"The development of computer models that integrate structural and functional information of the heart and then personalize it to individual patients is a mammoth task that will require the multi-disciplinary effort of researchers with strong know-how in biophysical modeling and image processing, clinical experts, and engineers in the device and imaging industries," commented Henk van Houten, senior vice president of Philips Research and head of the Healthcare Research program. "In the euHeart project we are confident that we have brought together the necessary expertise and that we can make a real contribution to improving the treatment of one of the world's killer diseases".

The euHeart consortium comprises public and private partners from 16 research, academic, industrial and medical organizations from six different European countries. It will run for four years and has a budget of approximately EUR 19 million, of which approximately EUR 14 million will be provided by the European Union as part of the EU 7th Framework Program. The project forms part of the Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) initiative - a collaborative effort that aims to produce a computer model of the entire human body so that it can be investigated as a single complex system.


Within the multidisciplinary euHeart consortium, the University of Oxford (Oxford, UK) is the scientific coordinator of the project, while King's College London (London, UK) leads the clinical program.

euHeart Consortium membership (in alphabetical order)

Academic Medical Center Amsterdam (Netherlands) : Berlin Heart (Germany) : Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (Germany) : HemoLab (Netherlands) : Hospital Clinico San Carlos de Madrid Insalud (Spain) : Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale (France) : Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (France): King's College London (United Kingdom) : Philips Healthcare (Netherlands, Spain) : Philips Research (Germany) : PolyDimensions (Germany) : Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain) : University of Karlsruhe (Germany) : University of Oxford (United Kingdom) : University of Sheffield (United Kingdom) : Volcano Europe SA/NV (Belgium).

Full caption: The HeartCycle consortium will work to improve the quality of care heart patients by developing systems for monitoring their condition at home and involving them in the daily management of their disease. Dedicated software will be developed that analyzes the acquired data, and that can be programmed to provide feedback on the patient's health status.

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