Institute for Computational Medicine core faculty member, Natalia Trayanova, was featured in the Winter 2017 edition of Hopkins Medicine magazine for her virtual model of the heart which promises to improve and personalize cardiac treatment and care. Dr. Trayanova, Murray B. Sachs Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and her research team developed a geometric virtual heart that could be more effective and less invasive in treating arrhythmia, a condition that can be life-threatening in some cases.

Similar to the way Google Earth software allows you to zoom in on most any spot in the world, her “virtual heart” gives that sort of a glimpse into the inner workings of a specific individual’s heart at a resolution so high that it reaches very nearly to the cellular level and incorporates information about electrical processes at both the cellular and subcellular levels. The virtual heart is personalized based on the patient’s specific anatomy and does not require patients to undergo an invasive procedure. If the study’s results hold up in clinical testing, many thousands of patients in the years ahead will be able to safely avoid the risks associated with defibrillator implantation.

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