数学中国www, madio,net 172 The UMAP Journal 29.2 (2008) Discussion of the Outstanding Papers The Outstanding papers demonstrated true understandingof the difficulties and complexities of healthcare systems, included well-formulated models, and used this work to make thoughtful and interesting suggestions for improving healthcare. while the time constraint of a single weekend meant these papers were not perfect, each team produced work with distinguishing features The Beifing University of Posts and Telecommunicationssubmission(pp 113- 134) is notable for the impressive array of modeling techniques utilized in attacking the problems. There were other papers with a similar level of modeling but this group not only describes the modeling process clearly but connects the models coherently to the problem at hand. To improve healthcare in the U.S. they propose, among other things, increasing"the ratio of general government expenditure on health to private expenditure while"decreasing total expenditure on health as a percentage of GDP." The paper from the National University of Defense Technotogy(pp 155-168 includes perhaps the most comprehensive review of healthcare systems, metrics, and issues among all submissions. The paper is also notable for the sensitivity analysis of its models. Further, this team continues to tie their scientific knowledge throughout the paper, resulting in exceptional comparisons and evaluation of healthcare systems based on their models They recommend a"medical insurance voucher"to"increase the insurance coverage and reduce the unfaimess"in the U.S. healthcare system The Harvey Mudd College submission(pp 135-154)was among the most clearly and concisely written papers. The team uses"meta-metrics"to map scores on various healthcare metrics into three areas. These then feed into a stochastic model to analyze various changes to a healthcare system. The resultis a very strong set of well-supported recommendations for healthcare change in the U.S, such as"emphasis on the prevention of illness,"as well as a"shift towards a more centralized healtheare system in order to make care more accessible to lower and middle- class individuals Iwo other papers, not designated Outstanding and not published in this issue, stood out for the judges. The first of these considers healthcare through the eyes and life ofSimon," an entity who currently does not exist"but"is equally likely to be any personin the world. "This paper isnot only incredibly clever and creative but demonstrates an outstanding understanding of particularly the economic side of the healthcare debate. The abstract concludes, "Siman says the United tates needs healthcare reform now. As we have been told since childhood it is always good to do what Simon says. "Hear, hear The second paper considers t s the healthcare system through"the lives of John and Jane Doe"and builds a"Virtual Life Model"from first principles. Again,数学中国 www.madio.net