The Lancet  
Apr 21, 2012  Volume 379  Number 9825  p1461 – 1560
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

Series
The importance of quantitative systemic thinking in medicine
Geoffrey B West

Preview
The study and practice of medicine could benefit from an enhanced engagement with the new perspectives provided by the emerging areas of complexity science and systems biology. A more integrated, systemic approach is needed to fully understand the processes of health, disease, and dysfunction, and the many challenges in medical research and education. Integral to this approach is the search for a quantitative, predictive, multilevel, theoretical conceptual framework that both complements the present approaches and stimulates a more integrated research agenda that will lead to novel questions and experimental programmes.