This contrasts with biomedicine, where the focus is on specific diseases, organs, symptoms, or mechanisms.

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But the long-term aim is to construct computational models of specific diseases based on the data being monitored, says Mark Spire, who is the president of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners and a member of the Kansas State team.

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Creating a part that is specific to a patient's organ takes on even more importance with diseases like bronchial malacia, in which conventional intervention is risky and often the alternative is life on a ventilator.

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