Handbook of Systems and Complexity in Health [Paperback]

This book is an introduction to health care as a complex adaptive system, a system that feeds back on itself. The first section introduces systems and complexity theory from a science, historical, epistemological, and technical perspective, describing the principles and mathematics. Subsequent sections build on the health applications of systems science theory, from human physiology to medical decision making, population health and health services research. The aim of the book is to introduce and expand on important population health issues from a systems and complexity perspective, highlight current research developments and their implications for health care delivery, consider their ethical implications, and to suggest directions for and potential pitfalls in the future.This book examines health care as a complex adaptive system, building from introductory passages to health applications of systems science theory, from human physiology to medical decision making, population health and health services research.1. Complexity in Health - An Introduction.- 2. Complexity, uncertainty and mess as the links between science and the humanities in healthcare.- Part 1 - Complexity Theory and Methods.- 3. Understanding Complex Systems.- 4. The Complex Nature of Knowledge.- 5. Mathematical Principles: Tales of Tails.- 6. Modelling.- 7. A methodology for the analysis of medical data.- 8. Psychological Rhythmicities.- 9. Modeling Illness and Recovery with Nonlinear Dynamics.- Part 2 - Dynamics in Human Health.- 10. Homeostasis: The Dynamic Self-regulatory Process that Maintains Health and Buffers against Disease.- 11. Fractals in Physiology & Medicine.- 12. Bio-complexity: challenging reductionism.- Part 3 - Concepts of Health.- 13. Trying to Make Sense of Health.- 14. Picture Health.- 15. Health - A personal complex-adaptive state.- 16. Understanding Health By Building Better Bio-Medical Models.- 17. Health  a systems and complexity based definition.- Part 4  Clinicallă