Methodology
A booklength description of how to construct a dynamic model of a complex system using a methodology we call eXtended System Dynamics (XSD). Work on this methodlogy is well underway and chapters in this web integrated book ("wib") will appear regularly under this title.
The term "collections" refers to titles in the navigation pane under which related wibs are collected.
The Human Biosystem
This wib will consist primarily of multiscale models of the human biosystem: from the molecular level to the interaction of organ systems. These need to be understood so that we can recognize when they are working and when thry are not, or when they are about to fail.
Disorders and Therapeutics
Selected disorders, especially those that have evaded full description, such as those referred to as "autoimmune" disorders, will be thoroughly investigted using our modeling technology. By understanding the causes of these types of disorders we will be better able to propose therapeutics to either mitigte or eliminate these disorders with a minimum of side effects.
We will be particularly interested in investigating solutions that have recently come under the heading of "precision medicine".
Health Care Delivery
Finally, we need to fully address the major problem of health care delivery. It has been our experience that the health care system needs to be redesigned to better manage the load on the system, especially given the increasing number of older patients. The goal will be to respond quickly and accurately to patient needs, and in addition be able to predict those needs from a system of data organization for each patient. We will focus on individulaizing patient care, and keep track of a patient's health on a continuous basis if they so desire.
Our goal will be to bring modern engineering practices to bear on the problem of health care delivery. By modeling both the current and the proposed systems, we will be able to see the advantages and disadvantges of both approaches. We suspect, however, that an engineering approach to health care — biosystems engineering — will show a dramatic improvement in patient care.
Resource Database
Contains references to print and video titles that provide information necessary to build models and solve the problems related to the collections in this series. These collections currently include the wib titles Methodology, The Human Biosystem, Disorders and Therapeutics, plus Health Care Delivery.
The contents of this database constitute a basic minimum set. Maintaining and building the database is an ongoing process. Obvious missing items will be added in the very near future, or as good references become available.
The database itself does not contain references to journal articles, These are avaialble from already well established public and private databases. Reference to important papers will always appear in the wibs in which they are cited.
The database is human readable. Selecting the term Resource Database in the navigation pane will display a downloadable pdf file.
Archives
A repository for documents and programs new and old. Some of these will be carried over from the previos version of this website.
Web Integrated Books
What we have and will continue to publish here are collections of web integrated books. A web integrated book, aka "wib", is designed to take advantage of the possibilities for presentation, storage and retrieval of information that can be offered by web technology.
A wib is not a traditional hardback or paperback book that has been converted to a form that can be presented on digital media, usually with mixed results. It is also not a hardback or paperback book that refers you to a particular publisher's website to view additional content. A wib makes use of all the technology available on the web to display its contents. Furthermore, It is not designed to be converted to printed format. The only way to fully access its contents is by using web technology for its interface. You may consider wibs to be the output of computer programs that are designed to display their contents on digital monitors in real time.
The advantages of publishing in a wib format are many. In particular, space requirements are nonexistent. Still and video images can be integrated with text in a flawless and easy fashion. Typographical errors can be corrected as soon as they are detected. Updates to the contents of the text and images can be inserted on a continual basis: versions replace editions — most of the time a reader must wait years to obtain a new edition of a traditional publication. A wib can also incorporate material produced elsewhere and made available in digital format. PDF files are a good example of this type of material. Text oriented pdf files often appear in our wibs because they are easy to produce and format with traditional document editors.
One very important feature that can be added to wibs is to make them interactive, both tactilely and verbally. A chatbot could conceivably answer questions about material not fully explained in the text, especially if the bot were trained on the background material required for making full use of a given wib. The response could be supplied using text, voice, or images, or a combination of all of these. We hope to include this technology in some of our forthcoming versions.