Models That Matter

What can be done about workaholic burnout? Why do new medical products get underused or overused? Under what conditions does antibiotic resistance become rampant? How can we better balance public health priorities for preventing and treating diabetes and cardiovascular disease? What types of policies are essential for effective health care reform? These questions and more are explored in this collection of sixteen journal articles written or co-written by Jack Homer, an award-winning and internationally recognized expert in system dynamics policy modeling, who has developed models for a variety of private and public organizations from the 1980s to the present. Some of the articles explore the models in detail, while others step back to offer general thoughts on methodology and the central question of how to approach modeling with both rigor and practicality.