Kennesaw State researcher helping develop software to innovate cardiovascular care

Assistant professor of mechanical engineering Lei Shi is working with researchers around the world to innovate cardiovascular knowledge and care.

Partnering with 16 universities across seven countries, Shi is helping develop a software benchmark for a system that can create individualized, virtual models of patients' hearts.

With the addition of this new benchmark, researchers will be capable of comparing different methods and ultimately achieve better and more consistent results in the virtual models of cardiac mechanics.

"In areas like medical research, real-life experiments can be very expensive,” Shi said. “That's why digital twins are so useful. Instead of conducting costly physical tests, you can test virtually, which cuts down on costs significantly."

Shi recently published proposed benchmarks in the journal, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, along with researchers from distinguished institutions such as Stanford University, the University of Michigan, and King’s College in London.

The current benchmark has inconsistencies when it comes to simulations, which can lead to errors. Specifically, they were lacking information about passive and active material behavior, which refers to how the heart tissue responds to forces and contractions, the viscosity of the tissue, and pericardial boundary conditions, which is the protective sac around the heart.

Each person’s heart functions at least slightly differently than everyone else’s, and it would be an error to assume that every disease and treatment affects every heart the same way. Unfortunately, it is difficult, expensive, and potentially dangerous to study a living organ.

The technology being used in this project is called digital twin technology.

Digital twin technology allows for a digital replica to be created of something in the real world, then manipulated and tested virtually. For example, if a healthcare provider has a patient with a heart condition, they could input the patient’s data into the program, run tests, and develop a treatment plan, all without having to touch the patient.

The software, known as SimVascular, aims to enhance the accuracy and accessibility of cardiovascular care. Ultimately, Shi wants to improve the understanding of how the heart functions, the diseases that can affect it as well as the treatments for these diseases, and any effects these treatments may have in the future.

"If I had a heart condition and needed surgery or medication, I would want to know how my heart would react after treatment,” Shi said. “We don't want to experiment directly on patients because of the risks involved. Instead, we can use digital twin technology to test everything virtually first."

The project was originally started by Alison Marsden, a professor of pediatric cardiology, bioengineering, and mechanical engineering at Stanford University and is highly interdisciplinary.

The project utilizes the skillsets of mathematicians, bioengineers and medical engineers, physicists, and medical professionals to advance cardiovascular understanding and treatment.