Allied Healthcare in Practice: An Introduction to Integrated Patient Care

This book is a comprehensive exploration of the dynamic and evolving landscape of allied healthcare, providing a foundational understanding of the principles, practices, and challenges associated with integrated patient care. Through a multidisciplinary approach, it addresses the interplay of various allied health disciplines and communication and ethical and legal considerations followed in achieving optimal patient outcomes.

The volume begins with an introduction to allied health sciences and career opportunities and discusses the basic knowledge, such as knowledge of anatomy and physiology and the interrelationship between systems and organs in the body. The volume covers the skills required for specialized areas, including medical imaging and radiology; rehabilitation, physical, and occupational therapy; speech therapy; nutrition and dietetics; community ophthalmology; etc. Also addressed are the safety quality and patient care aspects of allied healthcare, forensic aspects in patient care, inter-collaborations in patient care; and ethical and legal issues in patient care.

Sally Lukose, PhD, is a Professor (Forensic Science) and Dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences, Sharda University, India. She has more than 19 years of research and teaching experience in the area of forensic science. She is credited with the initiation of undergraduate and postgraduate forensic science programs at several universities in India. She has published research papers in national and international journals along with several books and patents. Her publications have been recognized as one of the most read and top downloaded papers by Wiley (2018–19 and 2019–20). She has been associated with projects of the Bureau of Police Research and Development, Delhi, and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, USA, and has given training to police officers for road accident investigation. Her work was recognized and awarded by the Forensic Science Forum of the Indian Science Congress Association, and she has received many other awards as well.

Karuna Singh, PhD, is a Professor (Nutrition and Dietetics) and Dean in the School of Allied Health Sciences, Sharda University, India. She is working in the field of functional and therapeutics and maternal and pediatric nutrients. With over 20 years of teaching experience, she has supervised BTech, MPhil, MSc, and PhD scholars. She has authored research papers in reputed national and international journals along with book chapters and books. Apart from her teaching assignments, she has been involved in extension activities. She holds several patents and copyrights. She is an editorial board member of various journals and has also handled projects awarded by government agencies such as the Department of Science and Technology (India) and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC). She also worked on industrial consultancies and organized faculty development programs, conferences, workshops, and seminars. She has received many awards for her work.