Virtual Physiological Human

The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) is a methodological and technological framework that, once established, will enable collaborative investigation of the human body as a single complex system. The collective framework will make it possible to share resources and observations formed by institutions and organizations creating disparate, but integrated computer models of the mechanical, physical and biochemical functions of a living human body.

The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) is a framework which aims to be descriptive, integrative and predictive:

• Descriptive. The framework should allow observations made in laboratories, hospitals and the field, at a variety of locations situated anywhere in the world, to be collected, catalogued, organized, shared and combined in any possible way.

• Integrative. The framework should enable experts to analyse these observations collaboratively and develop systemic hypotheses that involve the knowledge of multiple scientific disciplines.

• Predictive. The framework should make it possible to interconnect predictive models defined at different scales, with multiple methods and varying levels of detail, into systemic networks that solidify those systemic hypotheses; it should also make it possible to verify their validity by comparison with other clinical or laboratory observations.

The framework is formed by large collections of anatomical, physiological, and pathological data stored in digital format, by predictive simulations developed from these collections, and by services intended to support researchers in the creation and maintenance of these models, as well as in the creation of end-user technologies to be used in the clinical practice. Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) models aim to integrate physiological processes across different length and time scales (multi-scale modelling). These models make possible the combination of patient-specific data with population-based representations. The objective is to develop a systemic approach which avoids a reductionist approach and seeks not to subdivide biological systems in any particular way by dimensional scale (body, organ, tissue, cells, molecules), by scientific discipline (biology, physiology, biophysics biochemistry, molecular biology, bioengineering) or anatomical sub-system (cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, etc.).