Psychology

The book I read to research this post was Introducing Psychology: A Graphic Guide by Nigel Benson which is a very good book that I read on kindle unlimited. This book is only around 150 pages so is fairly long and is only intended as an introduction to psychology. As such it covers ground a lot of more specialized books maybe don’t cover and I learn quite a bit from it. One question a lot of people ask is the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist. A psychiatrist is a doctor who specializes in psychiatry and can prescribe medication in dealing with that. A psychologist on the other hand can’t generally prescribe medication although there are exceptions and normally has a degree in psychology and often a masters degree. This book looks at how the study of the mind has evolved over the ages. It was only in the 17th century the idea that people are born like a blank canvas where there experiences can make them a good or bad person was even considered. Before that people thought religion played a part and everyone was born with original sin and it was already determined whether someone was going to be good or bad. In the 19th Pavlov did an experiment with dogs where a bell was rung when they were presented with food and found the dog would salivate when the bell was merely rung after a while. This was important as it showed how people or animals could be conditioned. When someone goes to a psychologist with a phobia they know probably associates what they are afraid of with something bad or a bad experience and know they can work on this. I did quite enjoy this book and think it is particularly suitable to those who want to learn about psychology but don’t want to read a huge book or one that is overly complicated. I do recommend it.

Accountable Care

The book I read to research this post was Accountable Care: Bridging The Information Technology Divide by Greg Miller et al which is a very good book that I read at kindle unlimited. This book has around 600 pages so is quite a substantial read. It is a textbook about applying modern technology to the world of healthcare. Most of it is from the perspective of the healthcare in the United States. Healthcare in America is being dragged kicking and screaming in to the 21st century. At one time it was more a matter of cutting costs than anything with the plethora of healthcare businesses. Now they are starting to look at things like quality of service and ways to reduce the number of surgical procedures and visits to the doctor being carried out. One way is of course preventative medicine and educating people to look after there selves. Sometimes surgery isn’t necessary and in certain a patients condition can be managed with drugs. There is also a huge amount of drugs being released every year. There are web services like Microsoft Health Vault which incidently is free being marketed for patients to say in what there medical files say about them. Anybody with any medical condition can invite health professionals and carers to fill in a kind of cloud computing site where they can then show it to anyone they wish to share information about their illness with. There are websites like Patients Like Us which operate as a kind of social media site for these activities. Another site is Sermo. Accountable care extends to things like fixing an air conditioning system where there are minimum standards that must be adhered to laid down. Companies like Microsoft do general software that can be used as part of an integrated healthcare process like Microsoft Office & SQL Server as well as specialist products. Currently they aren’t allowed to use cloud computing sites to store electronic health records as the legal standards are very strict and healthcare providers may leave themselves open to being sued if they are breached. Legal standards are much higher than for other industries and it is unlikely a cloud computing provider would have this level of security and be willing to spend much time explaing these procedures and policies to you. I did really enjoy which is well written and I would recommend it. It might be worth like me reading it on kindle unlimited as it is quite an expensive book and you are allowed to read unlimited books although can only download 10 at any one time. In Britain it costs $7.99.

 

Comp TIA Healthcare IT Technician Exam

The book I read to research this post was Comp TIA Healthcare IT Technician by C V Connor which is an excellent book which I downloaded from kindle for free. This book is one of the most interesting free books I have had from kindle. This is an American so probably all that relevant to the job in Britain especially with regard to legal matters. Most of the topic refers to electronic health records although there is also more general information & I think it’s interesting even if like me you are a network engineer who doesn’t have much to do with healthcare work. The book is structured in the form of multiple choice questions with each having a correct answer and explanation. Some of the information is things like this. The OHSA are responsible for checking the IT equipment in a health practice is up to the job and send inspectors around from time to time to check. OHSA stands for Occupational Health Safety Association. The best way to save space whilst storing lots of files is to have a motorized rotating file storage unit. A patient who is unhappy with his treatment at a practice or hospital would be able to complain under the Patient’s Bill Of Rights under 1 of the 8 parts that constitute that. A person with Alzheimers disease would probably be sent to a non acute health facility for support with life. A nursing station that wanted to have chat software installed so they can talk about any problems with a local pharmacy would have to check with the IT administrator prior to installing it as most software of that type has weaknesses that can be exploited by hackers. It is a really interesting book that’s is relevant to anyone working in computers.