Derek Cabrera

Practical Challenges of Systems Thinking and Modeling in Public Health

OBJECTIVES Awareness of and support for systems thinking and modeling in the public health field are growing, yet there are many practical challenges to implementation. We sought to identify and describe these challenges from the perspectives of practicing public health professionals. METHODS A systems-based methodology, concept mapping, was used in a study of 133 participants from 2 systems-based public health initiatives (the Initiative for the Study and Implementation of Systems and the Syndemics Prevention Network). This method identified 100 key challenges to implementation of systems thinking and modeling in public health work. RESULTS The project resulted in a map identifying 8 categories of challenges and the dynamic interactions among them. CONCLUSIONS Implementation by public health professionals of the 8 simple rules we derived from the clusters in the map identified here will help to address challenges and improve the organization of systems that protect the publics health.

What is the crisis? Defining and prioritizing the world's most pressing problems

As consensus grows regarding the unprecedented global environmental challenges we currently face, so too does the notion that publicly funded science has a duty to dedicate resources toward overcoming these challenges. In order for scientists to shift attention and resources to the most pressing global problems, we must first enumerate these issues and establish consensus across academia as to the importance and feasibility of solving them. To this end, we have applied concept mapping to a large and diverse pool of disciplinary experts – the entire faculty of Cornell University – to empirically assess their opinions on what our most pressing global crises are, how they relate to one another, and how feasible it would be to solve them. We (1) define what Cornell University faculty see as the most pressing problems of our day, (2) sort them into relevant, modern “disciplines”, and (3) rate them according to both their importance and the feasibility of solving them. This study reveals broad consensus across ...

APPLYING SYSTEMS THINKING MODELS OF ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN AND CHANGE IN COMMUNITY OPERATIONAL RESEARCH

Abstract In this article, we present a systems thinking approach to organizational design and change called VMCL (vision, mission, culture/capacity, learning) and describe different community applications to illustrate its theoretical and practical relevance to community operational research (Community OR). VMCL was developed to apply systems thinking and complexity theory to any situation that involves groups of people, such as organizations. Additionally, we elaborate a network-based theory of change called NFST (naysayers, fence-sitters, supporters, thought leaders) for implementing VMCL in any community context. We describe how VMCL was extensively applied to local grassroots movements involving community members, students, staff, teachers, school leaders, and board members to change US school districts. We then discuss the relevance and application of VMCL and NFST to community mobilization by a grassroots movement in Wisconsin, USA. We conclude by discussing the ways in which VMCL and NFST foster systemic Community OR, and how they are useful tools for community organizers and other practitioners.