COMMITTEE ON CREDIBLE PRACTICE OF MODELING SIMULATION IN HEALTHCARE

摘要

Leading health institutions, government agencies, education and research institutions, as well as medical product developers around the world have recognized the substantial potential of computational modeling and simulation (M&S) to support clinical research and decision making in healthcare, e.g., [1]. Consequently, research activities in computational medicine are growing at a significant rate and notable discoveries are being made [2]. However, the mechanisms or processes necessary to appropriately translate these research activities and discoveries in computational methods to clinical practice are lacking. Moreover, there is substantial research diversity in the field such that subject matter experts within and across mathematical and biological disciplines tend to have their own interpretation of credible practice in M&S [3-5]. Additionally, tools and good practice guidelines established by individual disciplines or research areas do not readily transfer across other disciplines or are not adopted by different fields. To help fill these critical gaps, the "Committee on Credible Practice of Modeling & Simulation in Healthcare" was established (see Box 1 for definitions). The activity was an initiative of the Interagency Modeling and Analysis Group (IMAG) and the Multiscale Modeling (MSM) Consortium. The IMAG and MSM are organized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in collaboration with other government agencies and academic researchers to promote the advancement of computational medicine [6]. The Committee on Credible Practice of Modeling & Simulation in Healthcare (hereafter the Committee) aims to lead the establishment of acceptable practice guidelines, as well as identifying new areas of research, for development and implementation of credible computational models and simulations for healthcare research and intervention. The purpose of this document is to provide a detailed overview of the Committee's goals, organization, and activities.