Computer program could ‘revolutionise the world’s healthcare’

A massive network of computer programs co-created by University of Manchester scientists could revolutionise healthcare around the world, saving countless lives and billions of pounds.

Working with a number of partners, the academics have been awarded funds from a huge European research programme to create ''virtual patients'' - computational models of individual people - which could lead to everyone having their own individually-tailored health system based on their genetic and physiological make-up.

Under the system, doctors would be able to have an instant, in-depth knowledge of an individual patient's health needs and medical history at their fingertips.

This will allow GPs to correctly and quickly diagnose illnesses and conditions, saving patients from potentially-deadly side effects of wrongly-prescribed medicines and saving huge amounts of money on drugs.

The University of Manchester researchers are part of a pan-European, 10-year project, called IT Future of Medicine (ITFoM), costing €1bn.

ITFOM has been allocated €1.5m preliminary funding.