Session 11: Modeling Health Systems

9:30 AM – 10:45 AM | Room 61 (Lower level)

Using System Dynamics Modeling to Identify Strategies that Reduce Community-Level HIV Viral Load

David W. Lounsbury
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Jianghong Li, Margaret Weeks, and Heather Mosher
Institute for Community Research

The CDC has increasingly promoted test and treat as a promising approach to prevent HIV at the population level by reducing community viral load. Achieving this aim requires implementing and sustaining a well-coordinated continuum of HIV prevention and care services. The current project uses system dynamics to develop and validate a tool to identify and address gaps in the service system for the City of Hartford, CT. The project exemplifies a participatory model-building effort with diverse stakeholders in the HIV prevention and care community (i.e., clinicians, researchers, public health agents, persons living with and at-risk of HIV).

View presentation

Using Inter-Organizational Network Analysis to Understand City Level Collaboration Effectiveness in Reducing Community HIV Viral Load

Jianghong Li, Danielle Green, and Margaret Weeks
Institute for Community Research
David W. Lounsbury
Albert Einstein College of Medicine

To reduce community viral load as a major HIV prevention strategy, an ongoing study takes a holistic perspective to examine how all HIV service organizations in a mid-sized urban community collaborate to reach maximum overall effectiveness in moving people with HIV rapidly through the test and treat continuum. This presentation illustrates how inter-organizational network analysis, when triangulated with other types of data, can be used to identify existing service gaps, assess potential coordinated service capacity, and inform development of a system dynamics model.

View presentation

Using SD Modeling to Capacitate Low Income Women's Smokeless Tobacco Control Advocates

Jean J. Schensul
Institute for Community Research
David Lounsbury
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Saritha Nair
National Institute of Medical Statistics

In India women's use of smokeless tobacco (SLT) is a significant health threat, causing oral cancers and perinatal health problems. Despite regulatory actions, women's use of SLT is increasing. Women recognize many advantages of use. A mixed methods approach utilized in a poor urban community provided data for the development of a formative system dynamics model of factors influencing health outcomes, and raised women's awareness of SLT risks. This paper presents a simulation model based on study results and demonstrates a methodology for model validation by community women using group modeling building and their empowerment tobacco control advocates through modeling the results of their own intervention strategies.

View presentation