Sick systems: Towards a generic conceptual representation of healthcare systems

In this paper, we argue that the healthcare systems within which patients are treated are like patients themselves. The systems display symptoms which may give indication of problems in an "organ" of the system. The human system that forms the core of healthcare activities is a complex system and so are healthcare systems. The success of medical diagnosis has been facilitated by a generic concept of the human anatomy and its systems, organs, and corresponding physiology. The lower levels are the building blocks on which the upper levels depend. Disease processes cause failure at the chemical levels and this failure affects organs, systems, and even the whole body. We observe an interesting similarity between the medical diagnosis process and the systems design approach, yet there is no corresponding generic representation of healthcare systems akin to the anatomy and physiology of the human system. Our goal in this paper is not to match the healthcare system to the human system part by part and organ to organ but to discuss how the structured medical diagnosis process can be applicable to healthcare systems if an appropriate conceptual representation of the system can be developed.