European Union and MeDiTATe: the challenge of the project
Cardiovascular diseases are the main cause of illness and premature death in the European Union.
The Council of Ministers of the European Union (EU) has estimated that the costs from Cardiovascular diseases in the six main representative countries consist of €98.7 billion in direct healthcare, €22.3 billion in productivity losses from premature mortality and €1.6 billion from morbidity, but the massive use of scientific computing tools in medical practice is still in its infancy due mainly to three causes:
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the implementation of in-silico analysis into clinical practice (and the associated generation of Big Data) requires a significant integration of knowledge and an elevated high-tech know-how (as Big Data Management, Morphing Techniques, Augmented Reality, Automated Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) Processing, Additive Manufacturing);
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the entire workflow requires computational facilities that are not typically hosted by healthcare institutions and, in order to fulfil time requirements due to the large number of patients usually involved, demands high computational efficiency.
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the validation of numerical simulations through clinical studies remains challenging and scarce, or limited to small cohorts. Nevertheless, the use of numerical simulations in clinical practice requires established and validated software solutions having regulatory approvals in appropriate countries (FDA in USA, CE in Europe, ISO in Asia…).