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A Systemic Look at the Norwegian Health Care System with Focus on Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Authors:
Ellen Veronica Bjørkkjær
Mo Mansouri

Keywords: Systems thinking, Health information management, Systems engineering, Clinical diagnosis, Psychology

Abstract:
The human is a complex machine and the health care system is the mechanic hired to maintain and repair both the hardware and software. External forces are constantly pushing out ``software-updates'', ``bugs'' and ``viruses'' affecting the human being in different ways. Finding the best way to treat a patient is challenging without knowing the patients background story. That story is formed from the moment the patient is born and is pushed in different directions by various sources. Family, friends, teachers, strangers, media, and for the last 15 years or so, social media, are all contributors to shaping the mind of a young individual. This paper looks closer at the physiological and psychological causes and effects of diagnosing pregnant women with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM), and the authors reflect and discuss how the Norwegian health care system can treat the condition in a way that supports individuality and complexity. Diseases that are correlated with certain lifestyles are frequently mentioned in media, often as warnings or motivation for a healthy lifestyle. However, the reasons for getting these diseases are more complex than usually presented. The entire fault is put on the individual's ability to live healthy, which is an unfair burden that may again result in low self-esteem and poor lifestyle choices. Systems thinking tools such as the conceptagon and systemigram are utilized in an attempt to capture the complexity of the problem and the system most suitable for solving it.

Pages: 1 to 6

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2020

Publication date: February 23, 2020

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4243

ISBN: 978-1-61208-771-9

Location: Lisbon, Portugal

Dates: from February 23, 2020 to February 27, 2020