Our BHF Translational Awards bid has been successful! Our project entitled “Immersive 4D imaging for Catheter and Surgical Intervention Planning in Structural Heart Disease” has been funded for the next two years!

The project

Congenital heart disease remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity requiring complex surgical and catheter intervention. We have developed a prototype virtual reality (VR) system for 3D echocardiography, which has been well-received by clinicians in pilot studies. However, CT and MRI are also used to plan procedures. We aim to include these modalities, as well as the ability to place “virtual” devices within the heart to test feasibility in advance of procedures. Use of this technology will improve the understanding of clinicians and patients of the underlying pathology. This will allow improved planning with reductions in procedure time, reinterventions, complications and healthcare costs.Aims and methods:

• To develop a validated VR platform for multimodality imaging with image interrogation and quantification tools required to plan catheter and surgical interventions. This will be assessed against current imaging platforms.
• Virtual placement of devices for proposed interventions, evaluated by clinicians using real cases· Create local and remote multi-user interaction and image sharing to allow integration into routine clinical workflows, revolutionising “second opinions”.
• Work with Industry partners towards commercialisation of a product which optimises planning, improves device selection and is time efficient compared to current technologies e.g. 3D printing.

Team

We maintain the same core team as in 3D Heart:

• Investigators: Prof. J. Simpson (PI), Dr. K. Pushparajah, Prof. J. Schnabel, Dr. A. Gomez
• Researchers: Dr. G. Wheeler, Dr. S. Deng

Stay tuned for more information!