This is an open access book. The book provides an overview of the state of research in developing countries – Africa, Latin America, and Asia (especially India) and why research and publications are important in these regions. It addresses budding but struggling academics in low and middle-income countries. It is written mainly by senior colleagues who have experienced and recognized the challenges with design, documentation, and publication of health research in the developing world. The book includes short chapters providing insight into planning research at the undergraduate or postgraduate level, issues related to research ethics, and conduct of clinical trials. It also serves as a guide towards establishing a research question and research methodology. It covers important concepts such as writing a paper, the submission process, dealing with rejection and revisions, and covers additional topics such as planning lectures and presentations. The book will be useful for graduates, postgraduates, teachers as well as physicians and practitioners all over the developing world who are interested in academic medicine and wish to do medical research.

The Medical-Legal Aspects of Acute Care Medicine: A Resource for Clinicians, Administrators, and Risk Managers is a comprehensive resource intended to provide a state-of-the-art overview of complex ethical, regulatory, and legal issues of importance to clinical healthcare professionals in the area of acute care medicine; including, for example, physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and care managers. In addition, this book also covers key legal and regulatory issues relevant to non-clinicians, such as hospital and practice administrators; department heads, educators, and risk managers. This text reviews traditional and emerging areas of ethical and legal controversies in healthcare such as resuscitation; mass-casualty event response and triage; patient autonomy and shared decision-making; medical research and teaching; ethical and legal issues in the care of the mental health patient; and, medical record documentation and confidentiality. Furthermore, this volume includes chapters dedicated to critically important topics, such as team leadership, the team model of clinical care, drug and device regulation, professional negligence, clinical education, the law of corporations, tele-medicine and e-health, medical errors and the culture of safety, regulatory compliance, the regulation of clinical laboratories, the law of insurance, and a practical overview of claims management and billing. Authored by experts in the field, The Medical-Legal Aspects of Acute Care Medicine: A Resource for Clinicians, Administrators, and Risk Managers is a valuable resource for all clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals.

Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. According to Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients. It is likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. Diagnostic errors may cause harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment, providing unnecessary or harmful treatment, or resulting in psychological or financial repercussions. The committee concluded that improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative. Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, a continuation of the landmark Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), finds that diagnosis-and, in particular, the occurrence of diagnostic errorsâ€"has been largely unappreciated in efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, diagnostic errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity. Just as the diagnostic process is a collaborative activity, improving diagnosis will require collaboration and a widespread commitment to change among health care professionals, health care organizations, patients and their families, researchers, and policy makers. The recommendations of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care contribute to the growing momentum for change in this crucial area of health care quality and safety.

The US Department of Justice's National Institute of Justice (NIJ) asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of The National Academies to conduct a workshop that would examine the interface of the medicolegal death investigation system and the criminal justice system. NIJ was particularly interested in a workshop in which speakers would highlight not only the status and needs of the medicolegal death investigation system as currently administered by medical examiners and coroners but also its potential to meet emerging issues facing contemporary society in America. Additionally, the workshop was to highlight priority areas for a potential IOM study on this topic. To achieve those goals, IOM constituted the Committee for the Workshop on the Medicolegal Death Investigation System, which developed a workshop that focused on the role of the medical examiner and coroner death investigation system and its promise for improving both the criminal justice system and the public health and health care systems, and their ability to respond to terrorist threats and events. Six panels were formed to highlight different aspects of the medicolegal death investigation system, including ways to improve it and expand it beyond its traditional response and meet growing demands and challenges. This report summarizes the Workshop presentations and discussions that followed them.

v. 1. Research findings -- v. 2. Concepts and methodology -- v. 3. Implementation issues -- v. 4. Programs, tools and products.

RK Sharma is teaching since last 23 years at All India Institute of Medical Sciences and is presently working as Additional Professor of Forensic Medicine. He completed his MBBS and M.D. degrees from AIIMS and then joined as Faculty member. He has published a large number of scientific papers in various national and international journals. He has supervised many research projects of national importance. He has extensively travelled to USA, Australia, Singapore, SAARC countries to gain vast medico-legal experience. He is a regular examiner at various universities in India. He is office-bearer of many national and international organizations. His main zeal is to educate medical practitioners about legal aspects of patient care so that they can discharge safe medical practice. He is a strong advocate of patient's rights and seeks improvement in patient care in India. He regularly delivers talk about legal aspects of patient care at meetings of Indian Medical Association, Punjab Health System Corporation, Central Health Scheme and various hospitals and nursing homes. He is publisher of international journal Medico-Legal Update . Medico-Legal Aspects of Patient Care is written with the aim of educating medical practitioners and paramedical staff about the patient's rights, current laws relating to medical practice and how to face menace of malpractice suits. The book has several chapters relating to doctor and patient relationship, consent, medical ethics, role of medical council, medical records, and most importantly, medical negligence. The emphasis has been laid on defining medico-legal aspects of injury in general, head injury and regional injuries in particular. The common medico-legal problems/mishaps that occur in major medical practices like anesthesia, gynecology and obstetric practice, surgical practice and practice by physicians have also been dealt with. A chapter on professional indemnity policies offered by the insurance companies is also included. A major emphasis of this book is on how to face common medico-legal problems like refusal of treatment, arrival of dead body and non-payment of fee etc. Guidelines on how to avoid medical malpractice suit/medical negligence are prescribed. The new guidelines prescribed by Medical Council of India and ICMR ethical guidelines have been added. It is hoped that this book will help the persons working in medical field to discharge safe medical practice.

This manual is aimed at helping medical record workers in the development and management of medical records services of health care facilities in developing countries in an effective and efficient manner. It has not been designed as an introductory text to medical record management, but rather as an aid to medical record officers (MROs) and medical record clerks by describing appropriate systems for Medical Records Departments in developing countries. It covers manual procedures and may be used as an adjunct to computerized systems. It does not provide all of the options for medical record management, but it does provide one option in each area for the management of medical records in developing countries. A list the textbooks that provide detailed information on medical record management is also provided.

This compilation of articles, research studies and case material deals with the multi-faceted dimensions of hospital law. The volume brings together international experts' views on the interface between medicine, law and ethics as they relate to hospital policy and procedures. Topics explored include: ethics committees, informed consent, malpractice, medical experts and the courts, medical records, use of computers, DNR, death, organ transplants and bio-medical technology.