IBEC Seminar: Josep Roca

From Systems Understanding to Personalized Medicine: Lessons and Recommendations based on a multi-disciplinary and translational analysis of COPD

Systems medicine, using and adapting methods and approaches as developed within systems biology, promises to be central in ongoing efforts of realizing and implementing personalized medicine in clinical practice and research. Here we review and critically assess opportunities and challenges using our work on COPD as a case study. We find that there are significant biomedical challenges in how to unravel complex multi-factorial components in disease initiation and progression producing different clinical phenotypes. Yet, while such a system understanding of COPD is necessary, there are other auxiliary challenges that need to be addressed in concert with a systems analysis of COPD. These include information and communication technologies (ICT) related issues such as data harmonization, systematic handling of knowledge, computational modeling, and importantly their translation and support of clinical practice. For example, clinical decision support systems need a seamless integration with new models and knowledge as systems analysis of COPD continues to develop. Our experience with clinical implementation of COPD highlights the need for a change of management including design of appropriate business models, and adoption of ICT providing and supporting organizational interoperability among professional teams across healthcare tiers, working around the patient. In conclusion, in our hands the scope and efforts of systems medicine need to concurrently consider these aspects clinical implementation this driving the selection of most relevant issues and method in a systems analysis of disease.

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