The health of any nation is a complex system of systems – changes in agriculture, transportation, economics, family life, medical practices, and many other things can have a profound effect on population health and on overall health costs. Decisions that policy makers and health professionals make about investment in prevention and treatment programs for healthcare can lead to many complex system interactions and outcomes. For example, the treatment of chronic disease presents issues that the health sector alone cannot address. Problems such as obesity reflect cultural, social, educational, political, and economic conditions, as well as policies, practices, costs, and prices in a wide range of industries as diverse as advertising, transportation, agriculture, insurance, and more.
Today, policy-level investment decisions are frequently made based on data and models of individual systems in isolation. Yet, it is becoming increasingly important to take into account a broad range of concerns in health decision making – it is becoming technically possible to analyze, simulate, and model large and complex system interactions. But doing this raises substantial technical problems and substantial human problems. And it requires stakeholders from many different places and disciplines to work together – including those in government, industry, academia, non-profits, public policy, economics, medicine, and modeling, to name just a few.
The Almaden Institute 2010, which will be held April 28-29, 2010 will bring together experts from all these diverse domains to establish conversations and connections that will drive ecosystem-wide, fact-based, and scientifically sound decision making about health.
The Almaden Institute is held annually at IBM Research – Almaden in San Jose, California. The Institute brings together eminent, innovative thinkers from academia, government, industry, research labs, and the media for an intellectually charged, stimulating and vigorous discussion that addresses fundamental challenges at the very edge of science and technology. Previous topics include privacy, the future of work, cognitive computing, complexity, and energy storage.
The Institute format is designed to facilitate and foster discussion, debate, interaction, and networking. It is an invitation-only event. The agenda will be posted soon. For more information, contact one of the co-chairs, Paul Maglio or Pat Selinger.
