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 – Clinical Application -- 18. Complexities of the Consultation -- 19. Inflammation through a Psychoneuroimmunological Lens -- 20. Diabetes control: insights from complexity science -- 21. Complexity and the onset of psychosis -- 22. Understanding intimate partner violence through its dynamics -- 23. Multi-level interdependencies and constraints in panic disorder: Many triggers, few responses -- 24. Nonlinear Relations of Cardiovascular Risk Factors to Neuropsychological Function and Dementia -- 25.  Pain and Complex Adaptive System Theory -- 26. Complexity in Movement Disorders:  A Systems Approach to Intervention -- 27. Avoidable hospitalizations in older adults -- 28.  Continuous Multiorgan Variability Monitoring in Critically Ill Patients – Complexity Science at the Bedside -- Part 5 - Health Services -- 29. An overview of complexity theory: understanding primary care as a complex adaptive system -- 30. Real-time Analytics and Quality of Care -- 31. Medical Sociology and Case-Based Complexity Science: A User’s Guide -- 32. The Drug Prescription Process: a Network Medicine Approach -- 33. Applications of Complex Dynamics, an Approach to Refractory Health Policy Interventions -- 34.  Designing for Health Promotion, Social Innovation and Complexity: The CoNEKTR Model for Wicked Problems -- 35.  The Dynamical Behaviours of Diseases in Africa -- Part 6 - Health System -- 36. Health Transition Funds Initiatives: Implications for Health System Reform and Evaluation -- 37.  Putting complexity to work - supporting practitioners in health systems -- 38. Implementing Adaptive Health Practice — A Complexity-Based Philosophy of Health Care -- 39.  Mayo Clinic: Making Complex Healthcare Simpler -- 40. Embracing Uncertainty: Complexity Inspired Innovations at Billings Clinic -- 41.  A Complexity Science Perspective of Organizational Behavior in Clinical Microsystems -- 42.  Reverse the Epidemic Tides of Unhealthy Habits: Personal, Professional and Leadership Challenges -- 43. Health Professions Education:  Complexity, Teaching and Learning -- 44. Understanding Clinical Complexity through conversational learning in medical social networks: Implementing User Driven Health care -- Part 7 – The Future of Healthcare -- 45.  Making sense – from complex systems theories, models and analytics to adapting actions and practices in health and health care -- 46.  Modeling the Paradox of Primary Care -- 47.  Health Care Reform – the need for a complex adaptive systems approach -- 48.  A Complexity Science Approach to Healthcare Costs and Quality -- 49.  Opportunities in Delivery of Preventive Services in Retail Settings -- 50.  Complexity Science in the Future of Behavioral Medicine -- 51.  Systems Medicine – A New Model for Healthcare -- Epilogue.  .

Systems and complexity theory plays critical roles in such varied fields as computer science, the physical sciences, meteorology, and economics--and yet health care has yet to take full advantage of what it has to offer. What the theory offers is on rich display as the Handbook of Systems and Complexity in Health presents a revolutionary approach to reforming basic practice and large-scale care delivery, based on the concept of health care as a complex, self-organized, and self-interactive system.   The book's opening section provides readers with a thorough grounding in systems and complexity theory from scientific, historical, epistemological, and technical perspectives, complete with the principles and mathematics behind it. From there, contributors offer models of innovation and improvement in service delivery, disease prevention and health promotion, cost-effectiveness, communication, quality control--in short, a more efficient and equitable future for health care. And one particularly intriguing chapter suggests opportunities for complexity theory in refining the drug prescription process. A sampling of the coverage:   Understanding health and illness from a complexity perspective. A methodology for analyzing medical data. Modeling illness and recovery with nonlinear dynamics. Clinical applications: inflammation, diabetes, panic disorder, pain, domestic violence, cardiovascular disorders, and the art of the consultation. Complexity science at the bedside: continuous multiorgan variability monitoring in critically ill patients. Primary care as a complex adaptive system.   Researchers in health services research, health policy, and health administration will find in the Handbook of Systems and Complexity in Health a new way of viewing health and illness, and potentially a new way to organize health care delivery.