Systems Science and Population Health: A Comprehensive Guide

Population health is a complex and multifaceted field that encompasses dynamic interactions between cells, societies, and everything in between. However, our typical approach to studying population health often remains reductionist, focusing on simplifying a complex world. This approach can lead to interventions that do not work, sometimes resulting in failure or even harm. The difficult truth is that “silver bullet” health science often fails, and understanding these failures can help us improve our approach to health science, and ultimately, population health.

Systems Science and Population Health employs principles from across a range of sciences to refine the way we understand population health. By augmenting traditional analytic approaches with new tools like machine learning, microsimulation, and social network analysis, population health can be studied as a dynamic and complex system. This allows us to understand population health as a complex whole, offering new insights and perspectives that stand to improve the health of the public.

This text offers the first educational and practical guide to this forward-thinking approach. Comprising 17 chapters from the vanguard of population health, epidemiology, computer science, and medicine, this book offers a three-part introduction to the subject:

1. Intellectual and Conceptual History of Systems Science: An exploration of the intellectual and conceptual history of systems science as it intersects with population health.
2. Methodological Tools in Systems Science: Concise, introductory overviews of important and emerging methodological tools in systems science, including systems dynamics, agent-based modeling, microsimulation, social network analysis, and machine-learning – all with relevant examples drawn from population health literature.
3. Future Implications for Systems Science: An exploration of future implications for systems science and its applications to our understanding of population health issues.

For researchers, students, and practitioners, Systems Science and Population Health redefines many of the foundational elements of how we understand population health. It should not be missed.

Product Details

Pages: 240

Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1 edition (March 1, 2017)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0190492392

ISBN-13: 978-0190492397

Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 0.7 x 6.1 inches