ABSTRACT

Physician-scientists may benefi t from an approach that emphasizes solving problems over generating hypotheses. An engineering perspective treats the patient as a system, or a set of subsystems, that has been acted on, diff erentially, by many elements that infl uence its state at critical points over time. I propose that an engineering approach, what might be called “real systems analysis,” may be a better way for scientists to identify and develop solutions for biomedical problems.