Computer modeling and simulation is emerging as a defined programme in the development of or regulatory evaluation of a medical product and medical intervention. The growth in science and technology has catalysed to develop the high-tech products. These advances require engineers capable of intimate interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly with physicians at each stage of research.

For example, the use of mathematical methods in medicine enjoyed its most signal successes in the application of invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR), and latterly non-invasive FFR derived from computed tomography (FFR-CT), for clinical decision-making in coronary artery disease management. FFR-CT, a parameter veritably constructed from imaging data and computational modelling, is now FDA approved (HeartFlow®), and has recently been demonstrated to be clinically useful for angina management in the PLATFORM trial.

Medical device companies also use computer modeling and simulation (i.e. computational fluid dynamics) to predict blood flow or other fluid moves inside and around the device being tested. Furthermore, computational modeling and simulation study the forces exchanged between the device and tissue will not cause any harm.

We have invited several speakers from various disciplines for this symposium. Each topic will be 15 minutes long. The symposium will cover topics on how computer modeling and simulation techniques are developed today.

Topic 1 - State of the art: computer modeling and simulation in heart disease, where it is already used 
Topic 2 to 4 - Heart modelling toolbox development, computational fluid dynamics of heart and trans-catheter aortic stent implantation and potential applications in the future 
Topic 5 - The future of computer modeling in heart disease