An Individual-based Simulation Approach for Generating a Synthetic Stroke Population

Abstract: The time to treatment plays a major factor in recovery for stroke patients, and simulation techniques can be valuable tools for testing healthcare policies and improving the situation for stroke patients. However, simulation requires individual-level data about stroke patients which cannot be acquired due to patient’s privacy rules. This thesis presents a hybrid simulation model for generating a synthetic population of stroke patients by combining Agent-based and microsimulation modeling. Subsequently, Agent-based simulation is used to estimate the locations where strokes happen. The simulation model is built by conducting the Design Science research method, where the simulation model is built by following a set of steps including data preparation, conceptual model formulation, implementation, and finally running the simulation model. The generated synthetic population size is based on the number of stroke events in a year from a Poisson Point Process and consists of stroke patients along with essential attributes such as age, stroke status, home location, and current location. The simulation output shows that nearly all patients had their stroke while being home, where the traveling factor is insignificant to the stroke locations based on the travel survey data used in this thesis and the assumption that all patients return home at midnight.