AIBODY, a Physiology-as-a-Service platform, has signed a collaboration agreement with the German Heart Centre Berlin (DHZB), a medical research institute specialising in cardiovascular disease.
Shutterstock
Cardiologist using digital twin technology in clinic
This agreement focuses on the development of a suite of solutions to facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart disease.
The collaboration will utilise AIBODY’s digital human physiology engine to create a lifelike, detailed 3D and 4D model of a beating human heart, capable of replicating the range of cardiovascular pathologies found in patients with congenital heart defects. Informed by clinical data shared by the DHZB cardiology team, the model will become a dynamic learning resource for practicing and trainee clinicians worldwide, including cardiologists, paediatricians, and radiologists, expanding their working knowledge of congenital heart defects, and helping them more effectively recognise such conditions in actual patients.
Once the educational resource is complete, AIBODY will proceed to develop AI tools that will automatically extract features from cardiac sonograms to create an anatomically accurate, “digitally twinned” 3D and 4D model of a patient’s heart, providing a diagnostic aid to doctors and radiologists to help optimise personalised diagnosis and treatment for each patient.
Richard Littlehales, CEO of AIBODY, said: “We will begin by creating a comprehensive catalogue of conditions to provide a ‘living’ reference guide for doctors and radiologists to help recognize and define what they are seeing on patient imagery. Our ultimate goal is to build an AI-driven diagnostic device based on creating a ‘digital twin’ of each individual patient’s heart, reflecting their actual physiology and giving the clinical teams a better understanding of that patient’s specific condition and its likely development over time.”
Prof. Stanislav Ovroutski, senior consultant of the DHZB Clinic for Congenital Heart Defects and Paediatric Cardiology, said: “By combining our clinical knowledge and experience with the cutting-edge simulation technology AIBODY is bringing to the table, we will enhance our capacity to diagnose and treat patients, leading to better outcomes for patients around the world. Our first product will be a dynamic clinical reference guide that doctors will be able to access on their phones or tablets. We expect to have that ready within a year.”
