Collaborative Modeling and Simulation: the Virtual Physiological Human vision

The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) is an international research initiative, which aims to develop a framework of methods and technologies enabling an integrative investigation of the human physiology and pathology. The term integrative indicates the need to overcome the limitations of the reductionist approach, attempting to capture the emergences due to systemic interaction between space-time scales, organ systems, but also academic disciplines. In this brief presentation of the VPH initiative and of its early results we argue that the VPH is first and foremost an attempt to develop an effective environment for collaborative modeling and simulation.