With the explosion of new data that has accompanied the Human Genome Project and other recent developments in biomedical sciences, together with the rapid commercialization of the Internet, the medical technology and pharmaceutical industries stand at the threshold of a new era. However, to take advantage of these new information resources, these industries will need powerful new computational tools to analyze and process the information. For example, we can now simulate the mechanical and electrical activity of the whole heart using computational models that have precise anatomical and cellular detail acquired from decades of experimental research. Advances in computer technology and processing power have made many of these complicated yet realistic models possible.

Computational bioengineering modeling software that can integrate molecular information from the biology lab bench to the clinical setting will be an essential and increasingly powerful tool. Software of this type is now well-established, indeed indispensable, in traditional industries and sectors such as aerospace, automotive, computer technology, civil infrastructure and manufacturing. But the medical technology and pharmaceutical industries have relied far more heavily on empirical and experimental approaches to product development and testing. This prolongs the product development cycle and greatly increases the costs. However, this paradigm will change rapidly in the next decade as new information analysis and modeling software becomes available. Moreover, regulatory agencies such as the FDA will increasingly require bioengineering computer analysis and modeling studies as a prerequisite to new product approval.

An important constraint on the progress of this new paradigm is the limited availability of technical expertise in computational bioengineering in these industries. While demand for bioinformatics and modeling specialists in these industries is unprecedented, the needs will not be filled for many years. Together with the lack of commercial software tools, this will create high demand for custom software services.

Insilicomed's computational modeling software will start to fill the need for innovative predictive simulation tools that incorporate detailed biological properties. Much of the information needed to create these models exists in public databases, and Insilicomed is developing algorithms for incorporating this data into the modeling tools. Software such as this, and engineering support, is especially useful for biomedical device manufacturers during the development and validation phases of new and improved cardiovascular diagnostic and therapeutic products