Phoenix Newsletter - October 2025 President’s Message: Enduring Commitments in a Time of Change Read President’s Message: Enduring Commitments in a Time of Change
Home Research Research Library Simulating Patients with Parallel Health State Networks Simulating Patients with Parallel Health State Networks 1998 Author(s) Sumner, W, Truszczynski, M, and Marek, V W Topic(s) Education & Training, and Family Medicine Certification Keyword(s) Clinical Simulation Volume AMIA Symposium Source AMIA Symposium The American Board of Family Practice is developing a computer-based recertification process to generate patient simulations from a knowledge base. Simulated patients require a stochastically generated history and response to treatment, suggesting a Monte Carlo-like patient generation process. Knowledge acquisition experiments revealed that description of a patient’s overall health as a node in a Monte Carlo model was difficult for domain experts to use, severely limited knowledge reusability, and created a plethora of awkwardly defined health states. We explored a model in which patients traverse several parallel health state networks simultaneously, so that overall health is a vector describing the current nodes from every Parallel Network. This model has a reasonable biological basis, more easily defined data, and greatly improved reuse potential, at the cost of more complex simulation algorithms. Experiments using osteoarthritis stages, weight classification, and absence or presence of gastric ulcers as three Parallel Networks demonstrate the feasibility of this approach to simulating patients. ABFM Research Read all 2019 Using the Family Medicine Certification Longitudinal Assessment to Make Summative Decisions Go to Using the Family Medicine Certification Longitudinal Assessment to Make Summative Decisions 2022 Dedicated Time for Education Is Essential to the Residency Learning Environment Go to Dedicated Time for Education Is Essential to the Residency Learning Environment 2018 Characteristics of Graduating Family Medicine Residents Who Intend to Practice Maternity Care Go to Characteristics of Graduating Family Medicine Residents Who Intend to Practice Maternity Care 2014 Clinical informatics as an option for American Board of Family Medicine Diplomates Go to Clinical informatics as an option for American Board of Family Medicine Diplomates
Author(s) Sumner, W, Truszczynski, M, and Marek, V W Topic(s) Education & Training, and Family Medicine Certification Keyword(s) Clinical Simulation Volume AMIA Symposium Source AMIA Symposium
ABFM Research Read all 2019 Using the Family Medicine Certification Longitudinal Assessment to Make Summative Decisions Go to Using the Family Medicine Certification Longitudinal Assessment to Make Summative Decisions 2022 Dedicated Time for Education Is Essential to the Residency Learning Environment Go to Dedicated Time for Education Is Essential to the Residency Learning Environment 2018 Characteristics of Graduating Family Medicine Residents Who Intend to Practice Maternity Care Go to Characteristics of Graduating Family Medicine Residents Who Intend to Practice Maternity Care 2014 Clinical informatics as an option for American Board of Family Medicine Diplomates Go to Clinical informatics as an option for American Board of Family Medicine Diplomates
2019 Using the Family Medicine Certification Longitudinal Assessment to Make Summative Decisions Go to Using the Family Medicine Certification Longitudinal Assessment to Make Summative Decisions
2022 Dedicated Time for Education Is Essential to the Residency Learning Environment Go to Dedicated Time for Education Is Essential to the Residency Learning Environment
2018 Characteristics of Graduating Family Medicine Residents Who Intend to Practice Maternity Care Go to Characteristics of Graduating Family Medicine Residents Who Intend to Practice Maternity Care
2014 Clinical informatics as an option for American Board of Family Medicine Diplomates Go to Clinical informatics as an option for American Board of Family Medicine Diplomates