Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan
Associate Medical Director and Consultant Cardiologist, British Heart Foundation
In recent decades some of the biggest advances have been made in treatment and care for people with heart and circulatory conditions, but more still needs to be done to keep making it a reality.
For over 60 years, the public’s generosity has helped the British Heart Foundation to turn ideas that once seemed like ‘science fiction’ into treatments and cures that save lives. Right now, our funding is supporting the development of new technologies that could transform lives by making surgeries safer and more successful.
Virtual reality to repair hearts
Every year in the UK thousands of heart operations and other procedures are performed for children and adults with congenital heart disease (heart conditions that develop before a baby is born) to repair their hearts.
While the scans that allow doctors and surgeons to view the heart are more advanced than ever, they can usually only be viewed on a flat screen.
We’re funding researchers from Evelina London Children’s Hospital and King’s College London to develop new virtual reality (VR) technology that combines different types of scans to create a three-dimensional, beating replica of the heart.
Surgeons using the technology are immersed into the heart. They can plan and practice procedures in VR before they get to the operating table.
This technology could help to make congenital heart disease surgery even more successful. The researchers hope it will be in use planning procedures within two years.
Over 30,000 adult patients are considered for heart surgery every year in the UK.
A new surgery risk calculator
Over 30,000 adult patients are considered for heart surgery every year in the UK but, before deciding to operate, doctors must weigh up the risks and benefits with patients.
Heart surgery is advisable when the benefits outweigh the risks. But current approaches to calculating risk may overestimate the actual risk that heart surgery poses. This means that some people may be deemed unsuitable for a particular heart operation when in actual fact it could save or improve their life.
In partnership with The Alan Turing Institute, we’re funding researchers at the University of Bristol and the University of Oxford to apply machine learning algorithms to data routinely collected from all patients undergoing surgery in the UK. This could help doctors better calculate risk so that they can be better informed in medical decision-making.
Advances in science and technology like this can change lives. But millions of people are still waiting for the next breakthrough. Our new campaign, This is Science, is calling for the public’s support to power science that could lead to new treatments and cures for all heart and circulatory diseases.
Our new campaign, ‘This is Science’, is calling for the public’s support to power science that could lead to new treatments and cures for all heart and circulatory diseases.
Find out more at bhf.org.uk/this-is-science
