Transdisciplinary System Science: Implications for Healthcare and Other Problems of Global Significance

T he past decade has witnessed transformational changes on a variety of scientific, technological, and societal fronts. On the scientific front, advances in system science methods, semantic integration techniques, complexity theory, and visual analytics are making it possible to address complex systems problems such as healthcare, climatology, and clean energy. On the technological front, there have been groundbreaking advances such as multicore processors, virtualization and cloud computing, and handheld platforms that have revolutionized the very nature of work. These advances are shaping the research and education agenda for the twentyfirst century. On the societal front, technology has transformed how people communicate, share information, socialize, and learn. Facebook and Twitter have transformed our modes and patterns of communication and expectations about the very nature of collaborative work. Crowdsourcing is becoming a popular means for rapid and cost-effective information acquisition, expertise location, and distributed problem solving. These advances have occurred none too soon in that the interconnectedness of todays world has made socio-technical problems increasingly more complex and unquestionably beyond the purview of every single discipline. Not surprisingly, this recognition has spurred the recent surge in interest in transdisciplinary system science research and education. At the heart of transdiscipinary system science are transdisciplinary thinking and collaboration, complex systems modeling and evaluation, and transdisciplinary system science education. This change in mindset is expected to not only enrich existing disciplines but potentially lead to the creation of entirely new disciplines. Specifically, transdisciplinary system science holds the potential of reaching beyond disciplinary boundaries to resolve incompatibilities and close knowledge gaps between disciplines. The challenge today is to energize communities and institutions of higher learning to address these challenges with a transdisciplinary mindset. This paper discusses transdisciplinary system science from the perspective of transforming the way we formulate problems, model complex systems, generate hypotheses, design interventions, conduct evaluations, disseminate findings, and continue to learn.