Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
ITFoM is a consortium of more than 160 academic institutions and industrial
partners with unparalleled expertise in ICT, life sciences, public health, and
medicine. This consortium will address for the first time the ICT implications of
worldwide individualized patient care in combination with genomics and medical
requirements on a large scale. This joint effort will contribute to a revolution in the
health care system with enormous benefits for prevention, diagnosis, and therapy.
It is expected that this model-based approach will also lead to increased efficiency
in patient treatment by individualizing combinations of a limited number of drugs
and reducing side effects of treatments. On a long-term perspective, the model-
based approach of integrating the patient's genome data and other information on
diseases, lifestyle, and environment could develop into an efficient system for
prevention, and avoiding treatment, thereby playing an important role in concepts
to reduce health care costs.
The resulting innovations emerging from the joint effort in ITFoM will answer
to the European Digital Agenda and major health and societal challenges by
building consistent value chains such as drug development, diagnostics and pre-
vention, health devices, and PoC diagnostics; intelligent hardware and software
solutions together with robust and secure data pipelines support the flow of the
circulating medical data.
ITFoM aims at creating the new ICT that is necessary to enable models of
human biochemical pathways, cells, tissues, diseases, and ultimately of the human
as a whole.
5 Modeling Approaches for the Virtual Patient
Modeling approaches have been developed for all areas in the life sciences; we
find anatomical, physiological, and molecular models. For an appropriate 'virtual
patient' the integration of all information and models is a central challenge.
5.1 Anatomical Models
Imaging methods are the core to build anatomical models. Imaging technology and
computer hardware and software recently developed very quickly in this field; for
example, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron-emission tomography
(PET) offer a whole spectrum of technologies increased by the possibility of
combined approaches [
46
]. Other innovative approaches such as ultrasound and
electromagnetic imaging or (nano)sensors increase the number of opportunities for
high-resolution imaging and are efficient and inexpensive alternatives for existing
technology. Anatomical models consider cells, tissues, organs, or even the whole
human body. Some models are already used in clinical practice; they are used as
support in surgery for careful planning and execution as in cancer or heart surgery
