Endocrine Abstracts

Systems Medicine is an interdisciplinary field of study that deals with systems of the human body as part of an integrated whole, incorporating biochemical, physiological, and environment interactions. Systems Medicine draws on systems science and systems biology, and considers complex interactions within the human body with a patient’s genomics, behavior and environment perspective. The earliest uses of the term systems medicine appeared in 1992, it is a modern approach which produces improvement of patient health through systems-based approaches and practice.

A distinctive challenge of Systems Medicine is that it means different things for different people and that different societies and communities use different approaches and languages.

Clinicians always have integrated clinical observation, empirical knowledge and information from medical tests in order to diagnose and treat patients. This is a proven and successful concept. However, the success of this approach is challenged by the steep increase in the amount of different pieces of information to integrate and the sheer size and complexity of large datasets, such as genome sequences, which we are able to produce. Computational and mathematical analysis and modeling methods used in Systems Medicine offer a unique and effective opportunity to fill this gap. These methods open new horizons and will extend medicine’s ability to help by harnessing an enormous amount of patient and disease relevant information that is available and will become available in the future. Systems Medicine provides a systematic and tractable approach that is reproducible, scalable and evolvable, ensuring that the increasing volume of highly complex patient data will be accessible and intelligible. Systems Medicine will give clinicians a new tool that will step change the capabilities of the clinician to diagnose and treat patients faster, better and more effectively. The Coordinating Action Systems Medicine (CASyM) is a multidisciplinary European consortium that joins forces to develop an implementation strategy for Systems Medicine. This new and innovative concept integrates multiple disciplines, whereas a significant part of this is clinical medicine, from clinical trials through public health and medical economics. The CASyM road map is driven by clinical needs: It aims to identify areas where a systems approach will address clinical questions and solve clinical problems. The Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Institute of Health Carlos III, ISCIII) is the main Public Research Entity funding, managing and carrying out biomedical research in Spain. The Institute has been conducting research and providing key services in the life and health sciences for over 20 years. It is also the responsible for managing Spain’s Health Research and Development Strategy. Its key mission is to support the development of scientific knowledge in the health sciences and to contribute to innovation in healthcare and the prevention of disease throughout Systems Medicine. Putting patients at the heart of all its activities and objectives, the Institute promotes and coordinates biomedical research and provides scientific and technical services of the highest quality in partnership with all the organizations forming part of the Spanish System of Science, Technology and Innovation. In order to create a network of research excellence, it created the Centros de Investigación Biomédica en Red (Biomedical Research Networking Centre, ‘CIBER’) by setting up consortia, with their own legal personality, which are designed to conduct research on a specific broadly defined disease or health problem. CIBER are formed through the association of research groups linked to the National Health System to help form the scientific basis of the programs and policies of the National Health System. The purpose of creating and maintaining CIBER is to promote research excellence in biomedicine and health sciences conducted in the National Health System and in the system of science and technology. Systems Medicine is an appealing concept, it still is in the phase of its active development and not implemented in clinical practice. For this reason clinical needs and opportunities for the implementation of Systems Medicine in clinical endocrinology will be discussed. The aim of the discussion will be to explore innovative approaches in the characterization and management of endocrine disorders, where new discoveries and new technologies are challenging scientists for the development of research, as well as for the clinical practice. Participants will be asked for their main field of expertise and any present and/or previous experience in the Systems Medicine area. Moreover, their interest toward Systems Medicine and their feeling about the add-on value of Systems Medicine in their own area of research and in general, will be evaluated. Types of Systems Medicine based applications which are more appealing in clinical endocrinology would be identified. Targeted therapies, clinical trials, neuroendocrine databases, diabetes and quality of life emerged as very appealing for System Medicine in clinical endocrinology. Systems approaches may also fulfill the unmet needs which include the necessity of prognostic parameters, validated treatment algorithms, identification of pathway-specific compounds and identification of patient heterogenei