ICT for bridging biology and medicine

Abstract

The systems paradigm of modern medicine presents both, an opportunity and a challenge for current Information and Communication Technology (ICT): the opportunity to understand the dynamics of the human body as part of an integrated whole, incorporating bio-chemical, physiological, and environ-mental interactions that sustain life, provided we master the challenge of integrating, interpreting, and utilizing an unprecedented amount of in-silico, in-vitro and in-vivo data related to health care and biological processes in a systematic and controlledmanner. Meeting this challenge has unquestionably the potential to revolutionize our health-care systems, affecting all our lives both, personally and - due to the enormous costs of these systems in modern societies - also financially. So, to ponder the options of ICT for delivering the promise of systems approaches to medical care, medical researchers, physicians, mathematicians, computer scientists, and information-systems experts from both, industry and academia, traveling from locations in three different continents, met in Dagstuhl for a Perspectives Workshop from August 18-23, 2013, to discuss this multidisciplinary topic and to compile recommendations towards ICT Strategies for Bridging Biology and Medicine. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.