Measurement, Models and Medicine: Computer Modelling in hEalth Care Delivery

Abstract

Computational modelling is becoming of increasing importance in assisting with, and enhancing, the processes of decision-making in clinical medicine and in health care delivery, processes which depend upon the effective interpretation of data yielded by measurement practice. Using conceptual models of health care delivery, a framework can be established within which the role of specific computational modelling paradigms can be clearly identified. Some of the methodological issues which underpin computer modelling are considered across the range of realizations (mathematical, logical, statistical and graphical) that find application in the clinical and health care domains. Examples are given of both quantitative modelling and qualitative model-based reasoning as important adjuncts to measurement practice.