Handbook of Palliative Care

SUBJECT: Palliative care is an interdisciplinary, comprehensive and concentrated approach to dying and death. It is the total care of patients who are not responsive to curative treatment. Patients may be treated at home, in the hospital, or in an inpatient hospice care facility. The provision of good palliative care is vital to achieve this goal and this work is a significant part of the activity of clinicians in palliative medicine and the primary health care team. NEED: In the last three decades, the expanding knowledge and experience in palliative care has led to a burgeoning of information, together with the swell of new techniques and developing pharmacology in the field. There is now a need for a new edition of this book to take into account the latest developments in palliative medicine. It will continue to act as a comprehensive yet practical guide to palliative care, covering issues from clinical skills and service provision, to ethical and psychological matters. COMPETITION: There are several handbooks in this area. However, the majority of these are aimed at the nursing community rather than the clinician, and therefore do not directly compete.Also, many of these have an emphasis on oncology and do not cover other diseases such as AIDS, motor neurone disease etc. FORMAT: The first eight chapters trace the roots and key principles of palliative interdisciplinary care, beginning with historical perspective and definitions, touching on medication delivery and management, and describing needs assessment and audit systems. The majority of the book is then dedicated to management of symptoms and disease-specific topics including pain-management, gastrointestinal symptoms, respiratory symptoms, cancer, AIDS, neuromuscular disorders and paediatrics. The book concludes with an introduction to complementary medicine and the interventions and potential problems one may encounter in the application of complementary approaches to palliative care. Data for effectiveness and safety of complementary techniques are presented where available. One of the original editors, Richard Woolf, is no longer working in the field and wil be replaced by a nursing expert in palliative medicine, Lillian Daniels. CONTENTS & ORGANISATION: See contents list below.FEATURES: New sections on heart failure, respiratory failure and end-stage renal failure Coverage of medicine management and complementary medicine in palliative care Discusses important areas of audit and ethical issues in palliative medicineMARKETING: The editors were disappointed by our marketing activities for the first edition, particularly as we did not target any journals in palliative medicine. A realistic marketing plan will need to be agreed with them prior to contract signature. We should target societies and associations in the field of palliative medicine. PAST HISTORY: The first edition of this book published in July 1998 and we have sold 3233 copies through the trade. The current price is