Recent advances in computing, medical imaging acquisition and reconstruction technology, and computational modelling have enabled the research community to develop techniques and platforms dedicated to faithfully model and simulate the complexity of the (biophysics of the) heart and cardiovascular system, toward developing computer-integrated tools for more effective cardiac disease diagnosis and therapy.
Effective computer-assisted tools to diagnose cardiac conditions and plan therapy rely heavily or almost entirely on medical imaging, and require the development of reliable, accurate, and robust tools and techniques at the interface of medical image computing, mechanics, modeling, simulation, and visualization. Simulations of the patient's heart, examining the biomechanics and electrophysiology, as well as blood flow through the heart, can be used to gauge the efficacy of therapy and can be used to provide a predictive platform for therapy planning and optimization.
During the past two-three decades, significant research has been undertaken that led to numerous applications that demonstrate the successful integration of imaging, mechanics and modeling into complex, versatile platforms for patient-customized simulations. A number of such methods and their relative strengths and weaknesses will be discussed, along with new forward-looking techniques to image stresses, material properties, or electrical activation patterns.
These research contributions are often the result of multi-disciplinary collaborations among scientists and professionals spanning basic and translational research, clinical practice, medical (bio)physics, engineering, mathematics, and computer science. Hence, this CinC Special Session will feature several scientists speaking on emerging techniques and innovative solutions that be comprehensively integrated to generate personalized models that match the geometry, motion and behavior of a patient's heart, enabling a virtual clone that can be used to assess the effect of different potential therapies or devices in silico.