Abstract for: System Dynamics Applications Award Announcement and Introduction of Winner

"Prevention Impacts Simulation Model (PRISM) for Chronic Disease Policymaking" The System Dynamics Applications Award is presented by the Society as often as once every two years for the best real world application of system dynamics. The best application will be based primarily on demonstrated measurable benefit to an organization through the use of system dynamics, and secondarily for new ideas that improve the art of applying system dynamics, or for relating work to existing system dynamics literature and/or other disciplines. The winner of the 2011 award is "Prevention Impacts Simulation Model (PRISM) for Chronic Disease Policymaking" by Jack Homer, Kristina Wile, Gary Hirsch, Justin Trogdon, Amanda Honeycutt, Bobby Milstein, Diane Orenstein, and Lawton Cooper. In this award-winning work, the authors developed and used as system dynamics model to address a number of chronic public health problems. To plan and evaluate prevention interventions more effectively, the CDC (since 2007), along with the NHLBI (since 2009), created the Prevention Impacts Simulation Model (PRISM), a health policy simulator that brings greater structure, evidence, and creativity to the challenge of reducing the burden of chronic disease. Diverse stakeholders are using PRISM to support system-wide action planning and evaluation.