SANO Centre Brings the In Silico Medicine Perspective to the European Parliament’s Digital Health Hearing

Krakow / Brussels, 24 June 2026 — Dr. Maciej Malawski, Associate Professor at AGH University and Director of the SANO Centre for Computational Personalised Medicine in Krakow, addressed Members of the European Parliament at a public hearing on “Digital Health: Preparing Healthcare Systems for the Future.” SANO is a member of the VPH Society’s board, and Dr. Malawski’s contribution placed computational medicine and virtual human twins directly in front of EU lawmakers, shaping the future of health technology policy.

The hearing was organised by the European Parliament’s Committee on Public Health (SANT) and opened with remarks from the Committee’s Chair, Adam Jarubas. In the first panel, dedicated to artificial intelligence, the European Health Data Space (EHDS), and the potential of biotechnology, Dr. Malawski offered a computer science and engineering perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing computational medicine, virtual human twins, and AI in healthcare.

His remarks centred on four recommendations for policymakers:

• Make the EHDS, the AI Act, and GDPR practical and workable for training and validating health AI and virtual human twin systems.
• Strengthen federated data sharing in research and innovation projects by involving clinics from the outset.
• Coordinate European research infrastructures and health systems to build sovereign AI and virtual human twin models.
• Simplify compliance pathways so that SMEs and non-profits can contribute to innovation more effectively.

Dr. Malawski’s central message to MEPs was that policy support needs to extend beyond research funding to translation, so that European-made AI and virtual human twin solutions can reach patients faster and deliver real impact in healthcare.

A second panel, focused on breakthrough medical devices and advanced medical technologies, featured Dr. Sarada Das, Secretary General of the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME), and Dr. Andrea Luca, Medical Director at the Galeazzi Sant’Ambrogio Hospital in Milan, who brought the perspective of medical professionals to the discussion.

The hearing drew strong engagement from MEPs across party lines, with a substantive question-and-answer session covering the full breadth of the digital health landscape, including:

• the ongoing revision of the Medical Device Regulation (MDR) and its fitness for AI-driven health technologies
• credibility and trust in computational and AI-based tools, for clinicians, patients, and regulators alike
• data sharing and the EHDS, including the opportunities and barriers to making health data available for research and innovation across Member States
• the need for harmonised technical and clinical validation standards for digital health tools
• ethics and the responsible development and deployment of AI in healthcare
• EU sovereignty, and reducing dependency on non-European platforms and infrastructure
• liability and accountability when AI tools contribute to clinical decisions
• the potential of digital and computational tools for prevention, early detection, and population health

Prof. Liesbet Geris, Executive Director of the VPH, attended the hearing in Brussels on behalf of the wider VPH Society. In support of this work, the VPH has prepared a public statement on the MDR revision addressing the issues of credibility, standards, and regulation as they relate to the current EU Parliament discussions on the MDR revision — topics that were clearly at the forefront of the debate.

Read the VPH Society’s statement on in silico evidence in the revised MDR

The VPH Society welcomes the strong interest and support shown by MEPs for science-based, evidence-driven policy in digital health, and looks forward to continued engagement with the European Parliament as these regulatory discussions advance.

For further information, contact the VPH Society at info@vph-society.org.