With the beginning of the new year, the VPH Institute invites all its members to renew their membership to keep on sustaining the number of activities VPHi is involved on!
Our organisation has been growing of size and importance over the years. 2019 has been another intense and fruitful year (Here you can find a report of the main activities we took care of) and we plan to have even a better 2020.
We have a lot of events in program for our members, such as:
All these events foresee discounts for VPHi members.
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A number of awards will be assigned:
We will also continue with the organisation of the VPHi keynote webinar series, a quarterly event organised by the VPHi Student Committee that provides a forum for access to senior community members and their expert competence on key in silico medicine topics:
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Last but not least, the VPH Institute and in silico-related companies (software, medical devices & pharma) are working together under the umbrella of the Avicenna Alliance on a number of activities from policy to engagement and research with the common goal to facilitate the adoption of in silico medicine. We currently have six active working groups that focus on specific initiatives. The working groups normally meet remotely (via teleconference) every 3 months and all of them are open for participation to all Alliance members, which includes all VPHi members. If you are interested in any of the topics and you would like to contribute with your expertise or simply want to learn what the current status in that area is, you are welcome to join. To do so, please contact: manager@vph-institute.org
The industry members are particularly keen to collaborate with the academic side of the in silico community, in the form of community initiatives, bilateral project or specific project consortia. The Alliance is working on a matchmaking tool that will allow identification of best partners (industry and academia). In the meantime, participation to the activities below is a good way of getting in touch with other members.
Here is the list of WGs:
1. The Policy Development Working Group, led by Emmanuelle Voisin (Voisin Consulting Life Sciences- VCLS) works on delivering policy recommendations to include in silico modeling in all health care related policies, focusing on those policies where the legislative opportunities present themselves at EU level. In the near future, this WG will focus on pediatrics and orphan medicines.
Who should join? Anyone with research experience in pediatric or orphan medicine, experience/interest in regulatory science for in silico technologies as well as anyone interested in general policy related to in silico.
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2. The International Development Working Group, led by Markus Reiterer (Medtronic). Its activities focus on the active engagement (especially on the regulatory level) with priority countries (China, India, Japan, South Korea), and on the follow-up with additional countries (India, Israel, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Brazil, Russia and Switzerland).
Who should join? Members with active collaborations outside of Europe
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3. The Research and Technology Working Group, led by our Executive Director Lies Geris, seeks to bridge the missing mile between basic research and the commercialization of products. In this space, the group focuses on the following activities:
Who should join? Members interested in collaborating with industry and contributing to call/program suggestions for upcoming funding frameworks.
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4. (NEW) EMA Working Group, led by our Executive Director Lies Geris in collaboration with Flora Musuamba Tshinanu, Belgian regulator and vice-chair of the modeling and simulation working party of EMA. This working group focuses on drafting a white paper, similar to US V&V40, to give guidance on how to validate models in the context of drug development in order to speed up the adoption process of in silico models.
Who should joint? Members interested in regulatory science, members with research expertise/interest in modeling of drug design & development, members with expertise/interest in in silico clinical trials.
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5. (NEW) Tissue Characterization Working Group, led by Venkat(Eswaran) Perumal (Striker), focuses on implementing a set of guidelines and a library on soft tissues to be used as a birth certificate of the data in the regulatory submission process.
Who should joint? Members active/interested in tissue characterization and modeling
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6. (NEW) Good simulation practices (GSP) Working Group, led by Luca Emili (insilicotrials) aims at creating Good Simulation Practices as a tool to support the regulatory acceptance of M&S. As the clinical trials are defined by GCP Good Clinical Practices the groups goals is to start the discussion of the definition of the practices for the in silico trials. If you are not following the GCP what you are not doing cannot be defined as a clinical trial. At the moment it is very hard to say how to do, review, evaluate, an in silico trials. GSP will fill this gap.
Who should joint? Members interested in establishing a framework that will allow a clear quality control of in silico models at all stages of development (from basic science to industrial application), that will allow for a smoother transition from academia to industry and a swifter regulatory acceptance.
The Avicenna Alliance’s industrial membership is growing rapidly. All VPHi members are automatically also members of the Alliance. We strongly encourage everyone to take advantage of this momentum we have been building up to for a long time and contribute to the activities mentioned above. Do not be afraid that you might not have the right expertise, just join us and judge for yourself.
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And of course, if you wish to propose any activities you believe our organization should be taking care of, don’t hesitate to send us your suggestions!
In order to make of all this possible, we ask your collaboration in making sure the payment of your membership renewal reach us as soon as possible! All members should have received the billing information by email. In case you had problems with the receipt of the message, don't hesitate to contact: manager@vph-institute.org
