Simulation of micropopulations in epidemiology: tutorial 1. Simulation: an introduction. A series of tutorials illustrated by coronary heart disease models.

This is the first in a series of tutorials concerning the simulation of micropopulation models for use in epidemiological research. The series emphasizes the techniques that are in use at the National Micropopulation Simulation Resource at the University of Minnesota. This initial series of tutorials uses chronic disease models, specifically coronary heart disease models, to illustrate the principles and methodologies employed. The series is intended for persons having some familiarity with electronic, digital computation and desiring to know more about a specific class of simulations, namely those that apply Monte Carlo techniques in the simulation of micropopulation models as a part of biomedical research. It is the author's hope that these tutorials will be particularly useful for students in medical informatics; they could also be of interest to professionals in both the computational and the biomedical sciences.