In April 2015, the Institute of Medicine convened a workshop to explore the potential uses of simulation and other types of modeling for the purpose of selecting and refining potential strategies, ranging from interventions to investments, to improve the health of communities and the nation's health. Participants worked to identify how modeling could inform population health decision making based on lessons learned from models that have been, or have not been, used successfully, opportunities and barriers to incorporating models into decision making, and data needs and opportunities to leverage existing data and to collect new data for modeling. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from this workshop.

Table of Contents


Front Matter
1 Introduction
2 Setting the Context
3 Case Studies of Models Used to Inform Health Policy
4 What Would Public Health Decision Makers Like from Models?
5 Barriers and Opportunities for Using Models to Inform Population Health Interventions and Policies
6 Opportunities for the Future
7 Final Thoughts: Ideas for the Future
Appendix A: References
Appendix B: Workshop Agenda
Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Workshop Speakers