Applications of optimization techniques to medicine: diabetes and screening

A mathematical model of diabetes has been developed and used to analyze screening strategies for control of diabetes. The analysis has been performed under alternative assumptions about the person (or cohort) screened, the disease progression, and the screening modality. A general mathematical model of the disease progression and effects of screening on its behavior has been developed. The model incorporates the underlying principle of the progression of diabetes through a series of discrete states in such a way that a substantially different treatment is experienced for each of the states. The effect of the screening test is to decrease the probability of remaining in undetected states of diabetes. The problem of determining sequence lengths for repeated screening tests has been considered.<>