The Spanish Research Network for Cardiac Computational Modelling V-Heart SN kicks off

18 December 2017

BSC participates in this project with Alya, the main cardiovascular simulation tool of the network

A total of nine universities and research centers have carried out the Spanish Research Network for Cardiac Computational Modelling ("Red Española de Investigación en Modelización Computacional Cardiaca", in Spanish) under the acronym V-Heart SN. This network is intended to make the use of virtual hearts easier by employing computational models in daily clinical practice, which will allow doctors to design personalized and more effective and safer therapies.

V-Heart SN has been promoted by the Universitat Politècnica de València, the Universidad de Navarra, the Universitat de València, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, the Basque Center for Applied Mathematics, the International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and the Universidad de Zaragoza. In addition, the major Spanish hospitals and companies collaborate with the network.

Therefore, the network brings together expert researchers simulating the functioning of the heart from different points of view: electrophysiological and biomechanical, as well as those of major experts in numerical methods and high performance computation.

“V-Heart SN is the first Spanish network in this field. We aim to improve the computational models in the cardiac field and ultimately improve the clinical practice with this research work. To do this, we are working on the development of a virtual heart able to be adapted to the characteristics of each patient and to be used for both medical professionals and med-tech companies," say the promoters of this network, the first with these characteristics in Spain.

The development of this computational model of the heart will give a better understanding of the mechanisms that generate and maintain the cardiac arrhythmias. It will allow doctors to optimize the application of therapies (cardiac resynchronization, defibrillation, pacemakers, etc.,) and to predict the effectiveness of drugs and their cardiotoxicity. “We will contribute to the use of computational modelling in the daily clinical practice thanks to the development of tools adapted to the final user—the medical professional,” add the researchers of V-Heart SN.

The network will work on searching for new computational solutions for the challenges of clinical research in the cardiovascular field, and aims to become a national and international reference point in the area of cardiac modelling, and to strengthen the position of the Spanish science in this field.

The role of BSC

BSC, partner in the V-Heart SN network, will provide Alya as the main cardiovascular simulation tool of the network, to expand its use both in Spanish academic and clinical environments. The V-Heart SN network is associate partner of CompBioMed, the European Center of Excellence for Computational Medicine, in which BSC is in charge of the Applications Management, again with Alya as its main cardiac simulation code.

More information:

Alya - High Performance Computational Mechanics

CompBioMed