The first EDITH-CSA 'Ecosystem meeting on building the Virtual Human Twin' was held at the École Polytechnique de Paris on January 18 and 19, 2024, with the aim of furthering the work on the VHT roadmap.
After the official launch of the Virtual Human Twin initiative and the VHT Manifesto in December, the first open community meeting attracted over 180 registered guests from the EDITH-CSA consortium and the wider ecosystem. The enthusiasm of the wider community to travel to Paris (amidst difficult weather conditions) and proactively contributing towards developing the roadmap for the VHT was inspiring.
The meeting started with the welcome by the host INRIA together with E4H Center of Institut Polytechnique de Paris, emphasizing on the knowledge and expertise needed for the implementation of the Virtual Human Twin. Prof. Liesbet Geris, executive director of VPHi and the coordinator of EDITH-CSA, presented a broad overview of ongoing activities towards building the ecosystem, the vision and outline of the roadmap
Two days of insightful breakout sessions considered the most fundamental building blocks for realizing the Virtual Human Twin: clinical uptake, real-world data, AI, use cases, integration of resources, European platforms, commercialization, incentivization, and ethics.
The collective brainstorming by diverse stakeholders from academia, industry, research institutes, hospitals, policy makers, regulators, legal & ethics, patient organizations and more, facilitated interdisciplinary contributions. The 14 breakouts that allowed small-group discussions to diverge and capture open questions and inputs from the wider community. Further it also enabled the EDITH-CSA consortium to provide first-hand clarification on the draft roadmap, while inviting the wider ecosystem to contribute to the roadmap writing. Observations from the individual sessions were then diligently collated and summarized in the plenary sessions. The meeeting was graced by Kyriacos Hatzaras (DG-CNECT) as well as other representatives of the European Commission, which launched the VHT initiative.
The meeting concluded with insights and learnings from similar large infrastructures, including the likes of BBMRI-ERIC, EBRAINS and 12 Labours project.
Next steps will aim to consolidate the work done so far into a tangible 10-year plan, to be presented during the second public VHT ecosystem meeting scheduled for 15-16 July in Amsterdam (save the date!).
If you are interested in participating in the next meeting, register to the newsletter HERE and stay tuned!
