The Advisory Committee on Biomedical Computing in 1999 submitted "The Biomedical Information Science and Technology Initiative [BISTI] to the Director of NIH recommending actions to be taken by NIH to address key issues in efficiently utilizing computers in the understanding of biological processes. 

The BISTI report recognizes the enormous inefficiency associated with reinventing the software wheel, a waste that the U.S. can ill-afford in the face of a severe shortfall in mathematically well grounded biologists with extensive computer experience.

Many in the computer field have given much thought and development dollars to eliminating duplicate programming.  When there is an underlying  commonality [e.g. bio-transport underlying physiological processes], a computer systems architect will incorporate the commonality into a core of code and create a layer of code that enables a user to tailor the program to meet individual needs.

In the case of CB-TSS, the core consists of sets of equations derived from basic physical principles [conservation of mass, et al.] together with materials properties relationships, and the layer between user and underlying algorithms is the finite element [FEA] component.

As associative features of common interest are added, such as automated anatomical input from MRI/CT output, the label for this software collection changes from application program to toolkit and eventually to platform upon which the user can build rather complete, tailored applications by reusing the associative software functionality and materials and anatomical information contained in databases. 

The CB-TSS platform enables one to:

• Rapidly build novel models of physiological processes.
• Automatically acquire geometric constraints from MRI/CT graphic output
• Simulate these processes under a variety of parametric conditions
• Display simulation results in 3D stop-frame and video formats,
• Construct a personal database of physiological process models,
• Exchange/Customize physiological process models.

Image map [click on hotspots]

The screens which follow are taken from the Configurable Circulatory System Simulator [CCSS] v0.5, one of a class of simulators encompassed by the CB-TSS platform, and are shown to illustrate broadly how a user would interact in a 'natural domain [circulatory system] language' with one instantiation of CB-TSS 

A main screen provides overall control to:

File: Open an existing model, Create a new model, Save a model, etc.
Edit: Modify a model, etc.
View: Display flow rates, pressures, concentrations, etc. on a 3-D circulatory image
System: Establish system parameters, etc.
Debug: Execute by time step, execute until variable =, etc.
Run: Execute model, time step=dt, etc.
Help: General help index

Edit/Display of Overall Initial Default Values such as:

Fluid initial conditions [temperature/pressure/etc.] and properties [viscosity/etc] as a function of state.
Chemical initial concentrations and properties [reaction rates/etc as a function of state.
Biologics initial concentrations and properties [reaction rates/etc as a function of state.

Edit of Elements [Type Selection/Connectivity]

The geometry of the bio-transport system to be modeled and then simulated is determined by selecting, from a standard set, elements connected one after the other, much as one would do with Tinkertoys® or Legos®.

These elements have characteristics such as length, diameter and direction {in 3-D] as well as properties such as wall elasticity, thickness and permeability.  Organ elements have special properties, such as volumetric expulsion capacity for a Heart Element.

Organ models constructed under CB-TSS can be substituted for Organ Elements to provide a more realistic overall simulation.  This model/model interface is in the public domain and allows organ models built with other applications to be incorporated into CCSS.