Apparatus and method for validating a computer model

• US 7,774,182 B2
• Filed: 09/10/2008
• Issued: 08/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Entelos Holding Corp. (SilkRoad Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Entelos, Inc. (SilkRoad Inc.)
• Inventors: Paterson, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Rodriguez; Paul L
• Assistant Examiner(s): OSBORNE, LUKE R
• Application Number:
  US12/208,141
• Publication Number:
  US 20090132219A1
• Time in Patent Office: 699 Days
• Field of Search: 703/2, 703/11, 703/6
• US Class Current: 703/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: G16B 5/00 ICT specially adapted for modelling or simulations in systems biology, e.g. gene-regulatory networks, protein interaction networks or metabolic networks
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/50 for simulation or modelling of medical disorders

Abstract

An apparatus and method for validating a computer model is described. In one embodiment, a computer-readable medium comprises instructions to associate a set of configurations of a computer model with a stimulus-response test, each configuration of the set of configurations representing a different model scenario, the stimulus-response test defining a modification to each configuration of the set of configurations. The computer-readable medium also comprises instructions to apply the stimulus-response test to the set of configurations to produce a simulated response for each configuration of the set of configurations and instructions to compare the simulated responses for the set of configurations with an expected response to the stimulus-response test.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for validating multiple virtual patients, wherein the computer comprises a processor, a user-interface and a computer-readable medium, said method comprising:

receiving a baseline computer model of a biological system via the user-interface, wherein the computer model represents a plurality of biological processes of the biological system and wherein the computer model comprises a plurality of parameters;

the processor executing instructions encoded in the computer-readable medium, wherein the instructions comprise;

generating a plurality of virtual patients by changing at least one parameter of the plurality of parameters of the computer model, wherein each virtual patient is different from the other virtual patients by at least one parameter, but share the remaining parameters;

applying a validation structure to each virtual patient, wherein said validation structure comprises one or more sets of stimulus-response tests, wherein a stimulus-response test defines a modification to at least one biological process of the plurality of biological processes, and a set of expected responses associated with each stimulus-response test, wherein applying the validation structure comprises;

associating each virtual patient with one or more sets of stimulus response test;

applying one or more stimulus-response tests to each virtual patient to produce a simulated response for test for each of the plurality of virtual patients; and

generating an indication of validity for each virtual patient by comparing the simulated response to the one of more stimulus-response tests with the associated expected response to the stimulus-response test for each virtual patient; and

displaying the indication of validity for each virtual patient via the user-interface, wherein the indication of validity is selected from a first validity indication, a second validity indication and a third validity indication, wherein the first validity indication indicates that the simulated response is substantially consistent with the expected response, the second validity indication indicates a borderline situation that may merit further consideration by a user, and the third validity indication indicates that the simulated response lies outside an outer ramie defined for an expected response.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the validation structure comprises one or more response types and generating the indication of validity further comprises comparing the simulated response to the one or more simulated response tests with a patient response type.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the response type is associated with a phenotype.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the expected response to the stimulus-response test is based on clinical or experimental behavior of the biological system when subjected to a test simulated by the stimulus-response test.