VIrtual Twins as tools for personalised clinicAL care
Description: VITAL will deliver a comprehensive clinically validated multi-scale, multi-organ modelling platform that is driven by and can represent individual patient data acquired, both in the clinic and from wearable technology. The platform will create a virtual human twin for individualised and sex-specific optimisation of medical (pharmacological) or surgical (interventional) therapy for complex, multifactorial cardiovascular disorders that have systemic impact and high risk of comorbidities of a.o. the kidney and brain: systemic hypertension, heart failure (with/without preserved ejection fraction) and hemodynamically complicated atrial septal defects. User-friendly interfaces, co-created with healthcare professionals, will provide access to the technology. The platform consolidates existing multi-scale and multi-organ models of the heart, lung and systemic circulation and their regulatory mechanisms, and advances the state-of-the art by incorporating currently missing biophysics-based, physiology-underpinned components (kidney-related blood pressure control, hormonal actions, vascular region-specific smooth muscle cell functionality, and cardiac and arterial growth and remodelling mechano-biological mechanisms). By the end of the project, the platform will have been validated and tested in more than 200 patients across 5 clinical studies in France and the UK to optimise the treatment of patients with resistant systemic hypertension, heart failure or atrial septum defects. A unique aspect of VITAL is its focus on monitoring the mental health of patients to understand their expectations and reservations towards digital health technology. VITAL technology will be compliant with and contribute directly to the VPHi and EDITH virtual twin ecosystem. This will further unlock the potential of new digital tools that intelligently combine the power of physics-based multi-scale models, artificial intelligence and data to provide better health care for all.
Funder: European Commission
Amount: €8,744,000
Funding type: research
Funder scheme: HORIZON - HORIZON-RIA
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Institution: UNIVERSITEIT GENT
Funded outputs count: 27
Funder award ID: 101136728
OpenAlex ID: G8160096197