Center Updates
First Issue of the Proceedings of the Center for Complexity in Health
Friday, 6 January 2012
We are announcing the launching of the Proceedings of the Center for Complexity in Health.
The PCCH is an annual publication designed both to showcase and provide a publication outlet for some of the main avenues of research being conducted in the Center for Complexity in Health, Robert S. Morrison Health and Science Building, Kent State University at Ashtabula. These areas include medical professionalism, community health, allostatic load, school systems, medical learning environments and case-based modeling—all explored from a complexity science perspective.
The studies published in the PCCH are generally comprehensive, in-depth explorations of a topic, meant to provide a wider and more complete empirical and theoretical backdrop for the specific studies that scholars involved in the Center for Complexity in Health (CCH) regularly publish in various disciplinary journals. Such an outlet as the PCCH is useful given the conventions (e.g., page constraints and narrowness of focus) typical of most research periodicals, which make it very difficult to publish relatively complete statements on a topic in complex systems terms. While PCCH studies augment, acknowledge and cite CCH work published in other venues, each PCCH study is an original, distinct manuscript. Finally, PCCH studies are peer-reviewed. Prior to publication each study is sent to colleagues for review and criticism to ensure the highest quality of published proceedings possible.
PCCH and all of its studies are the copyright © property of the Center for Complexity in Health, Kent State University at Ashtabula. Manuscripts published in the PCCH should be cited appropriately, as in the following example:
Castellani, B., Rajaram, R., Buckwalter, JG., Ball, M., and Hafferty, F. 2012. “Place and Health as Complex Systems: A Case Study and Empirical Test.” Proceedings of the Center for Complexity in Health, Kent State University at Ashtabula, 1(1):1-35.
Our first publication is an in-depth exploration of several key issues in complexity science and its intersection with the study of community health. First, how does one determine the empirical utility of defining a community as a complex system? What unique insights emerge that could not otherwise be obtained? Second, how does one conduct a litmus test of one’s definition of a community as a complex system in a systematic manner—something currently not done in the complexity science literature? Third, how does one use the methods and techniques of complexity science to conduct such a litmus test, in combination with conventional methods such as statistics, qualitative method and historical analysis? In our study we address all three questions, as pertains to a case study on the link between sprawl and community-level health in a Midwestern county (Summit County, Ohio) in the United States and the 20 communities of which it comprised.
Complexity, Professionalism, and the Hidden Curriculum
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Just
got back from the
The Association for Medical Education in Europe
Conference. AMEE "is a worldwide organisation with
members in 90 countries on five continents. Members
include educators, researchers, administrators,
curriculum developers, assessors and students in
medicine and the healthcare professions."
We did a pre-conference workshop on complexity method as
applied to the topics of medical professionalism and the
hidden curriculum. It went very well. My co-conspirators
in presenting were:
1) Jim Price (Institute of Postgraduate Medicine,
Brighton & Sussex Medical School, UK)
2) Susan Lieff (Centre for Faculty Development,
Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Canada)
3) Frederic Hafferty (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota,
USA)
4) John Castellani (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
We also had two student presentations using social
networks to analyze medical education:
O B Nikolaus*, R Hofer, W Pawlina, B Castellani, P K
Hafferty, F W Hafferty. “Social networks and academic
help seeking among first year medical students.” The
Association for Medical Education in Europe Annual
Conference, Vienna Austria 2011.
Ryan E Hofer, O Brant Nikolaus, Wojciech Pawlina, Brian
Castellani, Philip K Hafferty, Frederic Hafferty.
“Peer-to-peer assessments of professionalism: A time
dependent social network perspective.” The Association
for Medical Education in Europe Annual Conference,
Vienna Austria 2011
Overall, a very successful conference.
CCH Members Attending Roundtable Event
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
Drs. Castellani and Hafferty are involved this weekend in a roundtable event sponsored by the Mayo Clinic and the American Board of Internal Medicine. The purpose of the roundtable is the advancement of medical professionalism through the application of complexity science. You can download Dr. Castellani's presentation in PDF format from the link below.
Paper Published in Journal of Sociocybernetics
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
The ISA online Journal of Sociocybernetics has released a special issue covering the proceedings from last year's Urbino Conference. Contained in the issue is a paper authored by CCH research team members Dr. Brian Castellani, Dr. Frederic Hafferty, and Michael Ball. The paper, E-Social Science from a Systems Perspective: Applying the SACS Toolkit, addresses the use of the SACS Toolkit to translate, organize and manipulate electronic data from varied sources. The complete issue of the journal can be viewed at: http://www.unizar.es/sociocybernetics/Journal/JoS7-2-2009.pdf
The CCH paper begins on page 89 of the issue.
Infectious Disease Model
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
CCH Research Team Member, Michael Ball, has completed a model looking at the progression of a fatal illness communicated via contact, complete with incubation period, variable disease period and terminality, and agents who are immune to the disease. This model simulates the spread of an infectious disease traveling via contact through a randomly moving population. The user can draw walls, buildings, or obstacles in the in the simulation grid to simulate different environments.
Future versions of the model will show the progression of air-borne, food-borne and fixed source contact diseases. This model was developed as part of research work for the Center for Complexity in Health. A working copy of the model, along with directions and the complete code can be found at: http://www.personal.kent.edu/~mdball/Infectious_Disease_Model.htm
Questions, comments, or suggestions for the model are quite welcome.