Abstract
This chapter proposes an application of simulation modelling to frame the relationships between healthcare, patient organization management, and patient co-created healthcare. For the purpose, it presents a case study within the Italian context, for which it adopts a methodological approach combining performance management and system dynamics. After background information, the chapter introduces the methodology and explains the modelling steps, undertaken assuming the privileged perspective of a patient organization. The model building goes by progressive approximations. A tailored dynamic performance management framework identifies key variables and links within the system. Then a stock-and-flow structure deepens the analysis by depicting processes of accumulation of material, money, and information; a comprehensive loop analysis describes the system's dynamics in terms of interacting feedback structures. Finally, quantitative simulations concerning the mutual development of patient organizations and healthcare allow graphing behavior patterns according to alternative scenarios.
TopSystem dynamics is a simulation methodology suitable for investigating any dynamic problem occurring in social, ecologic and/or economic systems, where interdependence, mutual interaction, information feedback, and circular causality take place. SD represents hypothetical causal structures for problematic behaviors, through the following tools:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Dynamic Performance Management Framework: Model building framework combining performance management and system dynamics.
System Dynamics: Simulation methodology suitable to deal with dynamic problems (i.e., issue behaviors occurring over the time) in complex social, economic, or ecological systems.