Abstract

Modelling and Simulation (M&S) has found its way into many areas, almost in our daily life, so also into health technology (HT). Health technology and medical technology encompass a wide range of health care products and services – from vaccination strategies to heart circulation monitoring. And they are used to diagnose, monitor or treat every disease or condition that affects humans. M&S in HT is improving the quality of health care delivered and patient outcomes through earlier diagnosis, less invasive treatment and reduc-tions of illness. This contribution investigates M&S in HT at different levels: (i) M&S for developing a HT product, (ii) M&S implemented in a HT product, and (iii) M&S for assessment of a HT product. While the step from model-based development of HT products to model-based operation of HT products is evident, the last step to model-based assessment of HT products is relatively new application of M&S – and necessary for the success of HT products. Interestingly, although the aims of M&S at these three levels differ significantly, the M&S techniques – from Markov models via ODEs/PDEs to Agent-based models stay the same.