If there was any question that digital technology is ready to transform healthcare, it was answered when the Living Heart Project community came together for their 5th annual meeting. On July 23, more than 175 engineers, researchers and clinicians from across the world gathered at the Dassault Systèmes headquarters in Waltham, MA, USA for one purpose: to discuss the scientific breakthroughs and industry transformation being driven by the Living Heart Project (LHP).
When it was first announced in 2014, the LHP took the world by surprise when Dassault Systèmes made a commitment to connect a vast community of Cardiovascular experts to work together to build and test a fully functioning, commercial grade, complete human heart model robust enough for regulatory and clinical applications. After decades of independent research efforts, it was not thought possible. However, the community of experts thought differently. After five years of steady development, testing and expansion, the commitment is stronger than ever and the vision now becoming a reality.
Each year the LHP virtual community comes together to make real connections and to share their successes and challenges using the Living Heart and related simulation tools on the most pressing medical issues. This year’s event was the largest ever.
Over the past 5 years, the concept of digital human twin has gone from speculation to anticipation. That could be seen at this years’ meeting, where nearly half of the registrants for the meeting were not project members, however interested in learning more about the progress that has been made.
At the meeting, the project welcomed many new members, including David Hoganson MD, a pediatric cardiovascular surgeon at the Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Hoganson delivered a powerful keynote describing how computational modeling and simulation is helping him not only better understand complex patient anatomies, but actually identifying life-saving treatments that would have been impossible to determine even by the most skilled surgeon. When asked why, as a surgeon he is investing time learning to use 3D simulation technology, he answered simply, “I’m tired of guessing”. That heart-stopping realization set the tone for two full days packed with more than 15 presentations of technical advances and industrial applications that followed.
The community also welcomed Claire Biot, the new Dassault Systèmes Life Sciences leader and a veteran of the Greater Paris University Hospital system who kicked off the meeting by sharing her compelling vision for transforming healthcare. The meeting included tours of the Virtual Reality Center, and the 3DExperience Labs where attendees could get a glimpse of what the future holds for medical innovations. The Labs also brought a start-up entrepreneur showcase where innovative companies were able to demonstrate their technology to this community during the networking breaks.
The meeting included training on a new, “smart-geometry” version of the Living Heart, revealed at the meeting. This was something this community has never seen before and could be a game-changer for creating personalized models for rapid optimization of devices and treatments.
Perhaps the highlight of this event was the public announcement of a new five-year commitment by the FDA to the Living Heart Project. The release announced a first-of-a-kind in-silico clinical trial for a device developed and tested using the Living Heart as a virtual patient population conducted digitally on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. The hope is to create a playbook for more efficient medical device submissions in the future. The members went to work in a 2-part workshop to identify candidate devices to test as well the method for testing. Invaluable input was collected which will inform the direction of this exciting project.
Living Heart Project members can find all of the presentations, photos and meeting materials on the LHP Members’ Community.
Also, you can read a nice summary by Steve Kreuzer from Exponent, a long time project contributor:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/recap-living-heart-project-meeting-not-so-lonely-hearts-kreuzer/
