Applying systems modelling to public health

Public health is complex and previous work has demonstrated the value of systems modelling in understanding its complexity. Today the need for systems modelling in public health has increased because the delivery of the public health function is being re‐engineered with an additional layer of complexity. The service is now more distributed and as a consequence there is a demand that information and communication technologies (ICT) should be employed to a greater extent in ensuring public health provision. It is essential that a good public health service is maintained within this new framework and the public health network (PHN) has been proposed as the solution. We aim to demonstrate the potential value of systems modelling in this newly re‐engineered public health environment by showing how it can be used to convert the complex input of the public health network project into a realistic, holistic and potentially successful plan to implement and evaluate the network.