Modeling of Public Health: Call for Interdisciplinary Actions

Koonce, J.F., Yashin, A.I., Walters, C.J., & Rusnak, M. (1984). Modeling of Public Health: Call for Interdisciplinary Actions. IIASA Collaborative Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: CP-84-001

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Abstract

Health care systems today confront a range of diseases for which preventive measures lie outside traditional therapeutic medicine. The variety and multicausality of illness forms are closely related to the differences among people, especially social, economical and other conditions of their lives. The activities of many institutions which are not directly involved in health regulation, influence public health today. These facts apply also to the scale of possible control actions.

Joint effects of population heterogeneity and the hierarchical nature of public health regulation seem to have led naturally to the current mix of problems and also seem to indicate that only more holistic approaches will improve the situation.

One of the problems, how to overcome interdisciplinary barriers and organize effective preventive measures, may be solved only by joined efforts of social and economical institutions directly or indirectly responsible for the modern pattern of diseases. Workshops with computer modeling seem to be an appropriate instrument for developing interdisciplinary collaboration. The results of an experiment with the Slovakian Ministry of Health suggest that intensive modeling workshops involving health care planners, physicians, and other experts lead to better problem formulation and policy analysis.

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