HPSIG Matters
From HPSIGWiki
Lupina Young Researchers Award in Health System Dynamics
The Health Policy Special Interest Group (HPSIG) of the System Dynamics Society is proud to announce the Lupina Young Researchers Award for work in health system dynamics, which will be presented for the first time at this summer's 2008 International System Dynamics Conference in Athens, Greece. The award is sponsored by the Lupina Foundation of Toronto, Canada, and will be accompanied by a check in the amount of CAN$5000. The award will be presented to the recipient (or recipients) during the HPSIG meeting on the Sunday afternoon meeting just preceding the conference (July 20th this year), and a brief announcement will also be made to all conference attendees at a plenary session.
This award will be given to people at early stages of their careers to encourage them to do further work in health system dynamics. In the event that the winning paper represents the equal work of two young researchers, or if there is a tie among papers, the cash prize may be subdivided. The work considered for this award must be accepted as a paper for presentation at the International System Dynamics Conference. Papers are self-nominated, and to be eligible, the author(s) must either be in graduate school or have completed their educational training no more than five years prior to paper submission.
Authors need not be members of the System Dynamics Society and may, in fact, specialize in other methodologies and use them in their submitted papers. But their work must:
- Focus on dynamic phenomena in health systems and problems,
- Demonstrate technical quality and clear presentation, and
- Provide original insights derived from a dynamic analysis.
The winner(s) must be present at the Sunday HPSIG meeting to receive their prize, and be willing to discuss their winning work at that meeting.
- For Paper Submission details (due 21st March 2008) see http://www.systemdynamics.org/conferences/current/index.htm
HPSIG Member Survey 2007 - Results
The results of the survey are shown below. We had 42 responses to the survey which is not as high as we'd hoped but enough to provide some useful insights. In looking through the results there are a number of points that stand out for me.
The first is that we, assuming the response group is representative, have not been successful at getting the newer arrivals into the SD society involved in the HPSIG - 56% or those who responded have been in the Society for over 5 years. This is something that we need to address.
The second is that, despite Geoff's work on the wiki it is not engaging people enough to be a major forum for us. A number of people have visited it but very few have contributed. Given the amount of work that has been, and continues to be put in by Geoff I think we need to review this. From the replies the main reasons seem to be that people didn't know about it or are too busy. The first is relatively easy to address the latter is much harder. However, 'busyness' is also related to priorities so if the wiki was seen as more relevant then being too busy may become less of a reason not to engage with it. In looking forward a number of people talked about sharing our work more. Is the wiki a suitable platform for this?
Although there is a definite self-selection bias going on here the feedback indicates that the HPSIG has been successful in providing a forum for people to share ideas, keep up with developments and to feel a part of a community of interest. Those who started the HPSIG need to be acknowledged and thanked for what they have created - it is overwhelmingly seen as positive.
In looking to the future a number of ideas have been put forward, which build on the foundations that have been created rather than suggest any new direction. These include moving beyond simply sharing ideas to sharing work and even working together across international boundaries. From a personal perspective I can attest to its value. I brought Bobby Milstein out to NZ last year and am hoping to bring Jack Homer out in April. Having their different perspectives, as well as their obvious talents has had significant impact, not only for my own personal learning but more significantly for my clients and broader health community here in NZ.
Ideas have also been put forward for health-focused conferences and publications. Both of these merit consideration and we will need to find a way of debating them and then looking at feasibility given resources etc. etc. A number of other ideas for moving forward have also been put forward and these are listed below.
I have displayed the results in two columns: 1. the number of people who responded and 2. the percentage of the total. So for the first question regarding nationality the result "United States 18 46" means that 18 of the respondents were from the US making up 46% of the total. Hope all that makes sense.
Thanks to all who responded. It is up to us now to use the input to enhance the value that the HPSIG already provides.
David
President HPSIG
ps I am not that proficient at editing pages on the wiki so the layout of the results is not as good as I'd like. However I am happy to send the excel data file, minus personal details of the respondents, to anyone who wants it. Just send me an email and I'll send it to you.
Nationality
United States 18 46
United Kingdom 4 10
Australia 7 18
New Zealand 3 8
Sweden 1 3
Denmark 1 3
Indonesia 1 3
Singapore 1 3
Netherlands 2 5
China 1 3
Paid up members of SD Society
Yes 31 78
No 9 23
Length of membership
0-1 years 1 3
1 to 2 years 3 9
2 to 3 years 6 19
3 to 4 years 4 13
4 to 5 years 0 0
5 + years 18 56
Formal Study of SD
Yes 21 51
No 20 49
Taught SD
Yes 21 53
No 19 48
Used SD in Health
Yes 25 61
No 16 39
Currently Using SD
Yes 31 84
No 6 16
Presented Paper at SD Conference
Yes 22 54
No 19 46
Presented Paper at other Conference
Yes 22 54
No 19 46
Receive HPSIG Snippets
Yes 38 93
No 3 7
Read HPSIG Snippets
Yes 34 85
No 6 15
Visited WIKI
Yes 26 65
No 14 35 Either didn't know (3) or too busy (8)
Contributed to WIKI
Yes 6 15
No 35 85 Too busy(8), don't feel I have anything to contribute(5), didn't know about it or didn't know how(3), not area of main interest(3)
Value of HPSIG
Sharing of ideas/networking/community of interest 14
Keep up with developments/publications/literature 19
Focus on modelling in health 2
Snippets 2
Joint working 2
New Developments for HPSIG
sharing/distributing work/models 4
health focused conference 2
international collaboration 2
encourage younger SD practitioners into health 1
more educational/training material made available 1
moderated litserv 1
health SD publication 1
notification of interesting meetings/conferences/seminars 1
integrate more with other modelling approaches 2
peer review and professional development 1
