How Technology is used in the Cardiovascular Field?

Heart Surgery

Using technology, scientists have created 3D-printed models of the heart using MRI scans to help communicate with patients before surgery. These special models allow doctors to correctly explain the type and nature of disorders to their patients and family. Most of the patients and family members confirmed that 3D models are incredibly helpful, handy, and realistic to understand. What it means is that this customized approach allows the patients and their beloved ones to understand their condition best.

Heart Monitoring

Heart failure is one of the many cardiovascular illnesses that cause the deaths of many patients worldwide. And half of the millions of people tend to have these abnormal heart rhythms, which can be irregular, too fast, or too slow. Now, scientists are exploring how abnormal heart rhythms affect the health of a heart patient. Additionally, they try to understand how these irregular heartbeats are related to death or hospital readmissions. With the arrival of electrocardiogram (ECG) devices, researchers can use their recordings to estimate and track heart rhythms between patients for a long period.

Controlling Cholesterol Levels

Usually, statins circulate throughout the body of a person but unfortunately, these don't always reach enough high levels needed to stop the building of fatty acids in the body. Moreover, these can affect other tissues and muscles, making patients intolerant. Now scientists are using nanomaterials to delivers cholesterol-lowering drugs to parts of the body where they are required urgently. These tiny but stable enough to carry drugs to particular sites of the body, then biodegrade once the payload of drugs has been delivered. Yet, some researchers from the University of Surrey are trying to develop these remarkable nanomaterials, test them, check whether they are good for patient's health. If successful, these nanomaterials could open new ways of giving therapy to patients with high cholesterol levels who cannot tolerate present treatments like statins.

Sudden Cardiac Death Prevention

Researchers from the Na Homolce Hospital in the Czech Republic and the Newpace Company developed implantable defibrillators to help manage cardiovascular patients. The ISSD (Implantable String Subcutaneous defibrillator) comes as a less invasive device intended to prevent sudden cardiac death among patients. This technology surpasses the current subcutaneous defibrillators as they don't need a mental pulse generator pocket, these use flexible string equipment with no leads inside the heart. Interestingly, the implantation takes only about 20 minutes, and the technology will be ready to be connected to your smartphone.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are ready to use by many large cardiology device vendors for staff training. Boston Scientific is using VR headsets with pre-loaded live electrophysiology device implant cases, which offer a 360-degree view of the EP lab and the procedure as a key opinion leader offers his advice and explains what they are doing during the case. This virtual physician proctoring can speed up the transfer of how-to knowledge and patient access to new EP technologies.

Big Data to Help Detect and Predict

Big data is about processing and analyzing complex data sets to get correct insights that can be used when trying to solve a particular problem. There is huge data on multiple aspects within the medical field. The researchers find out a variety of factors that can be used to predict the likelihood that certain people will develop cardiovascular disease over time. As it turns out, big data models can predict the likelihood that a patient will develop a cardiovascular disease by looking at clinical, genomic, and lifestyle data by disease correlations, drug side effects, and genome research. Using Big data researchers identified the top five factors for predicting the risk of cardiovascular diseases:

• Lifestyle factors: Smoking, diet, drinking, and stress
• Environmental pollution: Fine dust, high carbon dioxide concentration, etc
• Gender: Women have a lower general awareness of cardiovascular diseases
• Social and economic factors: Poverty, hygiene, education level
• Age: The risk of having cardiovascular disease increases with the age

Artificial Intelligence

AI is increasingly being used as a tool to help physicians to make better decisions. Artificial Intelligence is a technology that allows massive amounts of data to be fed into algorithms which then assist physicians in making the best decisions about the health of their patients. AI is now helping augment cardiologists and medical imaging. AI will likely see its biggest steps forward in cardiology for point-of-care (POC) triage apps and wearable cardiac monitoring technologies. Smart software and AI are being used in the wearable and app algorithms to identify abnormally high heart rates, arrhythmias, and other factors to alert patients to contact their doctors.

Robotics

Researchers from Boston children's Hospital and Harvard University designed a soft robot that encloses the heart and helps it beat as needed. This device promises much, especially to patients whose hearts have been weakened by a heart attack and are still at risk of heart failure. Robot synchronizes with patient's heart through a thin silicone sleeve feature smooth pneumatic actuators that mimic the heart's outer muscular layers' condition. And interesting thing is that devices do this without coming in contact with blood.