Hybrid simulation with loosely coupled system dynamics and agent-based models for Prospective Health Technology Assessments

Due to the ageing of the world population, the demand for technology innovations in healthcare is growing rapidly. All stakeholders (e.g., patients, healthcare providers and health industry) can take profit of innovative products, but the development degenerates often into a time consuming and cost-intensive process. Prospective Health Technology Assessment (ProHTA) is a new approach that combines the knowledge of an interdisciplinary team and uses simulation techniques to indicate the effects of new innovations early before the expensive and risky development phase begins. In this paper, we describe an approach with loosely coupled system dynamics and agent-based models within a hybrid simulation environment for ProHTA as well as a use-case scenario with an innovative stroke technology. The project ProHTA is a part of the Centre of Excellence for Medical Technology and is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), project grant No. 01EX1013B.