As always in an ASP.NET MVC application you start by defining a view model:
public class MyViewModel
{
public string SelectedIndividual { get; set; }
public SelectList Individuals { get; set; }
}
then you write a controller action that populates this view model from some data source or something:
public ActionResult Index()
{
// TODO : fetch those from your repository
var values = new[]
{
new { Value = "1", Text = "item 1" },
new { Value = "2", Text = "item 2" },
new { Value = "3", Text = "item 3" },
};
var model = new MyViewModel
{
Individuals = new SelectList(values, "Value", "Text")
};
return View(model);
}
and finally you have a strongly typed view using strongly typed helpers:
@model MyViewModel
@Html.DropDownListFor(
x => x.SelectedIndividual,
Model.Individuals
)
This being said, because I see that you are not using any view models in your application, you could always try the following ugliness (not recommended, do this at your own risk):
@model IEnumerable<MVR.Models.ViewIndividual>
<h2>Level1</h2>
@Html.DropDownList(
"SelectedIndividual",
new SelectList(
Model.Select(
x => new {
Value = x.Case_Number,
Text = string.Format(
"{0}, {1}",
x.Patient_Lastname,
x.Patient_Firstname
)
}
),
"Value",
"Text"
)
)
Of course such pornography is not something that I would recommend to ever write in a view and I wouldn't recommend even to my worst enemies.
Conclusion: In an ASP.NET MVC application you should always be using view models and strongly typed views with strongly typed helpers (see first part of my answer).