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June 19, 2019 Wednesday 11:04:10 AM IST

Heart simulations on cellphone

You can now perform supercomputer simulations of the heart's electrophysiology in real time on desktop computers and even cellphones. A team of scientists from Rochester Institute of Technology and Georgia Tech developed a new approach that can not only help diagnose heart conditions and test new treatments, but pushes the boundaries of cardiac science by opening up a floodgate of new cardiac research and education. In hospital settings, the real-time models could allow doctors to have better discussions with their patients about life-threatening heart conditions.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, and cardiac dynamics modelling can be useful in the study and treatment of heart problems such as arrhythmias. Modelling conditions like arrhythmias requires solving billions of differential equations and previously has been limited to only those with access to supercomputers. The novel approach relies on using WebGL code to repurpose graphics cards to perform calculations that speed up the scientific computing applications. The streamlined methodology allows users to solve problems as fast as a supercomputer in web browsers that they are already familiar with.