Simulation enabled search for explanatory mechanisms of the fracture healing process
Fig 11
Characteristics of obstacles listed in the introduction.
Each spectrum provides a different perspective on research aimed at characterizing and explaining a phenomenon, fracture healing in this case. Relative to research in other biomedical domains, fracture-healing research can be characterized by a left-of-center location on each spectrum. Spectra locations considerably right-of-center are most supportive of the conventional inductive methods used by current multiscale modeling and simulation researchers. The green shaded curve illustrates that, as one moves leftward, the number and variety of equally possible explanations increases dramatically, which can be a serious barrier to progress.