Towards the ‘Google Heart’

Aslak Tveito () and Are Magnus Bruaset ()
Additional contact information
Aslak Tveito: Simula Research Laboratory
Are Magnus Bruaset: Simula Research Laboratory

Chapter 7 in Conversations About Challenges in Computing, 2013, pp 51-57 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Heart disease is a life or death issue for millions of people. In the United States, it is the leading cause of death every year and yet many of the treatments for heart disease are still extraordinarily crude. For example, the primary treatment for ventricular fibrillation, a lethal heart rhythm disorder, is to give a huge electric shock to the heart. ‘It’s as if you want to open the door and you don’t have a key, so you blow up the door instead’, says Natalia Trayanova, a physicist and biomedical engineer who develops computer models of the heart. The price for our lack of understanding of the mechanisms of heart disease is considerable. Even though defibrillators save lives, they can cause psychological trauma for people who undergo the shocks repeatedly (e.g., patients with implanted devices). Likewise, drugs that fail because we don’t understand their mechanism of action cost money to pharmaceutical companies and leave people with rhythm disorders at risk for later heart attacks. Trayanova envisions using computer models as a ‘Google Heart’ that will allow doctors to understand what is happening in their patients in the same way that Google Earth gives geologists a bird’s-eye view of our planet. ‘I would like to bring computer simulation of the heart function to the bedside’, Trayanova says.

Keywords: Catheter Ablation; Ablation Procedure; Memory Bandwidth; Premature Ventricular Contraction; Rhythm Disorder (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-319-00209-5_7

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319002095

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-00209-5_7

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().