HEIG research in the CVD domain is organized into three interrelated areas:
HEIG research in the CVD domain is organized into three interrelated areas:
The team aims to develop new approaches in electrocardiography (ECG) and cardiac MRI. In the electrocardiography domain advanced signal processing is used to create new datasets to provide enhanced understanding of cardiovascular disease at an early stage. Recent advances in cardiac MRI have led to improved knowledge of the cardiac disease situation and new techniques in image analysis are applied to further advance and innovate the current MRI analyses procedures. In both the ECG and MRI research platforms, very large datasets will be generated and the team envisages that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning approaches will be applied to enable the team to create a paradigm shift in CVD diagnosis.
Minimally invasive treatments have seen a dramatic increase in use in all areas of CVD, including delivery of heart valves, coronary stents and endovascular stent grafts. Team members here include one of the world’s pre-eminent figures in Trans Aortic Valvular Replacement (TAVR) and by combining his expertise with the technical know-how of the team in soft robotics and minimally invasive surgical instruments, new treatment devices are developed in the Center. An associated project in minimally invasive engineering is also in place to develop novel localized drug delivery systems with unique IP
In the Rehabilitation domain, the UAE has one of the highest levels of stroke at a young age (lower by years than most developed nations). This has given rise to a very large cohort of young stroke survivors many of whom have long life expectancies. This situation necessities new engineering approaches to restore Quality of Life to manageable levels. In collaboration with world leaders in robotic rehabilitation at MIT, the rehabilitation team quantifies CVD movement dysfunction and develops and test patient-specific innovative protocols, methodologies and assistive tools and technologies towards quantitative assessment and rehabilitation of cardiovascular impairments including stroke.
