2 research outputs found
Bringing ALife and complex systems science to population health research
Despite tremendous advancements in population health in recent history, human society currently
faces significant challenges from wicked health problems. These are problems where the causal mechanisms
at play are obscured and difficult to address, and consequently they have defied efforts to develop effective
interventions and policy solutions using traditional population health methods. Systems-based perspectives are
vital to the development of effective policy solutions to seemingly intractable health problems like obesity
and population aging. ALife in particular is well placed to bring interdisciplinary modeling and simulation
approaches to bear on these challenges. This article summarizes the current status of systems-based approaches
in population health, and outlines the opportunities that are available for ALife to make a significant contribution
to these critical issues