Systems Science and Population Health

This course provides an introduction to systems science and its applications to population health science and practice. Health and health care improvement challenges tend to be complex and involve multiple actors and institutions. Unlike traditional cause and effect or linear thinking models, systems thinking and complexity science is characterized by nonlinearity, hence traditional statistical methods are often inadequate for analyzing or predicting outcomes that depend on many interacting and adaptive parts. Systems thinking is a core skill that helps health professionals build programs and policies that anticipate and prepare for unintended consequences. Students will learn new ways of thinking about problem solving, including a range of powerful conceptual techniques suitable for planning interventions in complex and uncertain environments and use of systems models to devise strategies to account for real world complexities in research translation.