Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action ITN MUSICARE

H2020 MSCA ITN

The main scope of MUSICARE (MUltiSectoral Integrative approaches to CArdiac care) is to structure a new trans-sectoral and multidisciplinary network capable of developing research and technology with no barriers between academia, industries and clinicians in the cardiac arena, and of shaping young researchers with a novel and truly multidisciplinary mindset, capable of developing clinical- and business-oriented technology including tools for the advancement of base knowledge. A new paradigm of PhD track will be implemented, which will combine academic research in the field of biomedical engineering with industrial research activities and with on-the-field activity within clinical infrastructures. This novel PhD track will be accessed by 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) recruited in the project by universities (7) and companies (8).

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During WP1 (Minimally invasive heart surgery and percutaneous valve therapies), MUSICARE will tackle these problems by developing in vitro simulators that include the real anatomy of the site of interest and allow for training clinicians and testing new devices, as well as computer studies simulating the effects of percutaneous access and quantifying the biomechanical impact of new devices.

During WP2 (Image-based patient specific cardiac modeling) MUSICARE will develop image-processing tools with three aims: integrating different information from multi-modal imaging; creating tools for the real time 3D reconstruction of cardiac structures; developing image-based models for patient-specific prediction of the biomechanical effects of different procedures.

During WP3 (In vitro and in silico tissue models), MUSICARE will develop in vitro technologies to study tissue remodeling at the cellular level under high throughput and highly controlled conditions, and numerical models to quantify tissue remodeling, and embed them within patient-specific models of cardiac structures to predict the long-term effects of implantable devices.

Objectives

The overall objective of MUSICARE is to impact on the field of cardiac surgery in three ways:

  • Objective 1: from a scientific standpoint, new knowledge will be gained regarding the response of tissues to their surgical reshaping, to the implantation of devices and to drugs;
  • Objective 2: from a technological standpoint, new technologies will be developed to improve the design and generation of new clinical solutions, the clinical training, and image-based diagnosis and prognosis;
  • Objective 3: from an educational standpoint, a new paradigm of PhD track will be implemented, which will combine academic research in the field of biomedical engineering with industrial research activities and with on-the-field activity within clinical infrastructures.

 

    Role of Ghent University

    Ghent University is involved in

    • WP1: Simulation of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). The ESR will improve, validate and use a computational framework allowing to accurately simulating TAVI procedures. This virtual framework will be used to compare and investigate the biomechanical behavior of the currently available devices.
    • WP2: Quantification of intra-cardiac flow based at UGENT in collaboration with TU/e and POLIMI. Software will be developed to quantify intracardiac fluid-dynamics by means of i) computational fluid-dynamics simulations in geometrical models based on CMR data, and ii) computation of blood velocity flow field directly through the processing of phase-contrast CMR images.

     

    Contact

    Prof. Patrick Segers
    Department of Electronics and Information Systems – IbiTech-bioMMeda
    Phone number: +3293323466
    E-mail: