The Digital Patient and the Digital Neighborhood: Implications for Modeling and Simulation in Healthcare

Abstract

Healthcare is the largest industry in the United States and in most of the developed world. This fact has not escaped recognition by the modeling and simulation community. During the past 15 years the number and variety of simulations and simulators have grown exponentially. That said, future growth will dwarf past growth. The development of human physiological models will expand to include foci ranging from the molecular to the community context. The accessibility to huge databases, the increasingly sophisticated use of machine learning and the compelling market incentives to develop healthcare applications that are both useable and useful. This keynote will explore the implications for modeling and simulation by describing two current healthcare modeling and simulation initiatives, the Digital Patient and the Digital Neighborhood, and identifying some of the central issues that must be addressed. Additionally, the implications for healthcare modeling and simulation that have arisen during the COVID pandemic will be discussed as well as the importance of novelty in planning and executing healthcare simulations.