Health systems: a dynamic system - benefits from system dynamics

Operations researchers, industrial engineers, and simulation analysts have applied their knowledge and skills to the health care system for a long time. This complex system needs their help today more than ever. The ever-growing need to understand and improve system performance challenges researchers to apply all the tools at their disposal. One of these tools that is getting increased attention is system thinking, with its application partner system dynamics. This paper presents a glimpse into the system thinking world as it is currently applied in the health care arena, and provides some thoughts on new directions for application. While there are other very useful tools, such as optimization and discrete-event simulation, that are effectively used for health care application, they should not always be the tools of choice, and suggestions are made for when system dynamics may be more appropriate for a particular application.