IBT researchers, together with the University Hospital of Freiburg, have systematically compared different therapeutic approaches in a cohort of 29 digital twins of atrial fibrillation patients. They were able to show that precise identification of tissue changes is crucial. Personalized computer models can help to achieve the optimal therapeutic success with the smallest possible intervention.

This year’s Computational and Mathematical Biomedical Engineering Conference (CMBE22) was hosted by the Politecnico di Milano (Italy) from June 27th to 29th. Jochen Brenneisen presented the latest studies on the Immersed Boundary Method to simulate fluid dynamics in the heart.

It was a great conference with highly interesting presentations and fruitful discussions. Conference proceedings will follow soon on https://www.compbiomed.net/2021/

The German Society for Biomedical Engineering (DGBMT) annually awards the Klee Prize to scientists for practical developments in the field of medical technology. Giorgio Luongo was awarded 3rd place for his dissertation "Non-Invasive Atrial Arrhythmia Diagnosis Using the 12-Lead ECG: Machine Learning Leveraging in-silico and Clinical Signals" at IBT.
[DGMBT news] [thesis]

As of June 2022, the IBT welcomes Joshua Steyer as a new research assistant within the „Computational Cardiac Modelling“ group. In the scope of the MICROCARD research project, he will investigate the effect of microscopic tissue structure on clinical electrograms using HPC simulations for an improved assessment of the vulnerability to arrhythmias and tailored ablation strategies. He studied physics and numerically analyzed spatiotemporally chaotic excitation dynamics of the heart during his Master’s thesis at the MPI for Dynamics and Self-Organization.

Tobias Gerach successfully defended his dissertation „ Personalized Electromechanical Modeling of the Human Heart - Challenges and Opportunities in Pathophysiological Scenarios “ on May 19th 2022 and passed the doctoral exam with distinction. Sincere congratulations to our new PhD from the team’s whole heart!

The 88th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Cardiology, which was held for the first time since 2019 in the presence of the Congress Center Rosengarten in Mannheim, was very well attended. 
More than 7,100 audience members watched the sessions of the 88th Annual Meeting, the majority of them - more than 5,300 people - on site in Mannheim. The IBT was represented with several posters and an invited talk on "Computational Cardiac Modeling - Synergies with Machine Learning" (Axel Loewe).

After more than 25 years at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Prof. Dr. Olaf Dössel with a symposium on medical technology and with various subsequent celebrations in retirement. Specialist presentations by current and former representatives of the Institute for Biomedical Engineering (IBT) and the Städtisches Klinikum were followed by greetings from the KIT, Division III, professional associations, companions as well as the faculty and student council. At the celebration that followed, the IBT said goodbye to its head of institute with various musical personal contributions and with the traditional, self-made "doctoral hat".
Many thanks to Olaf Dössel and all the best for your retirement!

How can the maintenance effort for research software be reduced by clever concepts and automation? The article published in the journal "Bausteine Forschungsdatenmanagement" presents ideas and solutions using the example of openCARP.

A recent research topic published in the renowned Frontiers in Physiology journal highlights the latest progress in technology for atrial fibrillation diagnosis, monitoring and treatment.
The collection of 38 articles was co-edited by IBT researcher Axel Loewe and features 3 studies in which IBT was involved.

Our research is featured in the latest episode of Renal Research Institute's "Frontiers in Kidney Medicine and Biology" in an interview with Axel Loewe. Watch the video, listen to the podcast, or read the transcript.

The Institute of Biomedical Engineering welcomes Mr. Jonathan Krauß as a new research assistant. Since January 2022, he has been working in the "Computational Cardiac Modeling“ research group on electro-mechanically coupled human heart simulations. For this purpose, efficient and robust coupling schemes will be developed and evaluated. 
Jonathan Krauß completed his studies in mechanical engineering at KIT. His research topics were focused on continuum mechanics and medical robotics.

IBT former researcher Giorgio Luongo, PhD presented a hybrid machine learning-based classification of 12-lead ECG to discriminate between patients with three different kind of atrial flutter (cavotricuspidal-isthmus-dependent vs. peri-mitral vs. other left atrium atrial flutters). This novel algorithm may aid to identify non-invasively the best ablation procedure to terminate the arrhythmia prior to the invasive procedure in the EP labs. This work is the result of a successful collaboration between 5 engineering and clinical groups (Università degli Studi di Milano, University of Leicester, ABC Federal University, Städtisches Klinikum Karlsruhe and IBT). The paper is published in EP Europace journal and is freely available.

The international "Atrial Signals" congress took place for the fourth time in September 2021 under the patronage of the Karlsruhe Municipal Hospital (Prof. Dr. med. Claus Schmitt) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Olaf Dössel ) including synergy effects.