The ERCIM Digital Patient Working Group (DP WG) has been built around the strengths of the participating ERCIM and non-ERCIM institutions and researchers. The Working group aims to contribute significantly to the promotion of Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) research across Europe in synergy with other initiatives (e.g., the Europhysiome coordination action) in order to exploit what has been done so far and avoid duplication of relevant research work. During the last two years, the DP WG was supported with enthusiasm by many researchers across Europe and has become an important player in the VPH European research scene.
The main interests of its participants focus in the development of frameworks for integrating mathematical models in different scales (from molecular to tissue/organ), in order to better understand different pathologies as well as the effect of different therapeutical schemes on the individual patient. This is a particularly challenging problem for the VPH research.
The active participation in the DP WG meetings lead the WG to become a core member of the VPH NoE, while it gave rise to several important ideas that have been funded in FP7.
The DP WG is now concerned with further possible synergies with other EU initiatives on VPH, (e.g., Contra Cancrum, @neurIST), and cooperation is strongly encouraged.