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Pathway simulations

Before introducing a new drug, device, or redesigned service pathway, healthcare buyers and providers need to test the impact of these interventions on patient outcomes, cost, activity levels, and resources before they can be implemented. However compelling the clinical evidence, decision-makers will always want to understand the impact in relation to their own organisation and responsibilities.

Simulation really helps decision-makers to understand these impacts. A simulation is a computer model that mimics the operation of a real or proposed system, such as a patient care pathway or a hospital outpatient clinic. The simulation is time based and takes into account all the resources and constraints involved, as well as the way these things interact with each other as time passes. Simulation also builds in the randomness you would see in real life.

With simulation software you can quickly try out your ideas at a fraction of the cost of trying them in real life and with no risk to patients. Simulation has been helping pharmaceutical and medical device companies to understand how their product fits with the real-life delivery of healthcare, and help clinicians and managers to understand the impact of the product on patient outcomes, treatment regimes, and budgets as well as how to re-deploy resources to fit with any impact on service design.

Photodynamic therapy simulation

This simulation demonstrates how the introduction of a medical device would impact on a care pathway. Allowing users to model a virtual system and understand the impact of change by showing the patient flow through a pathway over time. The pathway is driven by the likely number of patients with basal cell carcinoma in a community.

Click here to view the simulation...