“Amsterdam has always been a place where cultures meet when people come together, a place where the world come in and out.” Says Peter Paul Verbeek, the rector of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) at the welcome address of the Final EDITH-CSA Ecosystem Meeting (15th-16th July, 2024), held at the KIT Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. “This is exactly why I came here, a place where people from the academic ecosystem take part to share a vision and to shape the future together. Exactly what EDITH is trying to do: move beyond the boundaries of academic fields to connect them with society”.
After the introduction of this incredible two-day journey by the European Commission Representatives, Kyriacos Hatzaras and Margherita Fanos (EC-DG-CNECT) and the meeting host Barry Fitzgerald from BW Science, Liesbet Geris, the EDITH Project Coordinator and the VPH Institute (VHPi) Executive Director, gave a compelling presentation on the purpose of the meeting and the Virtual Human Twin (VHT) roadmap.
The first day was dedicated to a plenary session on the EDITH proof of concept infrastructure, presented from the users’ perspective, where Researchers, Communities, together with Healthcare Providers and Patients were well represented to connect resources and enlighten the federated nature of the VHT, as well as to deploy VHT at bed side in clinical workflows and allow patients to upload their own data in the VHT, while representatives from Industry explored possible interaction of services within VHT.
The same day also included seven fruitful breakout sessions aligned with EDITH key activities, such as Digital Health Economics (Edwin Morley-Fletcher, Lynkeus, and Enzo Fabiani, Pi School), Use-case and proof-of-concept infrastructure (Sabato Mellone, University of Bologna), Standards (Martin Golebiewski, Gerhard Mayer, Heidelberg Institute of Theoretical Studies), Communication strategy and stakeholders (Davide Montesarchio, Goran Stanic, Zita Van Horenbeeck, VPHi), Balancing roles and responsibilities: how to define user profiles (Gökhan Ertaylan, Simon Denil, Frédéric Jung, VITO, and Frank Rademakers, UZ and KU Leuven), Europe-Americas-Asia/Pacific collaboration (Liesbet Geris, VPHi), and Unlocking research infrastructure to broader communities (Marco Verdicchio, Sagar Dolas, Ivar Janmaat, SURF, and Marian Bubak, Piotr Nowakowski, Cyfronet).
During the two days of the event, four strategic sessions were dedicated to analysing the ‘Healthcare-related infrastructures’ and ‘Healthcare professionals and patients’ (Kyriakos Hatzaras, EC-DG-CNECT, Jeroen Belien, Amsterdam University Medical Center, Claire Biot, Dassault Systèmes, Christopher Esterhuyse, UvA, Gernot Marx, Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, Job Leenen, Isala Hospital, Valentina Strammiello, European Patients’ Forum, Frank Rademakers, UZ and KU Leuven), as well as to reporting on ‘Regulatory science and policy update’ (Aldo Badano, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Kelly Brown-Plueschke, European Medicines Agency, Nada Alkhayat, EC-DG-SANTE) and ‘Bringing the VHT to society’ (Signe Mežinska, University of Latvia, Jolien Roovers, Department of Economy, Science and Innovation of the Flemish government, Rossana Alessandrello, AQuAS, Frank van Praat, KPMG and AMdEX, Marco Verdicchio, SURF).
At the end of the incredible engagements carried out during the meeting and in its preparatory phases, the final leg concluded with the plenary session, where Liesbet Geris summarised the key recommendations for the final roadmap, categorised into topics like research and use cases, standards and regulations, users and inclusiveness, infrastructure, and sustainability.
Finally, Liesbet together with Barry successfully wrapped-up the meeting by offering additional inspirations for tackling some of the missing elements that were identified and outlaying the next steps to ensure the embodiment of the vision of the entire ecosystem and its stakeholders to build the VHT and to engage public discussion and active participation in the future.
“We had a strong positive interaction from all participants. This is evidence of the strong commitment during all the 18 months of this Coordination and Support Action. Thus, the ecosystem is thriving and fully engaged to realize the VHT for better health and care for all citizens in Europe and beyond.” Liesbet concluded.