Systems thinking in health care: from theory to implementation

The world’s health care systems have experienced varying and ongoing endeavors over recent decades towards improving quality of care and patient outcomes. Fundamentally, the healthcare systems are becoming increasingly complex and dynamic and previous linear thinking needs to be supplanted by systems understanding. This chapter introduces the reader to the concept of systems thinking, describing key theories underpinning its characteristics, and utilizes the authors’ experiences and research to clarify the need for holistic systems thinking and integration. The chapter draws upon the authors’ research and demonstrates the implementation of systems thinking in different contexts.