Quality, as exemplified by Quality-of-life (QoL) assessment, is
frequently discussed among health care professionals and often invoked
as a goal for improvement, but somehow rarely defined, even as it is
regularly assessed. It is understood that some medical patients have a
better QoL than others, but should the QoL achieved be compared to an
ideal state, or is it too personal and subjective to gauge? Can a better
understanding of the concept help health care systems deliver services
more effectively? Is QoL worth measuring at all? Integrating concepts
from psychology, philosophy, neurocognition, and linguistics, this book
attempts to answer these complex questions. It also breaks down the
cognitive-linguistic components that comprise the judgment of quality,
including description, evaluation, and valuations, and applies them to
issues specific to individuals with chronic medical illness. In this
context, quality/QoL assessment becomes an essential contributor to
ethical practice, a critical step towards improving the nature of social
interactions. The author considers linear, non-linear, and
complexity-based models in analyzing key methodology and content issues
in health-related QoL assessment.
This book is certain to stimulate debate in the research and scientific
communities. Its forward-looking perspective takes great strides toward
promoting a common cognitive-linguistic model of how the judgment of
quality occurs, thereby contributing important conceptual and empirical
tools to its varied applications, including QoL assessment.
