A children's hospital in Boston is using a heart's "digital twin" to test various treatment methods and their risks. The method has resulted in fewer cardiac surgeries.

Boston

A children's hospital in Boston has implemented an innovative approach by using a "digital twin" of a heart to explore different treatment options and their associated risks. This advanced method employs digital replicas of patients' hearts to assess the best possible treatments without the need for physical intervention. By using these digital simulations, doctors can accurately predict how a heart will respond to various treatments, thus allowing for more precise and less invasive treatment planning.

As a result of this technological advancement, the hospital has seen a reduction in the number of cardiac surgeries. The use of a heart's digital twin has enabled medical professionals to make more informed decisions regarding patient care, significantly reducing the need for surgical interventions. This method not only enhances the safety and efficacy of cardiac treatments but also showcases the potential of digital technology in revolutionizing patient care processes.



Using a heart's 'digital twin' to reduce cardiac surgeries

The digital twin of a human heart. Thanks to this technology, the effects of different treatments can be tested without having to operate. Surgery on children's hearts is considered extremely risky. Boston's Children's Hospital is spearheading the use of digital twins to develop treatment plans specifically tailored to each child. At the forefront is Dr. Steve Levine. He developed the first digital twin of a human heart. They're creating virtual twins of the children, some as early as newborn, and performing the surgeries on the virtual twin first, deciding up front what is best, and then trying it out on the child. And in many cases, they only have one shot to save the child's life. And the results have been spectacular. Dr. Steve Levine started researching for the Living Heart Project around 10 years ago for very personal reasons. His daughter Jessie suffered from a rare heart defect and had to undergo several operations as a child, not all of which were equally successful. She is now benefiting from the research, because now pacemakers' optimal settings can be tested in advance, and in virtual reality. They can actually insert the pacemaker, they can replicate her condition, or thousands like her, try different pacing sequences on thousands of different versions of their heart to figure out which sequence would work out best. And then try it out and confirm on her, rather than experiment directly on her. The findings can then immediately be transferred to other heart patients. Virtual therapy tests for individual organs are just the beginning, though. In future, everyone will have a digital twin at their side with a personalized health plan. I think what will happen is you will get a virtual twin, which is a generic version of a human, when you're born. It will be quickly adapted to what we know about you at that point. And then as you get older, and you get more diagnostics, more tests, it gets tuned.

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