We are excited to announce that we have secured new funding from ALF, the state-funded research program for clinical research in collaboration with Swedish regions. The grant has been awarded to Gunnar Cedersund, the coordinator of STRATIF-AI, for a project titled “Implementation and Evaluation of a Digital Twin-Based eHealth Application for Preventive Health Dialogues.”
This project is directly linked to Clinical Study 2 within STRATIF-AI, which assesses our application designed for use during and after preventive health dialogues at primary healthcare centers. In this study, we will compare standard clinical practice with 300 health dialogues incorporating the new app.
With this additional funding, we can enhance app development and expand the clinical study to include 400 patients. The project will span three years, with an annual budget of 900,000 SEK, totaling approximately 3 million SEK (around 300,000 EUR). This support will significantly bolster our efforts in the field of preventive healthcare.
A few weeks ago, on June 10, STRATIF-AI had its first meeting with fellow EU projects funded under the same call, all focusing on the use of AI for improved patient stratification. This initial two-hour meeting served as an introduction to each project and a discussion of key shared challenges (see Figure below). These challenges include data interoperability, federated learning, trustworthy and explainable AI (xAI), and MDR certifications.
During the meeting, we presented some core concepts of STRATIF-AI, such as our hybrid approach that combines multi-level, multi-timescale, and multi-organ simulations using mechanistic models as inputs to machine-learning models. This hybrid approach enhances the explainability of our models.
Furthermore, we explained shortly how STRATIF-AI uses data harmonization in two places: i) in connection to the federated learning set up by a collaboration between Catalina Martinez Costa (University of Murcia) and Lucia Gregorio Rodriguez (TREE), and ii) in connection to integrating a copy data from a variety of different sources into a personal data vault (Jesper Fellenius at Z2).
This collaboration and network of related projects will be useful for us to use in various related topics as we move forward, and we from STRATIF-AI are looking forward to new meetings. Thanks to the team at PREPARE for setting this meeting up.
CompBioMed Conference 2023 (CBMC23) will address all aspects of computational biomedicine, from genome through organ to whole human and population levels, embracing data driven, mechanistic modelling and simulation, machine learning and combinations thereof. This year Gunnar will is one of the Plenary Speakers and he will discuss physiologically based digital twins: a digital and interactive copy of yourself that follows you throughout your health journey.
Join the VPH (Virtual Physiologocal Human) summer school in Barcelona, June 5-9, 2023. This summer school includes 15 morning lectures, one honorary VPH lecture, and a lot of networking opportunities. Gunnar will talk about about the digital twins, so don’t miss it!
Last day to register is 21 of May, and you find more information HERE
M4-health and digital twins: bring a digital copy of yourself with you throughout your health journey
Keynote Lecture, Wednesday June 7th, 2023, 09:30-11:00
Abstract: For the last 20 years, Cedersund has developed mechanistic mathematical models for all of the main organs in the human body: heart, liver, fat, brain, etc. Lately, these models have combined into an interconnected model for the body as a whole. This interconnected model can be made specifically for each individual, and is then called a digital twin. This digital twin technology employs a hybrid approach, which combines the mechanistic simulation models with machine learning and bioinformatics models. This allows a patient, doctor, or other end-user to look inside the body of a patient, as it is now, ranging from the whole-body to the intracellular level. This also allows for simulations of different future scenarios, ranging from ms to years, and can simulate e.g. the risk of a stroke, depending on choice of diets, exercise, and certain medications. The models are thus of an M4-nature: multi-level, multi-timescale, mechanistic, and multi-organ. The focus on this talk will be on how we systematically test mechanistically hypothesis on the intracellular and organ levels, using mechanistic modelling, optimization, and predictions with uncertainty – followed by corresponding model-designed experiments. I will also to some extent go through how we assemble the different organ sub-models together into the integrated digital twin, which in itself is a modelling problem, and how we then put all of this into a series of different eHealth apps.
Biosketche: Gunnar Cedersund (https://liu.se/en/employee/gunce57) heads a cross-disciplinary research group at the Department of Biomedical Engineering (IMT) at Linköping University. The heart of this group (15+ people) does hybrid mathematical modelling, combining machine learning with mechanistic small- and large-scale models. These models are developed using both pre-clinical and experimental data of various types, which are collected both by experimentalists and clininicians within the same group, and by numerous collaborators. These models are made available for preventive and patient-centric care, as well as for drug development and medical pedagogics, using innovative eHealth technologies. This is made possible, e.g., via the fact that Cedersund heads the 6MEuro EU project STRATIF-AI, which brings his digital twins into healthcare for all phases of stroke (prevention, acute treatment, and rehabilitation), using a series of different apps, which all are connected to the same backend.
LiU Scene for AI arrange lectures and events with a focus on AI. This time the event will focus on AI in Medical research and healthcare. For a whole afternoon you will be able to listen to presentations that will show LiU:s world leading strengths in this exciting field, including Gunnars presentation: M4-health and digital twins: a foundation for general AI in healthcare.
The event is open for academia, industry and the general public, and can also be watched online afterwards. The number of seats is limited so don’t forget to register in the link below.
Where? Wrannesalen, CMIV, Campus US, Linköping (North entrence, entrence 7) When? Tuesday 8/11, 14.00 – 16.30 CET
14.00-14.20Introduction: Artificial intelligence in medicine – Clinical implementation with Håkan Gustafsson, Deputy director at the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV)
14.25-14.45 AIDA – Analytic imaging diagnostic arena with Caroline Bivik Stadler, Principal Research Engineer at the Department of Health, Medicine and Caring Sciences (HMV)
14.50-15.10 Enabling large medical datasets using federated learning and synthetic data with Anders Eklund, Senior Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering (IMT)
15.15-15.30 Pause
5.30-15.50 M4-health and digital twins: a foundation for general AI in healthcare with Gunnar Cedersund, Associate Professor at the Department of Biomedical Engineering (IMT)
15.55-16.15Deep learning for functional analysis of diseases with Mika Gustafsson, Professor at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM)
16.20-16.30 Closing remarks with Anders Persson, Director at the Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization (CMIV)
The opening ceremony of the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) conference was something special, it featured a lecture-performance with our physiologically based dancing digital twins. The VPH Institute has now published a news letter were you can read more about the development of the digital twins for the past 20 years, and more about the future visions for using them within biomedical teaching and patient-centric care.
“Take your digital twin with you throughout your health journey: from dance performances to patient-centric, preventive healthcare” For link click HERE
Unique collaboration between the Swedish researcher and pianist Gunnar Cedersund and choreographer and dancer Julia Bengtsson fuses digital twin technology and visualization with dance and music
