The social inequalities of health have persisted, or even increased, in Europe in the last few years. This text presents the experiences of professionals from various institutional backgrounds in eight European countries, as well as their recommendations to improve the access of excluded people.

The EUROHIS project has focused on the comparability of health surveys and has uncovered some problems that arise when aiming to compare data from different countries. Similar problems of cross-cultural comparability also arise when comparing data from other sources, such as health registers, and are just as complex and difficult to tackle. One of the main advantages of health surveys, however, is the relatively low cost and time involved in adapting them according to the needs of health policy-makers. This work shows that the output from the EUROHIS project provides common instruments for the measurement of eight health indicators. The development of these instruments has required careful consideration of relevant common concepts and how these should be defined and operationalized. The instruments are freely available for use by all countries, with the aim of enhancing national health information systems and facilitating cross-national comparisons of health data.

Focuses on the impact of health economic evaluation studies on decision-making in nine European countries. This publication reports on the results of a project called European Network on methodology and Application of Economic Evaluation Techniques (EUROMET).

Healthcare regulations should guarantee that everybody has access to appropriate healthcare. The main goals for healthcare are: Equal access to health care for everyone; Cost-efficient production of health services and Cost-control of public expenditure for medical services. Especially cost-control seems to be a global problem. One of the key issues in the debate on how to improve healthcare is rationing. It is an important challenge to understand the various methods of rationing in medical care, to analyse the effects of rationing and the ways to harmonize the various rationing cultures in Europe. This publication gives a comprehensive overview of the perception of different population groups in an international context and it shows how the different population and occupational groups estimate the possibilities, forms and also limits rationing in the near future. Patients who are affected by rationing decisions could ask for treatment in foreign European countries. In order to limit social inequities caused by capacity problems in less rationed countries it is important in a first step to demonstrate the differences in rationing procedures between European countries.

Vascular endothelial plays a significant role in regulating blood flow, and endothelial cells (EC) have highly active metabolic functions. This volume focuses on Vascular Endothelium, NO and Hypertension and is a continuum of the volumes on Mechanobiology of Cartilage and Chondrocyte.

Over recent years, there has been increasing interest in the fundamental role played by local mechanical parameters in chondrocyte regulation and cartilage dysfunction as a first step in the development of osteoarthritis. This is how the idea of mechanobiology and the concept of mechanotransduction were born in the 90's. Indeed, a broad diversity of physiological phenomena is induced by mechanical stimuli (hearing, orientation to gravity, touch, tissue remodeling...) but the mechanism by which mechanical forces may regulate a physiological response is still unknown. In other respects, the concept of regenerative medicine has recently developed in parallel to this. Regenerative medicine is an emerging multidisciplinary field involving medicine, biology, chemistry, mechanics and engineering that is likely to revolutionize the ways we improve the health and quality of life by restoring, maintaining or enhancing tissue and organ functions. Indeed, human tissues do not regenerate spontaneously and healing is only a stopgap that may be associated with contraction which in turn may prevent regeneration. interesting alternative. Today, the in vitro preparation of biological tissues such as cartilage, bone, tendon, vessel, heart muscle, skin, brings out major expectations for the next decade. However, to each type of tissue correspond a large number of potential methods related to the support, the cells used (tissular cells or stem cells) and to the conditions of the environment (culture medium and mechanical forces). The aim of this publication is to provide a thoughtful and balanced view on new crucial concepts with clinical implications.

Holm (Institute of Medicine, Law, and Bioethics, University of Manchester, UK) and Jonas (Center for Social Ethics and Policy, University of Manchester) gather papers representing the work performed as part of the Empirical Methods in Bioethics project sponsored by the European Commission, DG-Research. The papers are mainly concerned with investiga.

Most patients who develop the eating disorders are frightened of gaining weight. The disordered eating can be viewed as a pathological reaction to this fear and a distorted attempt to establish control of body weight. This book focuses on the place of drugs in the treatment of both sets of illnesses. It addresses the science of eating behavior.

Attempts to increase the transparency in the rating methods and - in the interest of pertinent disclosure of risks associated with common procedures of occupational health and safety - to work towards the elimination of unacceptable simplifications and faulty ratings. This work emphasises discussion of rating methods of acoustic stress.