Tag Archives: health care

Eight New Books: Health Care, Mental Health Counseling, and more…

Another Monday brings us another roundup of the new books on the NAP website in the past week. As always, any books that have Free PDFs are labeled as such below.

As a side note, we set up a simple contact form here on Notes From NAP. If you have any suggestions or feedback, we’d love to hear it at notes.nap.edu/contact. Are these lists of the new publications on our site useful to you? Are there other features you’d like to see?  Fill out the form and let us know!

Featured Publication

Accounting for Health and Health Care: Approaches to Measuring the Sources and Costs of Their Improvement (prepublication)

It has become trite to observe that increases in health care costs have become unsustainable. How best for policy to address these increases, however, depends in part on the degree to which they represent increases in the real quantity of medical services as opposed to increased unit prices of existing services. And an even more fundamental question is the degree to which the increased spending actually has purchased improved health.

Accounting for Health and Health Care addresses both these issues. The government agencies responsible for measuring unit prices for medical services have taken steps in recent years that have greatly improved the accuracy of those measures. Nonetheless, this book has several recommendations aimed at further improving the price indices.

All New Publications This Week

Conducting Biosocial Surveys: Collecting, Storing, Accessing, and Protecting Biospecimens and Biodata (prepublication)

Waste Forms Technology and Performance: Interim Report (final)

Provision of Mental Health Counseling Services Under TRICARE (final)

Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies: Final Report (final)

Understanding the Changing Planet: Strategic Directions for the Geographical Sciences (final)

NOAA’s Education Program: Review and Critique (final)

Evaluation of Biomarkers and Surrogate Endpoints in Chronic Disease (final)

Four New Books With Free PDFs: Body Armor, Health Care and more…

There are four new publications on the NAP.edu site this week, all four of which have free PDFs to download.

As a quick reminder, we run down the list of new publications here at Notes From NAP every Monday, and we periodically highlight books related to current events and spotlight changes and features of our website. You can subscribe to all posts on Notes From NAP via the RSS feed or delivered by email.

Featured Publication

CNS Clinical Trials: Suicidality and Data Collection: Workshop Summary (prepublication)

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now requires that all clinical trials for drugs that affect the central nervous system–including psychiatric drugs–are assessed for whether that drug might cause suicidal ideation or behavior. The IOM’s Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders hosted a meeting on June 26, 2009, to discuss the FDA’s new policy and how to analyze best whether suicidal thoughts predict actual suicidal behavior in the near future.

All New Publications

Review of the Department of Defense Enhanced Particulate Matter Surveillance Program Report (prepublication)

Testing of Body Armor Materials for Use by the U.S. Army–Phase II: Letter Report (final)

Value in Health Care: Accounting for Cost, Quality, Safety, Outcomes, and Innovation (final)

New Publications: Alternative Transportation, Value In Health Care, and More

Our featured new publication this week is the final version of Weight Gain During Pregnancy, which is one of a bunch of new publications to include a free PDF download. Look for “download the free PDF” below each new title.

Featured Publication

Weight Gain During Pregnancy: Reexamining the Guidelines (final)


As women of childbearing age have become heavier, the trade-off between maternal and child health created by variation in gestational weight gain has become more difficult to reconcile. Weight Gain During Pregnancy responds to the need for a reexamination of the 1990 Institute of Medicine guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy. It builds on the conceptual framework that underscored the 1990 weight gain guidelines and addresses the need to update them through a comprehensive review of the literature and independent analyses of existing databases. The book explores relationships between weight gain during pregnancy and a variety of factors (e.g., the mother’s weight and height before pregnancy) and places this in the context of the health of the infant and the mother, presenting specific, updated target ranges for weight gain during pregnancy and guidelines for proper measurement. New features of this book include a specific range of recommended gain for obese women.

Weight Gain During Pregnancy is intended to assist practitioners who care for women of childbearing age, policy makers, educators, researchers, and the pregnant women themselves to understand the role of gestational weight gain and to provide them with the tools needed to promote optimal pregnancy outcomes.

All New Publications This Week

Achieving Effective Acquisition of Information Technology in the Department of Defense (prepublication)

Investor Exits, Innovation, and Entrepreneurial Firm Growth: Questions for Research (final)

Review of the St. Johns River Water Supply Impact Study: Report 2 (prepublication)

The Healthcare Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes: Brief Summary of a Workshop (prepublication)

Value in Health Care: Accounting for Cost, Quality, Safety, Outcomes, and Innovation (prepublication)

Transitions to Alternative Transportation Technologies–Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (prepublication)

America’s Energy Future: Technology and Transformation (final)

Recognition and Alleviation of Pain in Laboratory Animals (final)

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Sustainability Partnerships: Summary of a Workshop (final)

America’s Energy Future: Technology and Transformation: Summary Edition (final)