin and their essays mirror the current debate on quality of life in northern Europe. The book however also contains contributions by distinguished scholars from the U.K., France, Italy and the Netherlands.

Traditionally, the concept of quality of life has been viewed through objective indicators. Beyond Facts looks at quality of life through a new lens, namely, the perceptions of millions of Latin Americans. Using an enhanced version of the recently created Gallup World Poll that incorporates Latin America-specific questions, the Inter-American Development Bank surveyed people from throughout the region and found that perceptions of quality of life are often very different from the reality. These surprising findings have enormous significance for the political economy of the region and provide a wealth of information for policymakers and development practitioners to feast upon.