Our Books
INCREASE YOUR BRAINABILITY
Reduce the Risk and Impact of Dementia
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A powerful new book by three internationally respected health leaders is challenging one of society’s most deeply held fears: that dementia is an unavoidable part of ageing.
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Drawing on the latest evidence from the Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention, Intervention and Care, Increase Your Brainability: Reduce the Risk and Impact of Dementia shows that up to one-third of dementia cases can be prevented or delayed — and that it is never too early, and never too late, to take action.
Written for the general public, not medical specialists, the book translates complex scientific research into clear, practical advice that readers can use immediately to protect their brain health, improve quality of life, and age with confidence.
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“For decades, people were told there was nothing they could do about dementia. That is no longer true,” the authors say.
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Price: £9.99
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Avaialable March 2026
How to Get Better Value Healthcare - by Sir Muir Gray
4th Edition
Great progress has been made in all health services over the last forty years but these problems remain. One is unwarranted variation in investment, cost and outcome which reveals the other two:
Underuse of high value interventions. This results in
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failure to prevent death and disability which may aggravate
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inequity
Overuse of lower value interventions. This results in
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waste – activity that consumes resources which could give greater value if used for another group of patients, which may also result in
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patient harm
In addition, need and demand are increasing faster than resources, both financial and human. It is therefore essential to focus on value which is broader than, but encompasses, quality, cost effectiveness and efficiency. The concept of value now has four meanings, adopted by the European Union and the G20:
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Personalised Value – how well do the outcome relates to the problem that was bothering them most
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Allocative Value – how well are resources allocated to different populations and sub groups
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Technical Value – how well are resources used for all the people in need in a population.
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Social value – how well does the health service add value to its population
Value based healthcare embraces the paradigms of quality improvement and evidence-based decision-making. Theaim is better value both for individuals and populations.
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Price: £24.99
Population Health Management - by Sir Muir Gray
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For decades clinicians and health services have focused on providing high quality care for patients and public health has focused on populations with the aim of preventing disease.
However, these two perspectives need to become one if we are to provide high value care to individuals and populations, and reduce inequity which persists even in countries committed to universal healthcare.
The new paradigm is called population healthcare or population health management to use another term. Everyone paying for or providing healthcare needs to think about the whole population served as well as about those people who reach that services and are treated by it.
Only by taking this perspective can we ensure the optimal use of the resources available, and the time of healthcare staff rather than money is the key finite resource , and indeed the sustainability of universal healthcare.
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Price: £24.99
**Coming Soon**
Fundamental Books - for understanding value based healthcare - by Sir Muir Gray
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How To Talk About Books You Have Not Read is a wonderful book by Pierre Bayard. The book can be read at two different levels as many books can.
On one level it is a humorous book, a little like the book by Stephen Potter called One-Up-Manship, which had advice on how to impress people with one’s literary credentials even though one had never read the classics. Pierre Bayard, however, makes a very serious point - that no one will ever read all the books that they need to read or could read in their particular topic. It is far more important to know about a book and its core message, preferably in the author’s own words, and to understand how that book fits into the culture and relates to other books and concepts then not to know that a book existed.
This is the principle behind our fundamental book list.
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Price: £9.99
**Coming Soon**
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Fundamental Language - for creating value based healthcare - by Sir Muir Gray
Language creates reality, it does not describe it. That is one of the principles that has emerged from anthropology, linguistics and philosophy from authors as diverse as Ludwig Wittgenstein, John Searle and Benjamin Lee Whorf.
Confusion about language and the meaning of the terms being used is one of the main causes of arguments, fruitless arguments, which disappear if everyone shares the same understanding of the term.
At OVSP we developed the 21st Century Healthcare Glossary with the principles of clarifying the meaning of commonly used terms to improve dialogue and decision making.
The Glossary is based on the principles which James Murray used when that determined Scot produced the the Oxford English Dictionary while living just two miles down the road from the OVSP
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Price: £9.99
Cracking Cryptic Crosswords - by Colin Dexter
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This is the last book written by Colin Dexter, the creator of Inspector Morse.
Colin was a prize-winning cryptic crossword setter and solver. He was also a gifted teacher.
He wrote this entertaining and instructive little book in order to help those many people who find the clues in cryptic crosswords too difficult to understand.
Cracking Cryptic Crosswords is a masterful and engaging guide for the would-be cryptic crossword solver.
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Price: £9.99
** Coming Soon**
Dr Gray's Walking Cure
Walking is simple, free, and medically by far the
best prescription for the 21st century. It is the way
mankind has kept fit for purpose ever since evolutionary times.
The reason why we don’t do it enough is because it has become too easy not to it! Although walking in the countryside is great, it can take significant
periiods of time. Walking in the course of one’s
daily life does not take much time, and the scenery
of the urban street can also be interesting: people are
often more entertaining than sheep!
Oxford Medicine: A Walk Through Nine Centuries - by Dr Eric Sidebottom
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A fascinating profusely illustrated little guide-book for a two hour walk in Oxford round sites with links to medicine.
This takes in sites dating from the twelfth to the twenty-first centuries, including brief histories of medical institutions, breakthroughs, and advances, and the people behind them.
Illustrated on every page with photographs.
Price: £9.99
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Obiter Scripta: Essays, Lectures, Articles, Interviews and Reviews on Music and Other Subjects -
by Albi Rosenthal
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This volume of Albi Rosenthal's work was originally conceived as a small selection in celebration of his 85th birthday. It rapidly expanded to a larger volume as the range and depth of his scholarship, and the fascination of his material, became apparent. This more comprehensive collection is presented here in the belief that it will now also be of interest to a much wider audience
Obiter Scripta spans the author's output of over sixty years, touching on many subjects on which he is an expert. There are specific studies on Mozart--the field in which he is pre-eminent--and on Monteverdi, Paganini, Haydn, Liszt, and Kodály. He also writes on music collecting and bibliography, fakes and frauds, discoveries, the perils of auctions, the earliest depiction of a musical instrument in a printed book, and anecdotes and coincidences. He is a Trustee of the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel and describes how many of the Foundation's major acquisitions were secured. There is a section of tributes, and a number of articles arising from his lifelong interest in Nietzsche. Finally, there are some interviews in which, among other things, Albi talks about himself, his family, and his life in Oxford.
Forced by the political situation to leave Germany, Albi Rosenthal had to abandon his hopes of an academic career. He has combined a lifetime of study and business, and in the course of doing so, has become the foremost authority in the field of music manuscripts while simultaneously pursuing academic work--not from an ivory tower, but from the hectic environment of an international businessman, commuting almost daily from Boars Hill to Belsize Park Gardens, with frequent visits to all parts of the world where music manuscripts are appraised, bought or sold.
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Price: £35.00
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