Steer Davies Gleave awards system dynamics prize

On Thursday 7 February, the UK System Dynamics Society awarded the Steer Davies Gleave prize for the best example of applying systems modelling to address a real-world problem at its annual gathering in London.

The recipient of the award was The Centre for Workforce Intelligence (CfWI), for the development of system dynamics to help inform decisions about the number of doctors and dentists to train in future to meet predicted workforce requirements. The CfWI supported the Health and Education National Strategic Exchange (HENSE) on this project in 2012.

The award was accepted jointly with the Decision Analysis Services (DAS) which partnered the CfWI in this project. Dr Graham Willis, Head of Research at the CfWI, Dr Andrew Woodward, Lead Modeller at the CfWI and Dr Sion Cave of DAS accepted the prize.

Dr Graham Willis said: “It takes many years to train doctors and dentists, about 15 for a hospital consultant, so an under or over-supply cannot be corrected quickly or easily. The cost of training and employing an individual is also significant so it is highly important to have as much information as possible when making vital decisions about the number of students entering training.”

About the prize

The aim of this prize is to promote the use of System Dynamics to address real-world problems, and to raise awareness of System Dynamics by publicising examples of such good work. It is awarded for the best application of System Dynamics to a problem of significant public interest in the UK - http://systemdynamics.org.uk/.  The prize is sponsored by Steer Davies Gleave.