Virtual physiological human and its role for advanced pHealth service provision

This paper provides an introduction to some of the most important challenges that may occur when introducing the principle of Personal Portable Devices for providing information in terms of Big Data on the one hand, and the concept of the Virtual Physiological Human on the other. Both concepts can be applied to exploit their specific capability to collect and record personal health data of different levels of granularity into processes of personalized health service provision. The paper thus analyzes Big Data approaches and their capability to provide information for personalized service provision, and the same goes for the Virtual Physiological Human as such. But it is not only devices, concepts, models, and strategies that are involved in personalized health care as well as welfare and wellness service provision to human beings - it is the human being himself, too. This paper addresses technological and methodological aspects of using large amounts of data whereas another paper submitted to this conference will bring forward the aspects of applied sensor and device technology in relation to decision support and decision making for pHealth services.