id: 05777709
dt: b
an: 2011a.00974
au: Alimadad, Azadeh; Borwein, Alex; Borwein, Peter; Dabbaghian, Vahid; Drakes,
    Chiaka; Ferguson, Ron; Ghaseminejad, Amir H.; Gusev, Yuri; Hare,
    Warren; Li, Jenny; Mitrovic-Minic, Snezana; Rutherford, Alexander; van
    der Waall, Alexa; Vásárhelyi, Krisztina; Vertesi, Les
ti: Modelling in healthcare.
so: Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (ISBN
    978-0-8218-4969-9/hbk). xvii, 218~p. (2010).
py: 2010
pu: Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS)
la: EN
cc: M65 K45 K95
ut: mathematical modeling; healthcare; data collection; statistical models;
    model design; model implementation; analysis
ci: 
li: 
ab: The main purpose of this text is to introduce modelling in healthcare,
    which is a new and fast developing subject. The book has three parts:
    Modelling in Healthcare, Data Collection and Statistical Models, Model
    Design and Interpretation. All material is divided into sixteen
    chapters written in a self-contained manner. Any chapter can be read
    and understood without having read previous chapters; sufficient
    background information is provided to make the text accessible to a
    reader with a solid knowledge of high school mathematics. The layout of
    all chapters is unified ‒ most chapters are divided into five
    sections titled Model Overview, Common Uses, Model (or Mathematical)
    Details, Examples and Related Reading. This structuring helps the
    reader to use the book most efficiently. In each of the Examples
    section two or three examples of practical applications are provided,
    although, for the sake of simplicity, some examples have been created
    artificially. All the material in the book falls into two categories;
    there are chapters dealing exclusively with specific types of models
    and those of rather general nature. In fact, all three chapters in the
    first part introduce modelling as a subject focusing in particular on
    modelling in healthcare and describe how to use the book. Chapters 4
    and 9 that open parts two and three discuss, respectively, fundamental
    issues related to types of data, data collection and data errors and
    principles guiding selection, development and implementation of models.
    Chapters 5-8 in the second part of the book focus on fundamental
    techniques used in statistical modelling. Here the reader can find
    helpful information on descriptive statistics and distributions,
    regression analysis, basics of epidemiological and psychosocial risk
    modelling. All the remaining chapters in the book discuss particular
    models including, for instance, psychosocial models, human capital
    models, queueing and traffic models, etc. Case studies in Chapters
    10-16 in the third part require more solid mathematical background
    since they contain elements of the graph theory, game theory,
    differential equations, optimization and network theory. The book
    contains an appendix where some of the modelling software has been
    reviewed. It concludes with a bibliography containing 230 items and a
    useful subject index. Written by a group of experts in a transparent
    and precise manner, this nice book invites the reader to explore how
    modelling in healthcare works and what it is capable of. It is
    certainly a very useful introductory text on the subject.
rv: Svitlana P. Rogovchenko (Umeå)