Medical cybernetics
Template:Short description Medical cybernetics is a branch of cybernetics which has been heavily affected by the development of the computer,<ref>Brian H. Rudall (2000). "Cybernetics and systems in the 1980s". In: Kybernetes. Vol 29. Issue 5/6 p.595-611.</ref> which applies the concepts of cybernetics to medical research and practice. At the intersection of systems biology, systems medicine and clinical applications it covers an emerging working program for the application of systems- and communication theory, connectionism and decision theory on biomedical research and health related questions.
Overview
Medical cybernetics searches for quantitative descriptions of biological dynamics.<ref name="JWD04">J.W. Dietrich (2004), Medical Cybernetics – A Definition, Medizinische Kybernetik, 2004. Released under creative commons 2.0 attribution licence.</ref> It investigates intercausal networks in human biology, medical decision making and information processing structures in the living organism.
Approaches of medical cybernetics include:
- Systems theory in medical sciences: The scope of systems theory in the medical sciences is searching for and modelling of physiological dynamics in the intact and diseased organism.<ref name="Fricke_2006_1">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Fricke_2006_2">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Its aim is to arrive at deeper insights into the organizational principles of life and its perturbations.<ref name="JWD04"/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Based on cybernetic models, improved diagnostical strategies<ref name="Dietrich_2016">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Dietrich_2022">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Dietrich_2024_1">Template:Cite journal</ref> and methods for personalised therapy of chronic diseases have been developed.<ref name="Goede_2014_1">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Goede_2014_2">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Dietrich_2016"/><ref name="Li_2021">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="Dietrich_2024_2">Template:Cite journal</ref> With focus on medical application this field is also referred to as systems medicine.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Medical information and communication theory: Motivated by the awareness of information being an essential principle of life, the application of communication theory to biomedicine aims at a mathematical description of signalling processes and information storage in different physiological layers.<ref name="JWD04"/> This attempt also includes theories on the information theory of the genetic code.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- Connectionism: Connectionistic models describe information processing in neural networks – thus forming a bridge between biological and technological research.<ref name="JWD04"/>
- Medical decision theory (MDT): The Goal of MDT is to gather evidence based foundations for decision making in the clinical setting.<ref name="JWD04"/>
See also
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- Related fields
- Biocybernetics
- Complex systems
- Cybernetics
- Systems theory
- Prosthetics
- Systems biology
- Systems medicine
- Related scientists
- Uri Alon
- William Ross Ashby
- Claude Bernard
- Valentin Braitenberg
- Walter Cannon
- Stephen Grossberg
- Humberto Maturana
- Warren McCulloch
- Related scientists
- Walter Pitts
- Arturo Rosenblueth
- Robert Trappl
- Felix Tretter
- Francisco Varela
- Frederic Vester
- Kevin Warwick
- Paul Watzlawick
- List of biomedical cybernetics software
- List of medical cybernetics schools, Colleges and Universities
References
Further reading
- V.V. Parin (1959), "Introduction to medical Cybernetics" in NASA Technical Translation no.F-459-F-462, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1959.
- C.A. Muses (1965). "Aspects of some crucial problems in biological and medical cybernetics". In: Progress in biocybernetics, 1965.