Engineers team with cardiologist to rethink heart pump assessments
Researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) have joined forces in pursuit of a single goal: to develop a new and improved way to evaluate ventricular assist devices (VADs).
Jason Kolodziej, BS, MS, PhD, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at RIT, received a three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to carry out the research. His vision is for the end result to help physicians and patients know well in advance how long their VAD will be able to properly function before it may need to be replaced.
“It’s almost like a check engine light on your car,” he said in an statement.
Kolodziej noted that VAD technology, which typically serves as a bridge for heart transplant patients, has improved significantly over the years.
“The devices have become so good that they don’t just use them to keep patients alive until the heart transplant—which could be days, weeks, months—to the point where I think they may use just the VAD as their treatment,” he said. “Now you have this device, a mechanical pump, that is inside the heart for a longer amount of time.”
Joining Kolodziej are Karl Schwarz, MD, a cardiologist and professor with the University of Rochester Medical Center; Steven Day, BS, PhD, an RIT professor of biomedical engineering; and Linwei Wang, BS, PhD, an RIT professor of computing information sciences.
The group’s work is focused on how signal processing technologies and machine learning can be used together to track the health of both VADs and the patients who rely on them. They have already developed a prototype system. Next steps including monitoring the device’s safety, effectiveness and then tracking how it may impact patient care.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.