Communications of the ACM
Modeling the Ripples of Health Care Information
Researchers from the University of Chicago will use a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health to create a tool for assessing and refining health care innovations and policies.
Credit: Computation Institute
University of Chicago (UC) researchers will use a $3-million U.S. National Institutes of Health grant to create a new, information-rich tool for assessing and refining health care innovations and policies.
The new agent-based model will evaluate CommunityRx, a health information technology project underway at several Chicago-area clinics. The researchers say the model could lay the foundation for a new computational testing ground for health care and policy programs.
"In the end, this could save a lot of money and provide enormously better programs that are much more effective," says UC researcher Charles Macal.
CommunityRx provides patients with a printed HealtheRx report, including personalized and localized information about community health resources.
The researchers also will examine the broader impact of providing a patient with information about how healthy, local resources affects indirect health and economic benefits.
The researchers studied how agent-based modeling could help measure the full reach of CommunityRx, as well as potentially make the intervention more effective.
"The simulation model will allow us to present CommunityRx to organizations and leaders in other cities and demonstrate quantitatively the potential impact of the intervention for their clients or residents," says UC professor Stacy Tessler Lindau.
From University of Chicago
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Abstracts Copyright © 2014 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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