One important part of a sustainable world is the flourishing of food systems, urban design, and public health infrastructure that helps society prevent and treat chronic diseases — such as type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is projected to affect one out of three Americans born in 2003. In 2002 itcost the U.S. $132 billion.
Sustainability Institute, working with Joyce Essien as part of the Center for Public Health Practice at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, has been hired by the Division of Diabetes Translation in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta to use systems thinking approaches and system dynamics simulation modeling to help them and their state-level colleagues address the growing burden of diabetes.
Onto the SI team we have welcomed colleagues Jack Homer and Doc Klein. Together we have constructed a simulation model and model-based learning laboratory that help diverse public health leaders understand the long term effects of a range of possible interventions, from better diabetes care to more extensive detection of undiagnosed patients to improving the living conditions and personal capacities that are driving the obesity crisis.
Currently the overall team is using the model-based conversation to support the development of an effective diabetes strategy in the state of Vermont. Susan Sweitzer is leading the writing of a learning history about the effort.
Resources
- A paper on the modeling project has now been published in the American Journal of Public Health. Reference:
Understanding Diabetes Population Dynamics Through Simulation Modeling and Experimentation, Andrew P. Jones, MS, Jack B. Homer, PhD, Dara L. Murphy, MPH, Joyce D. K. Essien, MD, MBA, Bobby Milstein, MPH and Donald A. Seville, MS
March 2006, Vol 96, No. 3 | American Journal of Public Health 488-494
© 2006 American Public Health Association -- DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2005.063529
For a copy of the paper, follow the link above or email Drew Jones. - Pictures and poetry from a diabetes strategy session in Vermont, (March 2005) (3.8MB pdf) by Doc Klein.
- The CDC's Diabetes Systems Modeling Project: Developing a new tool for chronic disease prevention and control (2004) (240KB pdf). Overview of model findings and background on the model-building process.
- Diabetes Systems Model Reference Guide, Jack Homer (2006) (547KB pdf). Overview of model structure behavior and assumptions.
- Photos and descriptions from a diabetes workshop in California, (January 2007) (4.38MB pdf)
Contact
- Drew Jones (model and project direction)