The turn to complexity in public health over the past 20 years has come as practitioners, policy makers and scholars lament the lack of progress in addressing wicked problems such as obesity, chronic disease and the social determinants of health. Systems science may be well suited to tackle such wicked problems. While there is a growing application of systems thinking tools and resources in public health, there are fewer examples that incorporate both systems tools and systemic inquiry processes. Prevention Tracker offered an opportunity to trial the combination of systems tools and systems thinking at the level of community chronic disease prevention efforts. Our methodology comprised four Domains of Inquiry. 1. Describing a prevention system 2. Guiding system change efforts 3. Monitoring change 4. Cross case comparison. We applied systems tools and methods to investigate each domain of inquiry such as group model building, social network analysis, graphic illustration, causal loop diagrams and system action learning. These methods were connected through the application of systemic inquiry processes that elevated the ongoing interrogation of boundary judgments, awareness of diverse and multiple perspectives, interrelationships and the importance of social learning. Prevention Tracker demonstrated that it is possible to apply a range of systems methods while also keeping focus on the overall systems science and the need for theoretical consistency. The four domains of inquiry enabled flexibility to adapt our approach in each context to learn and improve. This methodological capacity to learn and adapt may also be useful in tackling other health and social problems, such as the COVID19 pandemic. The overall findings from the study will be presented in separate publications.

在过去的20年中，随着从业者，政策制定者和学者对公共健康的复杂性转向，在解决诸如肥胖症，慢性病和健康的社会决定因素等邪恶问题方面缺乏进展感到遗憾。系统科学可能非常适合解决此类严重问题。尽管系统思维工具和资源在公共卫生领域的应用日益广泛，但结合系统工具和系统性查询流程的例子却很少。预防跟踪器提供了一个机会，可以在社区慢性病预防工作的层面上试用系统工具和系统思想的组合。我们的方法包括四个查询领域。1.描述预防系统2.指导系统更改工作3.监视更改4.跨案例比较。我们应用了系统工具和方法来调查每个查询领域，例如小组模型构建，社交网络分析，图形插图，因果关系图和系统动作学习。这些方法通过系统性查询过程的应用而联系起来，系统性查询过程提高了对边界判断的不断审问，对多种观点的认识，相互关系和社会学习的重要性。预防跟踪器表明，可以应用多种系统方法，同时也可以将重点放在整个系统科学和理论一致性的需求上。四个查询领域使我们可以灵活地在每种情况下适应我们的方法，以学习和改进。这种学习和适应的方法学能力也可能有助于解决其他健康和社会问题，例如COVID19大流行。该研究的总体发现将在单独的出版物中介绍。