VPH2020 conference: the digital medicine rendez-vous will be held virtually

What if it were possible to simulate the physiological reactions of an organ, or even a human body, using computers?

This equation of knowledge in human biology has a name: in silico medicine or Virtual Physiological Human (VPH). Little known to the general public and part of the medical profession, this field of research has been bubbling over the last twenty years. Treatment prognosis and evaluation, development of personalized medical devices, virtual clinical tests... The current and potential applications of these models are shaping the medicine of tomorrow.

The VPH Institute was born out of this conviction. A group of researchers set up to encourage the European Commission to finance the development of VPH, this association also plays the role of a learned society. This is why the VPH conferences were launched, to bring together the community of experts in the field, academics, doctors and industrialists.

An edition marked by digital sciences and medical participation

This year's biennial digital medicine event is supported by EIT Health France and organized by Inria Saclay - Île-de-France. This is an opportunity for Inria to leave its mark on the event and to encourage doctors to participate.

Historically, the medical modelling community has been structured around mathematicians and bioengineers. Dominique Chapelle and Irène Vignon-Clementel*, by co-chairing the conference organizing committee, wanted to correct this bias and involve practitioners from the initial decisions to the plenary and parallel conferences of the 2020 conference. Two blocks of sessions are thus entirely dedicated to clinical applications.

Given the context, the conference will open on an additional day devoted to the contributions of in silico medicine in the management of the Covid-19 crisis and introduced by the feedback of Etienne Gayat, anesthesiologist at Lariboisière hospital in Paris. On the program: simulation of different organs and tissues, epidemiology models, medical devices specially tuned for patients with SARS-CoV-2, new trends in imaging... The methodological block highlights Inria's flagship themes, with learning and data assimilation sessions.

At the same time, a strong presence of industrialists in the sector will enable visitors to become familiar with the work of private research as well as the digital tools they publish. Junior participants will even have the opportunity to "pitcher" to be spotted by certain companies, using a standard format "My thesis in 180 seconds". To ensure accessibility to distant time zones, the sessions will be recorded and replayed. By reaching more participants, VPH2020 will advance convergence between the three communities involved in in silico medicine.

Plenary lectures by experts...

For this 2020 edition, three specialists will meet you at VPH2020:

• Etienne Gayat, anesthesiologist-resuscitator at the Lariboisière hospital in Paris, will give a plenary lecture at the opening of the day on Monday 24th August devoted to Covid-19, to present the subject from a clinical point of view.
• Lucie Bailly, a researcher in phonatory biomechanics at the CNRS and the University of Grenoble Alpes, will give a presentation on experimental and modelling approaches at several scales in the biomechanics of the voice.
• Helen Byrne, Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Oxford (UK) and specialist in cancer modelling, will focus on explaining how mathematical modelling has in a few years become a major tool for elucidating the complex processes that contribute to the appearance and progression of tumours and how this discipline could increase the capacity of models to generate qualitative and quantitative predictions on the growth and response to treatment of solid tumours.
• Tarique Hussain, Professor of Pediatric Cardiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center (USA), will discuss, among other things, the opportunities and controversies surrounding multi-scale modeling of structural heart disease.

 The Virtual Physiological Human in all its aspects

An adapted program

* Dominique Chapelle is head of science of the Inria Saclay - Île-de-France research centre and Irène Vignon-Clementel is an Inria research director and interim director of the Reo (Mathematical modelling and Numerical Simulation of Biological Flows) project team.