2008 ASysT Prize Winner
CDC-NIH System Dynamics Collaborative Wins 2008 ASysT Prize
The Applied Systems Thinking Institute (ASysT) is pleased to announce the System Dynamics Collaborative for Disease Control and Prevention as the winner of the Inaugural ASysT Prize. The nine member team is comprised of staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and several contractors (for full team list and affiliations see below).
Beginning in 2002, the System Dynamics Collaborative for Disease Control and Prevention (SD-CDC) team designed and coordinated a series of collaborative ventures within the CDC and NIH to expand the dynamic dimensions of public health policy analysis. In general, the team’s role was to identify and inspire innovations in public health work in situations where there are multiple interacting epidemics. Working closely with subject area specialists and other stakeholders, the team demonstrated the practical value of analyzing public health threats individually and in combination, by relying on methodologies that were developed specifically for understanding change and governing movement in dynamic social systems. The award acknowledged 11 system modeling projects on topics such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular health, reproductive health, urban health, and national health system change as well as the teams efforts to educate the CDC and NIH communities and stimulate the use of systems science methodologies to address public health problems.
The size of the problems addressed, combined with the diversity of the SD-CDC team and their long track record of practical engagements were decisive factors in the selection.
“CDC is delighted about the Systems Dynamics Collaborative for Disease Control and Prevention team selection as award recipients for the Applied Systems Thinking Prize,” said Bradley Perkins, M.D., M.B.A., CDC’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer. “We are also extremely proud of the team’s contribution. Their work is invaluable in helping to educate public health workforce about health systems and policies that are key in improving the health of our nation."
This years Applied Systems Thinking prize winner was chosen by an external review panel chaired by former Under Secretary of Defense Paul Kaminski, and including Professor Anita Jones of the University of Virginia and Dr. Norman Neureiter of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The ASysT Prize is an annual award for a significant accomplishment achieved through the application of systems thinking to a problem of US national significance in the area of national security, homeland security, energy, environment, health care or education. Nominations for the award are evaluated based on the significance of the problem, the quality of systems thinking, the impact of the accomplishment, and the contribution of the nominee. The 2008 Prize is a monetary award of $20,000 which the team has elected to donate to the CDC Foundation, an independent, nonprofit organization that forges partnerships between CDC and others to fight threats to health and safety.
Members of the winning team are:
Bobby Milstein, Ph.D., MPH, CDC
Jack Homer, Ph.D., Homer Consulting
Gary Hirsch, Ph.D., Independent Consultant
Diane Orenstien, Ph.D., CDC
Patty Mabry, Ph.D., NIH
Joyce Essien, MD., MBA, CDC
Kristina Wile, Sustainability Institute
Drew Jones, Sustainability Institute
Doc Klein, Unchartered Territories, Inc.
Systems thinking is an analytical approach that addresses a system and its associated external context as a whole that cannot be analyzed solely through reduction of the system to its component parts. In Systems thinking one sees, and assesses, both the “forest and the trees”.
The Applied Systems Thinking Institute (ASysT) is a collaborative endeavor between Analytic Services Inc. and the Stevens Institute of Technology. More details on the ASysT Institute, the prize and the 2009 competition can be found at
www.asysti.org. For questions regarding the Prize, please contact ASysT at
prize@asysti.org.
The Applied Systems Thinking Institute (ASysT) is pleased to announce the System Dynamics Collaborative for Disease Control and Prevention as the winner of the Inaugural ASysT Prize. The nine member team is comprised of staff from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and several contractors (for full team list and affiliations see below).
Beginning in 2002, the System Dynamics Collaborative for Disease Control and Prevention (SD-CDC) team designed and coordinated a series of collaborative ventures within the CDC and NIH to expand the dynamic dimensions of public health policy analysis. In general, the team’s role was to identify and inspire innovations in public health work in situations where there are multiple interacting epidemics. Working closely with subject area specialists and other stakeholders, the team demonstrated the practical value of analyzing public health threats individually and in combination, by relying on methodologies that were developed specifically for understanding change and governing movement in dynamic social systems. The award acknowledged 11 system modeling projects on topics such as diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular health, reproductive health, urban health, and national health system change as well as the teams efforts to educate the CDC and NIH communities and stimulate the use of systems science methodologies to address public health problems.
The size of the problems addressed, combined with the diversity of the SD-CDC team and their long track record of practical engagements were decisive factors in the selection.
“CDC is delighted about the Systems Dynamics Collaborative for Disease Control and Prevention team selection as award recipients for the Applied Systems Thinking Prize,” said Bradley Perkins, M.D., M.B.A., CDC’s Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer. “We are also extremely proud of the team’s contribution. Their work is invaluable in helping to educate public health workforce about health systems and policies that are key in improving the health of our nation."
This years Applied Systems Thinking prize winner was chosen by an external review panel chaired by former Under Secretary of Defense Paul Kaminski, and including Professor Anita Jones of the University of Virginia and Dr. Norman Neureiter of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The ASysT Prize is an annual award for a significant accomplishment achieved through the application of systems thinking to a problem of US national significance in the area of national security, homeland security, energy, environment, health care or education. Nominations for the award are evaluated based on the significance of the problem, the quality of systems thinking, the impact of the accomplishment, and the contribution of the nominee. The 2008 Prize is a monetary award of $20,000 which the team has elected to donate to the CDC Foundation, an independent, nonprofit organization that forges partnerships between CDC and others to fight threats to health and safety.
Members of the winning team are:
Bobby Milstein, Ph.D., MPH, CDC
Jack Homer, Ph.D., Homer Consulting
Gary Hirsch, Ph.D., Independent Consultant
Diane Orenstien, Ph.D., CDC
Patty Mabry, Ph.D., NIH
Joyce Essien, MD., MBA, CDC
Kristina Wile, Sustainability Institute
Drew Jones, Sustainability Institute
Doc Klein, Unchartered Territories, Inc.
Systems thinking is an analytical approach that addresses a system and its associated external context as a whole that cannot be analyzed solely through reduction of the system to its component parts. In Systems thinking one sees, and assesses, both the “forest and the trees”.
The Applied Systems Thinking Institute (ASysT) is a collaborative endeavor between Analytic Services Inc. and the Stevens Institute of Technology. More details on the ASysT Institute, the prize and the 2009 competition can be found at www.asysti.org. For questions regarding the Prize, please contact ASysT at prize@asysti.org.