Evidence based medicine (EBM) has shown a number of advances to medical treatment. But EBM is not commonly accepted because it comes with various problems. One is related to its' statistical nature. Patients are treated as average cases but not as individuals who may reveal large variations of reactions to the same therapeutic actions.

In this talk an approach towards individualized therapy is introduced that combines statistical knowledge with reasoning from first principles. Physiological modelling is employed to predict patient behaviour. In a hierarchically organized multi model architecture parameter identification techniques serve as a basis to estimate individual properties not directly accessible at the bedside.

For the domain of mechanical ventilation therapy, the most important life saving therapy on ICUs, this general approach will be demonstrated.

Knut Möller studied Computer Science with application to medicine at Bonn University, Germany and Rutgers UniversityNJ. He was a visiting scholar at the Instituto Leonardo Fibonacci Trento, Italy, before he received a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science and later an M.D. in Medicine at Bonn University, Germany. Currently, he is the Dean of the Biomedical Engineering Division at Furtwangen University, Germany, associated professor at the Clinics for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Hospital of Freiburg, Germany and Co-Director of the Institute for Technical Medicine (ITeM) Freiburg, Germany.

His research interests include physiological modelling, intelligent signal analysis, decision support systems and automation with special focus on intensive care medicine and rehabilitation engineering.