The model allows the use of a minimal set of clinical symptoms and signs to differentiate patients with abdominal pain who may be safely discharged home from those that require urgent medical or surgical services. A state space model is presented for cancer tumor cells under chemotherapy and immunotherapy with drug resistance. A model describing the dynamics of the interaction of the HIV virus with CD4 cells is fitted to published clinical data. The model can be used to optimize the drug doses in the treatment of AIDS by determining a balance between the therapeutic response and side effects. The model is used to study the progression of the HIV virus and the development of drug resistance.
Simulation also provides a powerful learning tool for clinical education.
Learners can experience representations of clinical situations that would be too costly, time consuming, or risky to introduce through traditional educational means. The first paper in this section describes a teaching tool that combines hypertext, multimedia interactive animation, and simulation models of body fluid homeostasis. The program can be used to help medical students understand complex regulatory relations of body fluid such as acid-base, electrolyte, osmotic, and volume disorders. Also the program is useful in training clinicians to make diagnostic and therapeutic decisions by executing simulated interventions on virtual patients. A second application of this interactive computer-aided teaching tool is to help students understand the complex dynamic glycoregulatory mechanisms on the development of type 2 diabetes from obesity.