Virtual Physiological Human Short presentation of the ARGOS VPH Policy Brief Marco Viceconti Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Italy 1

Virtual Physiological Human Short presentation of the ARGOS VPH Policy Brief

Marco VicecontiIstituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Italy

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Target areas: VPH

• Modelling and simulation of human physiology and diseases with a focus on the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH).

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• The human body is currently investigated as if it is a jigsaw puzzle made of a trillion pieces

• We are trying to understand the whole picture by looking at a single piece, or at a few closely interconnected pieces

• We do need a frame, within which we can finally start to place the pieces all together, and the glue that connects them

• The frame is not the whole picture, but is the only way we might hope to see it one day

The Human Jigsaw

Integrative research

The Integrative Research approach requires a radical transformation on the way biomedical research is conducted

That is why it is necessary to create a framework made of technology and methods

This framework is called

Virtual Physiological Human

What is the VPH?

The Virtual Physiological Human is a methodological and technological framework that once established will enable the investigation of the human body as a single complex system.

Organism

Organ

Tissue

Cell

Organelle

Interaction

Protein

Cell Signals

Transcript

Gene

Molecule

© 2011 VPH Institute

Why VPH is eHealth?

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SubjectSpecificSubjectSpecific

ReusableReusable

Digital ArtefactsDigital Artefacts

Predictive models

Predictive models

Capture knowledge

Capture knowledge

IntegrableIntegrable

What is VPH?• Cover all organ systems, all scales.• Large-scale research initiative.• Started in 2005, > €200m funding, > 2000

researchers in Europe.• International ramifications in USA, Japan, Korea,

Australia, China, etc.• A network of Excellence, a congress, three

special issues on TRS, a book* (or two?)• a virtual institute

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VPH Activity: moderators

• Marco Viceconti: responsible of the VPH NoE outreach program and coordinator of the VPHOP Integrated project

• Andrew McCulloch: member of the IUPS Physiome project and of the Multi Scale Modelling consortium of the USA Interagency Modelling and Analysis Group

© 2010-2012 ARGOS Consortium 8

Editorial Team


Activity plan• Position paper

– Draft of the position paper on VPH, preparatory of the policy brief– Presentation and discussion of the draft with selected experts in USA and

Europe– Presentation and discussion of the revised draft at key IMAG and VPH NoE

meetings– Closure and publication of the position paper

• Policy Brief– First draft of the policy brief, discussed at the ARGOS meeting in

Washington, DC– Publication and call for comments of the draft policy brief– Consolidation and presentation of the draft policy brief at ARGOS Finale,

Budapest


Policy brief: scope

• The policy brief should not replicate the scope of other road-mapping efforts in Europe or in USA, but focus only on the specific aspects of ARGOS:– Provide a observatory of VPH research, pointing to

relevant documents for details– Revise critically these experiences, and point where the

residual challenges are– With respect to such challenges understand where a US-

EU cooperation is necessary– Identify which changes in policy would foster such

cooperation


Terminology

• Infostructure

• Cyberinfrastructure

• Digital Infrastructure


VPH: time is ripe

“One Life, One Knowledge: Technology To Integrate”

• The time is ripe to go to the next level: coordinate research efforts toward the complete integration of all data, information, and knowledge about human physiology and pathology into a global “digital infrastructure”


Expected Benefits

• VPH infrastructure produce socioeconomic benefits by:– Enhancing the understanding of diseases, promoting

prevention and early diagnosis;

– Accelerating the development pipeline and the assessment of safety and efficacy for innovative drugs and medical devices;

– Assisting the medical professional in coping with the “information overload” problem

– Fostering the development of new healthcare policies that promote a more holistic approach to complex diseases and to the promotion of an active and healthy aging.


We need joint policy

But this will be possible only if Europe and United States elaborate a joint policy.

The ARGOS VPH Policy Brief illustrates the reasons why we, the academic, industrial, and clinical

stakeholders of the VPH initiative recommend the European and United States governments:


Rec #1: Work together

• Work together on a common policy to realign all VPH-type research efforts toward the creation of a global VPH digital infrastructure, by ensuring that all repositories of data and models, as well as all the methods and technologies developed during these research projects funded by governmental agencies are mutually interoperable and integrable.


Rec #2: Support MAG

• Support the establishment and the operations of an International Multistakeholder Advisory Group responsible of elaborating a collective vision, as well as the minimum set of standards and the technical guidelines that ensure the interoperability and the integrability of all VPH resources into the global VPH digital infrastructure, according to the vision of the Virtual Physiological Human.


Long-term sustainability

• The revolutionary nature of the VPH digital infrastructure requires special policies to its long-term sustainability, especially for:– Maintenance: transform the research prototypes into consolidated resources

• re-engineering, consolidation,, standardisation,, maintenance. • USA NSF has recognized this problem Scientific Software Innovation Institutes

– Service: Deploy consolidated resources into services • operated and curated • persistence, reliability, security, etc.

– Outreach: motivated organizations must be established and supported• to operate these services• to promote an outreach campaign

– a) widest possible adoption and utilization– b) provides training and re-training to researchers and medical professionals– c) monitors the development and the adoption, providing decision-makers with factual and up-to-date evidence


Governance model


THANK YOU!


ARGOS Draft position paper:http://tinyurl.com/argospaper

Documents

Virtual Physiological Human Short presentation of the ARGOS VPH Policy Brief Marco Viceconti Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Italy 1