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Author : Institute of Medicine Publisher : National Academies Press Page : 245 pages File Size : 35,92 MB Release : 2015-08-26 Category : Medical ISBN : 0309324963
Thousands of measures are in use today to assess health and health care in the United States. Although many of these measures provide useful information, their usefulness in either gauging or guiding performance improvement in health and health care is seriously limited by their sheer number, as well as their lack of consistency, compatibility, reliability, focus, and organization. To achieve better health at lower cost, all stakeholders - including health professionals, payers, policy makers, and members of the public - must be alert to what matters most. What are the core measures that will yield the clearest understanding and focus on better health and well-being for Americans? Vital Signs explores the most important issues - healthier people, better quality care, affordable care, and engaged individuals and communities - and specifies a streamlined set of 15 core measures. These measures, if standardized and applied at national, state, local, and institutional levels across the country, will transform the effectiveness, efficiency, and burden of health measurement and help accelerate focus and progress on our highest health priorities. Vital Signs also describes the leadership and activities necessary to refine, apply, maintain, and revise the measures over time, as well as how they can improve the focus and utility of measures outside the core set. If health care is to become more effective and more efficient, sharper attention is required on the elements most important to health and health care. Vital Signs lays the groundwork for the adoption of core measures that, if systematically applied, will yield better health at a lower cost for all Americans.
When this classic text was first published in 1992, it provided a unique focus for the burgeoning concern for sustainability and sustainable organizational practices. The book's impact continues to be felt today as large multinational corporations such as Wal-Mart and GE are making substantial commitments to the "triple bottom line" of economic success, social responsibility, and environmental protection, and sustainability has become a part of curricula in business schools around the globe. Featuring extensive new material throughout, this new edition of Management for a Small Planet is now widely available outside of North America for the first time. The book maintains the same unique vision and approach that made the original so influential. Unlike other texts on the topic, it employs a strategic, general management perspective within theoretical frameworks on how organizations can be instrumental in moving humankind toward a more sustainable world. Part I includes chapters dedicated to each dimension of sustainability: biophysical, economic, and social. Part II contains the specifics on the formulation and implementation of sustainable management practices, all grounded in the principles of organizational behavior, leadership, and business strategy. The book is an ideal text for any course concerned with environmental management and sustainable management practices.
Just as people schedule regular check-ups with physicians, our planet needs regular check-ups to catch issues as early as possible, before they become more serious and harder to heal. That is the much-needed service provided on a global scale by the Worldwatch Institute in this new book, Vital Signs 2012. By taking stock of global consumption, Vital Signs 2012 offers the facts that need to guide our stewardship of the Earth's resources-and some of these facts are shocking. The report covers topics from obesity to ecosystem services, from grain production to nuclear power. Taken as a whole, it paints a picture of skyrocketing population, disappearing forests, and increasing consumption peppered with bright spots like growing investment in high-speed trains and other efficient transportation systems. Vital Signs 2012 is based on Worldwatch's online project of the same name, which provides up-to-date figures on important global concerns, as well as the Institute's own additional research. The book compiles the most important of these into an accessible, informative resource for policymakers and anyone who wants a realistic look at the state of our planet.
This book distills the essential elements of world politics, both the enduring characteristics as well as the revolutionary changes that may be altering the very fabric of the centuries-old state system. Author J. Martin Rochester explores all the important topics that one would expect to find in an IR text (war, diplomacy, foreign policy, international law and organization, the international economy, and more) but injects fresh perspectives on how globalization and other contemporary trends are affecting these issues. In addition, the author does so through a highly engaging, lively writing style that will appeal to today's students. Fundamental Principles of International Relations is a tightly woven treatment of international politics past and present, drawing on the latest academic scholarship while avoiding excessive jargon and utilizing pedagogical aids while avoiding clutter. Rochester ultimately challenges the reader to think critically about the future of a post-Cold War and post-9/11 world that is arguably more complex, if not more dangerous, than some previous eras, with the potential for promise as well as peril.
Facts and figures indicate a continuously increasing societal welfare. But what about its impacts on the environment? The growing wealth has been accompanied by environmental degradation, deforestation, losses in bio-diversity, global warming, air pollution, depletion of the ozone layer, and overfishing. Recent measurements have been performed related to the depletion of natural resources showing that humans currently use the resources of 1.25 Earths. At the current consumption levels of high-income countries, the world could only sustainably support 1.75 billion people, not the 6.5 billion living on Earth today. Fortunately ecological awareness is consensus today and reaches far more social levels than just greenies and do-gooders - see the LOHAS trend in this book as an example. Governments have recognized that environmental protection is a worldwide concern that can be solved solely through co-operation. Especially renewable energy has reached the top of the agendas of the United Nations, the G8, and other multilateral fora. At the last conference of the UN climate council the participants noticed that the technologies, required to limit the greenhouse gas emission, are available and affordable. Thus the framework for a change is established and available. It’s up to mankind to carry out the transformation. This book gives an insight into the current social transformation that is underway. Research indicates that societies are undergoing a decisive and formative value transformation, away from a pure materialistic and monetary mindset towards a lifestyle of health and sustainability and a better quality of life. Surveys also revealed that although people, especially in the developed countries, continuously got richer over the last 50 years they did not become happier. This finding was responsible that the science of happiness research experienced a tremendous increasing attention over the last 10 years and that even on governmental level the opinion became accepted that we have to go beyond GDP. Impacts of this value transformation are already visible today in several industries. Starting with a brief description of the historical evolution of the industries, followed by some critical words about welfare and environmental pollution vital signs indicating that societies worldwide are going through a change are highlighted. A deeper look will be taken into the powerful LOHAS trend, corporate social responsibility, governmental and non-governmental initiatives - especially the discussion to go beyond GDP and the mighty upcoming science happiness research - and the remarkable boom of the renewable energies. Before concluding with a short summary, the impacts of that transformation on several industries are identified and described.
The sixth edition of Environment and Society continues to connect issues about human societies, ecological systems, and the environment with data and perspectives from different fields. While the text looks at environmental issues from a primarily sociological viewpoint, it is designed for courses in Environmental Sociology and Environmental Issues in departments of Sociology, Environmental Studies, Anthropology, Political Science, and Human Geography. Clearly defined terms and theories help familiarize students from various backgrounds with the topics at hand. Each of the chapters is significantly updated with new data, concepts, and ideas. Chapter Three: Climate Change, Science and Diplomacy, is the most extensively revised with current natural science data and sociological insights. It also details the factors at play in the establishment of the Paris Agreement and its potential to affect global climate change. This edition elevates questions of environmental and climate justice in addressing the human-environment relations and concerns throughout the book. Finally, each chapter contains embedded website links for further discussion or commentary on a topic, concludes with review and reflection questions, and suggests further readings and internet sources.