What is Linear Models

The application of linear models to human systems and healthcare management and quality has improved our understanding of their system structure and function. However, such models often fall short of explaining experimental results or predicting future abnormalities in complex nonlinear systems which help in dissecting and analyzing individual system components. Nonlinear models may better explain how the individual components collectively act and interact to produce a dynamic system in constant flux. They also assist in filling in some of the results that are not adequately explained by linear models. In this context, we should consider the integration of linear and non-linear theories in healthcare quality and management, drawing the initial conditions of chaotic behavior from the standardization of the linear theory, and distinguishing between desirable and undesirable variation relegating statistical process control only to issues of high certainty regarding the outcome.