The present project seeks to link consistently across areas of medicine, computing and modeling among others.� These advance in parallel and their intersection needs to be consolidated to keep Brazil at the forefront of interdisciplinary fields of research. In fact, the INCT-MACC has been pioneering work in this area, which has players who are also in the process of defining themselves on the worldwide level. It can therefore be said that the project is intrinsically innovative, both at local level and internationally, and that by permeating disjointed areas of science and creating inter-relationships between them, embraces all the scientific characteristics of a relatively new scientific area (scientific computing applied to medicine) and has high promise. This concept of Medicine Assisted by Scientific Computing opens up a new research area in which Brazil must embark in order to meet its internal needs as a country on a clear path to development. Although nowadays there is well-established knowledge in many areas of scientific computing, the use of these in the area of medicine is still in its early years and any effort towards increasing our understanding as well as developing new techniques and appropriate scientific methodologies should be considered absolutely valid and crucial. Without doubt, this is the clearest expression of the conception of science, and enhances the project not only in terms of scientific contributions, but also in terms of technological innovation and impact on society. Because of this, sustained research directed to the achievement of proposed objectives and goals is required, as described in this research project.

The combination of medical imaging with computational modeling and medicine produces numerous possibilities to move to another level in the use of technology in the medical context. The incorporation of computer modeling and simulation in medicine provides expectation for a far greater knowledge of biological, physical and systemic phenomena that occur within in living systems, particularly our body, adding significantly to the information that is currently obtained through data acquisition machines, which is the form in which technology is currently combined with medicine.

To provide examples of the above, the use of mathematical models of the latest generation, as those developed by members of INCT-MACC (coupled models) to simulate the flow of blood within the arteries of the human body for a specific patient, extracted through the aid of medical image processing, allows for the accurate analysis of blood flow dynamics in order to assess the risk of aneurysm rupture, risk of arterial occlusion, among other problems. A similar impact is expected in the study of the effect of stents on local hemodynamics, as well as analysis of the interaction between heart valves and the blood. This has been clearly recognized by the scientific community worldwide. Multiscale modeling techniques, also developed by members of this institution, delivers innovative tools for the treatment of the problem of arterial tissue modeling, constituting a crucial factor in understanding the constitutive response of the arterial wall. 1D+ models provide new and currently unexplored perspectives by the international scientific community to enable complex fluid dynamic calculations in times compatible with medical routines.

In general, innovation lies at the heart of the creation of new models for the simulation of physiological systems that comprise the human body, which is consistently supported by physical and physiological concepts as well as by medical data. This also permits the virtual experimentation, which supplies the computational modeling and simulation of a promising future in terms of scientific advances at the frontiers of knowledge and significant impact, both in terms of medical knowledge and socio-economic in day-to-day medical practice.

Similarly, the great development of information and communication technology (ICT) in recent decades also opens numerous perspectives for application of communication network and mobile computing technologies in healthcare. This scenario is particularly interesting for a developing country like Brazil, which has a huge territory with large regional differences. So the advent of ICT-based applications can enable better doctor training and expert assistance for rare and / or urgent medical cases in hard to reach areas or with less conditions to provide specialized care. Thus, the performance of the participating researchers of the INCT-MACC will facilitate the development of innovative specialized applications, with a subsequent impact on mitigating the effects of regional healthcare differences in the country, providing a better health service for the whole society. These innovative applications can also serve as a model and prototype for possible replication in other areas of health, so extending its benefits.

This brief description illustrates that the project meets all aspects related to the generation of knowledge and, therefore, with the advancement of science itself, since it:

• seeks to join disconnected areas of science;
• seeks to develop new techniques and scientific methods of analysis;
• seeks to produce a real impact on society, aiming at tangible improvements;
• aims to generate knowledge at the frontier of science;
• aims to provide human resources development.

It is worth noting three important aspects:

• First and as already mentioned throughout the text of the project, the above-related aspects are already happening in Brazil with the formation of INCT-MACC in November 2008 so there is a rare and extraordinary opportunity to consolidate these with the approval of a new concession (2015-2021) for the Institute.
• Second, the strategic importance of this type of institute can be gauged by the fact that the United States created the first institute of this nature in 2012 with the participation between the prestigious universities of Harvard and MIT. In fact, the integration of the Harvard Medical School and of the MIT resulted in the Institute for Medical Engineering Science in July 2012, with a similar mission and areas of expertise to the INCT-MACC.
• Third, because of the previous points, Brazil is one of the few main actors who participate in the development of medicine assisted by scientific computing to the highest scientific and technological standards, allowing Brazil to achieve effective internationalization of knowledge generated within the country.