Key performance indicators for successful simulation projects

There are many factors that may contribute to the successful delivery of a simulation project. To provide a structured approach to assessing the impact various factors have on project success, we propose a top-down framework whereby 15 Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are developed that represent the level of successfulness of simulation projects from various perspectives. They are linked to a set of Critical Success Factors (CSF) as reported in the simulation literature. A single measure called Project’s Success Measure (PSM), which represents the project’s total success level, is proposed. The framework is tested against 9 simulation exemplar cases in healthcare and this provides support for its reliability. The results suggest that responsiveness to the customer’s needs and expectations, when compared with other factors, holds the strongest association with the overall success of simulation projects. The findings highlight some patterns about the significance of individual CSFs, and how the KPIs are used to identify problem areas in simulation projects

Applying the stress guidelines for reproducibility in modeling & simulation: Application to a disease modeling case study

© 2018 IEEE It is arguably difficult to reproduce the results of published work in Modeling & Simulation (M&S). Authors have certainly raised concerns about this issue and attempts by journals and conferences are being made to improve the situation. As part of a movement to tackle reproducibility in M&S, the Strengthening The Reporting of Empirical Simulation Studies (STRESS) reporting checklists were introduced in 2018. The STRESS guidelines aimed to improve knowledge management in industry and to maximize the chance that all important M&S details are included when writing up simulation research for publication. We extend this work by providing an applied example of using the STRESS-ABS checklist for documenting an Agent Based Simulation model. It is hoped that an applied example will both encourage and guide authors and practitioners to improve their reporting

Navigating CYP1A Induction and Arylhydrocarbon Receptor Agonism in Drug Discovery. A Case History with S1P₁ Agonists

This article describes the finding of substantial upregulation of mRNA and enzymes of the cytochrome P450 1A family during a lead optimization campaign for small molecule S1P₁ agonists. Fold changes in mRNA up to 10 000-fold for CYP1A1 in vivo in rat and cynomolgus monkey and up to 45-fold for CYP1A1 and CYP1A2 in vitro in rat and human hepatocytes were observed. Challenges observed with correlating induction in vitro and induction in vivo resulted in the implementation of a short, 4 day in vivo screening study in the rat which successfully identified noninducers. Subtle structure–activity relationships in this series of S1P₁ agonists are described extending beyond planarity and lipophilicity, and the impact and considerations of AhR and CYP1A induction in the context of drug development are discussed