This work, designed for clinicians, adopts a coordinated multidisciplinary approach to a range of topics central to complexity in medicine, with the aim of offering an integrated, unitary perspective that stands in contrast to the traditional simplification inherent in the subdivision into single specialties. It recognizes that medicine today has to face emerging issues that current knowledge cannot accommodate because the properties to be addressed do not simply equate to the sum of the properties of single components but rather are the product of interactions among them or among different environments. Examples include the interactions among genetic, environmental, pathological, psychological, and ethical aspects. This new model, represented by so-called systems medicine, entails a different approach, already reflected in, for instance, the view of cancer as a cellular ecosystem in evolution rather than a unique disease and the acknowledgment that future guidelines for cardiovas
cular prevention will have to consider many factors beyond blood pressure or cholesterol levels. It also recognizes the impact of other fields upon medicine, as in the crucial contributions of CERN to projects of great medical importance and of grid computing to genomics research. The Handbook of Complexity in Medicine offers stimulating insights into this new reality; it will provide readers with a tool for deepening their understanding of topics that even today remain somewhat unclear and will hopefully assist in decision making that takes into account this uncertainty.
Introduction to complexity.- The mathematics of complexity.- Philosophy
of complexity.- Prediction and decision making.- Information, noise and
meaning?.- Systems and complexity.- Small scale. Of a unifying theory in
medicine.- Quantum physics and biology.- The dark side of our genomes:
spatial organization, noise, etc.- Organization, balance between noise and
information.- Networks theory and the inner life of cells.- Form and
function, old paradigm true again?.- The missing mesoscales.- The magnitude
of a human. What you do with what you got: of genes and the environment.- The
virtual human.- The disaster of disease. A failing human.- A human ecosystem.
Of identity and complexity.- Being so meta. Humans, between freedom and
determinism.- Defining a human: what we eat, do, think.- Competing cultures
and the righteous mind.- Stigma. Making sense as a cure and a disease.- The
struggle for enlightenment. Section A The human brain 20 Cells, areas,
networks, etc.- Tooling up for brain research.- Modeling the brain. Blowing a
ghost in the shell.- Building, toying, and understanding.- Informing mental
health. The DSM and beyond.- At the heart of a human.- Physiome project.-
Multiple models of a single organ. Can we put Humpty Dumpty back together?.-
Medicine and basic sciences. More than the sum of the parts.- Heart-brain
connection.- A map of metabolism.- ReconX and the gps of metabolism.-
Translating the models into practice.- The gaps in the map.- Clinical AI 32
Profiling and other strategies.- Infectious diseases.- Cancer therapy.- The
hackers philosophy in medical research.- Lost and found in translation.-
From biological insights to clinical intelligence.- Of models and clinical
pathways.- Generalizing average Joe.- Bigdata and medicine.- The resistance
to adoption.- Medicine Vs Research?.- The beauty of small.- Power of one.-
Tools for uncertainty.- Extending the model.- Data. Collection, quality,
analyses.- eHealth as the trait dunion between research and medicine.-
Clinical models. Competition and emulation between doctors and AI. The
clinical dilemma.- Time as a partner. Ticking beyond rhethorics.- Care as a
negotiation of values.- The burden of care and Ulysses syndrome. Complexity
in practice.- Healthcare as an ecosystem. Is every change possible?.-
Narratives of disease, false memories and prejudice. 1+1+= public health?.-
Personalized medicine and public health.- Rethinking failure and success.-
Care cycle as education.- The people in the room. Who cares?.- Time as the
enemy. Disaster and crisis management.- The economics of health.- Health
between commons and commodity.- Patient at the centre. Client or partner.-
Design for sustainable Health.- Is antifragility possible for healthcare?.-
Preparing for the worse.- The laws of medicine.- Lives lost and saved.
Counting and responsibility.- Agency in care.- My brain made me do that and
the law.- Medical Humanities.- Art as a mean to make sense of health and
disease.- Narratives to map the unknown.
Marco Manca got a degree in Medicine at the University of Bologna in 2006. After years of research in Bologna, as freelancer and contractor, he became Researcher at the Maastricht University from 2009 to 2013. He is Chair of the scientific board of the European Society of Athletic Therapy and Training and Member of the Task Force on Global Practice and Credentialing of Athletic Trainers and Therapists. He is also scientific secretary of the Grupo Luso-Italiano de Arteriosclerose, a non-profit organisation with purely scientific purposes focused on atherosclerosis and its related topics. Dr. Manca is also co-founder and President of the SCim Pulse Foundation (NGO). SCim Pulse aims to impulse sustainable innovation by acting as a broker of trust between otherwise far stakeholders and by acting as a sandbox to extract meaning from the collision, sometimes serendipitous, of scientific and business actors. Since January 2014 hes been senior fellow for Medical Applications at CERN.
