iHEALTH holds a workshop on cardiac digital twins
On Friday, March 14, the "Cardiac Digital Twins" workshop took place at the UC School of Engineering, located on the San Joaquín Campus of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. The event was organized by Dr. Francisco Sahli, professor at UC Engineering and principal investigator at iHEALTH. During the workshop, attendees had the opportunity to learn about the latest advances in the field from renowned international researchers. The opening lecture was delivered by Dr. Edward Vigmond, researcher at the Liryc Heart Rhythm Disease Institute at the University of Bordeaux, who presented his work titled "Functional and Anatomical Variation in Cardiac Modelling".
Cardiac digital twins are advanced computational models that simulate the behavior of the heart in a personalized manner. These models combine anatomical and functional data obtained from medical imaging and electrophysiological recordings to predict disease progression and optimize treatments. During the workshop, different approaches to improving the accuracy and efficiency of these models were discussed, including new electrophysiological modeling techniques, the use of physics-informed neural networks (PINNs), and advancements in cardiovascular parameter estimation.
The session continued with a series of presentations by young researchers. Dr. Elena Zappon, postdoctoral researcher at the Computational Cardiology Laboratory at the Medical University of Graz, presented "An efficient end-to-end framework for generating cardiac digital twin electrophysiology". Next, Tomás Banduc, predoctoral researcher at iHEALTH, discussed "A fast solver for the complex eikonal equation", followed by Efraín Magaña, PhD student at UC, who presented "Δ-PoIssoNN: learning atrial activation map from P-wave with physics-informed neural networks". Later, Jeremías Garay, postdoctoral researcher at UC and iHEALTH, delivered a talk titled "Physics-informed neural networks for parameter estimation in blood flow models".
After a coffee break, the workshop resumed with a lecture by Dr. René Botnar, director of the Institute for Biological and Medical Engineering UC and principal investigator at iHEALTH, titled "Latest advances in cardiovascular MR imaging". Finally, the event concluded with a presentation by Dr. Gernot Plank, professor of computational cardiology at the Medical University of Graz, who spoke on "Computational Model of Cardiac Function - Closing the Gap between Virtual and Physical Reality".
Following the workshop, international researchers Edward Vigmond, Gernot Plank, and Elena Zappon visited the 0.55T MRI scanner at the iHEALTH Central Hub, accompanied by Dr. René Botnar. This visit provided an opportunity to exchange knowledge about the capabilities of this technology and explore future collaborations in the field of cardiac digital twins.
