System dynamics modeling on health care: supply and demand of dementia care

Abstract

This presentation will address the use of system dynamics models to analyze complex problems in health care. System dynamics has been used on health related issues since at least the 1960s and in the Netherlands since the 1980s. In this approach a group of experts and stakeholders participates in developing a model of a concrete problem. Topics that have been addressed in the past are epidemics, burnout, supply and demand of hospital care, dementia care, referral behavior of general practitioners, access to general practitioners, work pressure of doctors in training, costs of national health care and interventions in national health care systems. This presentation focuses on the assumptions underlying the approach and the limitations and benefits of participant involvement. A case on supply and demand of dementia care is used as an example of the process and results of system dynamics modeling