The first step will consist in defining the 4 anatomical, mechanical, appearance and biological models on all information available on liver pre-operatives and surrounding anatomical and pathological structures. It includes anatomical information extracted from CT-scan, MRI or US, mechanical properties extracted from elastographic imaging, functional and biological information extracted from biopsy and blood analysis. These first 4 Work Packages will each be dedicated to the development of one specific model.

The Fifth Work Package will consist in adding dynamics to this static modelling through the development of organ motion and deformation modelling. All these 5 models will then be integrated (WP6) in an open source framework allowing to exploit them in a unified patient-specific modelling, which is the “heart” of the PASSPORT project.

As a result of all this data, the next step (WP7) will consist in developing patient-specific pre-operative liver surgery planning, not only limited to liver volume and geometry, but also integrating the previous unified modelling by providing the minimal safety standardized FLR. In parallel to this development, we will develop patient-specific simulators for liver surgery allowing i) the education of such procedures, and ii) pre-operative simulation. Described models will be integrated for simulation on an international open source platform allowing not only a better dissemination of results, but also a possible extension of results in other areas of the human body as well as other types of pathology.

All these research developments will lead to demonstration software which will be evaluated and tested by medical experts in liver surgery through WP8. This work package will also include the validation of progressive results extracted from the first five work packages.

Due to the large number of static or dynamic models, PASSPORT is based on a large number of renowned partners or associated partners; each specialized in one or two modelling techniques or providing a clinical validation of the result. Each Hospital and surgical team will be directly involved, as associated partners in the validation of project outcomes which is vital for the development and success of these types of technology.

To reach the PASSPORT for Liver Surgery scientific and technological objectives, we have developed a 3-year schedule composed of 10 work packages!