Where Medicine Went Wrong: Rediscovering the Path to Complexity (West, B.J.; 2006) [Book Review]

Abstract

This book examines the role of nonlinear phenomena in the life sciences. The author takes on the task of deciphering for the general public the role of chaos, fractals and complexity theory in contemporary statistical models of health and disease. His historical presentation of the origins of biostatistics, fractal dynamics, and chaos theory gives a glimpse of non-Gaussian stochastic models, fractals, fractional calculus and scale free networks. The author shows strong evidence for the presence of fractal dynamics underlying the complexity observed in physiological systems, dynamics measured by allometric order parameters derived from fractal time series analysis. The book's overall conclusion is that disease and pathology reflect a general loss of complexity. Overall, the biomedical engineering community should find this book stimulating, thought provoking, and a source of interesting historical anecdotes for future talks and lectures.