healthcare technology

In recent times, researchers have increasing found that the power of computers and artificial intelligence is enabling more accurate diagnosis of a patient's current heart health and can provide an accurate projection of future heart health, potential treatments and disease prevention

 

In a paper published in the European Heart Journal, researchers from King's College London, show how linking computer and statistical models can improve clinical decisions relating to the heart.

The research team is lead by Dr. Pablo Lamata.

 

In his statement he said that "We found that making appropriate clinical decisions is not only about data, but how to combine data with the knowledge that we have built up through years of research."

 

The Digital Twin

The team have coined the phrase the Digital Twin to describe this integration of the two models, a computerised version of our heart which represents human physiology and individual data.

 

"The Digital Twin will shift treatment selection from being based on the state of the patient today to optimising the state of the patient tomorrow,

 

The idea is that the electronic health record will be growing into a more detailed description of what we could call a digital avatar, a digital representation of how the heart is working.

 

This could mean that a trip to the doctor's office could be a more digital experience. "

 

Mechanistic models see researchers applying the laws of physics and maths to simulate how the heart will behave.

 

Statistical models require researchers to look at past data to see how the heart will behave in similar conditions and infer how it will do it over time.

 

Models can pinpoint the most valuable piece of diagnostic data and can also reliably infer biomarkers that cannot be directly measured or that require invasive procedures.

 

"It's like the weather: understanding better how it works, helps us to predict it. And with the heart, models will also help us to predict how better or worse it will get if we interfere with it."

 

read the original unedited article at https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-03-digital-heart-future-health.html

 

Millions of hearts fail each year. Why can’t we replace them?

 

The Bivacor heart contains a single titanium chamber with a rotor that spins at its center, sending blood out to the body

 

Bivacor is in a transitional stage. It has never sold a product and is still run entirely on venture capital, angel investment, and government grants. Its hearts have been implanted in sheep and calves, which have survived for months, occasionally jogging on treadmills; it’s preparing to submit an application to the Food and Drug Administration for permission to perform human implantations.

 

To cross the animal-human threshold is to enter a harsh regulatory environment. In the early days of artificial-heart research, a team could implant a device in a dying person on an emergency basis—as a last-ditch effort to save his life—and see how it functioned.

 

Ethicists were uneasy, but progress was swift. Today, such experimentation is prohibited: a heart’s design must be locked in place and approved before a clinical trial can begin; the trial may take years, and, if it reveals that the heart isn’t good enough, the process must start again.

 

Bivacor is currently deciding which features will be included in the clinical trial of its heart. A wrong decision would likely sink the company; almost certainly, there wouldn’t be a second attempt on the summit.

 

read this fabulous article at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/08/how-to-build-an-artificial-heart?utm_source=pocket-newtab-intl-en