Personalised, predictive and integrative medicine made possible using virtual physiological human
Biomedical science and its allied disciplines enter a new era in which computational methods and technologies play a major role in supporting collaborative investigation of the human body. In Europe, this has its focus in the virtual physiological human (VPH), an evolving entity that has emerged from the EuroPhysiome initiative and the strategy for the EuroPhysiome (STEP) consortium. The VPH is intended to be a solution to common infrastructure needs for physiome projects across the globe, providing a unifying architecture that facilitates integration and prediction.
Proposed workforce impact
- There may be role shifts. For example, pharmacists and GPs may take up a more active role in prescribing medications as they will be able to model the effects, drug interactions and possible adverse drug events that may occur in individuals.
- More effective first-time prescriptions will reduce the need to represcribe, reducing the number of GPs needed to represcribe.
Sources or references
- http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/ 366/1878/2979.long
- Queensland Health Skills Development Centre: http://www.sdc.gld.edu.au
Additional research questions
- What are all of the intended uses of VPH?
- When will this technology become a reality?
Some of the information in this section is provided by stakeholders and expert groups, and does not necessarily represent the views of the CfWI.
