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. 2006 Jul;3(7):e209.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030209. Epub 2006 May 23.

The clinical applications of a systems approach

Andrew C Ahn  1 , Muneesh Tewari, Chi-Sang Poon, Russell S Phillips
Affiliations

The clinical applications of a systems approach

Andrew C Ahn et al. PLoS Med. 2006 Jul.

Abstract

In the second of a two part series, Ahn and colleagues provide a practical discussion of how a systems approach will affect clinical medicine, using diabetes as an example.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Medical Treatments: Reductionism versus Systems Science
Treatment differences stem from divergent problem-solving tactics. Reductionism focuses on components and, in the process, can lose information about time, space, and context. Systems science focuses on the interactions and dynamics and spends less time studying the individual components.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Ahn AC, Tewari M, Poon CS, Phillips RS. The limits of reductionism in medicine: Could systems biology offer an alternative? PLoS Med. 2006;3:e208. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030208. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
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