Developing a simulation model for decision making in a further digitized Swedish healthcare system

Sammanfattning: Owing to computer simulations, healthcare managers-and decision makers are more capable than ever to understand and evaluate the consequences of their decisions. In 2016, the Swedish government put forward ”Vision eHealth 2025”, emphasizing the importance of digitization within the healthcare system. This thesis aimed at studying the current demands regarding eHealth in Sweden, and what simulation architecture is capable of accurately simulating a digitized Swedish healthcare system. An extensive literature study was conducted, followed by an implementation phase, and finally a validation procedure. It was first concluded that the following three areas of eHealth applications would greatly benefit Swedish healthcare: a fully integrated journal system, systems for care consultations over the internet, and systems for tele-monitoring of chronics and the elderly. The fidelity of a provided first version of a simulation architecture was then examined, and potential areas for improvement were identified. The implementation phase subsequently included changes to the following aspects of the provided simulation platform: level of generality, the patient agent class (pHome), healthcare resources, illness dynamics & levels of care, workflow chart logic, optimization criteria, user-interface, and output variables. The validation procedure consisted of four interviews with professionals knowledgeable about the Swedish healthcare system, for which the developed simulation architecture was demonstrated. It was concluded that, while the level of detail required for a simulation platform to accurately model the consequences of decision making in a digitized Swedish healthcare system is not known, the developed simulation platform is currently not satisfactory. Above all, it lacks specificity in the output variables.