Computer scientists at Stony Brook University are developing a virtual-heart platform to help improve and accelerate medical device development and testing. The CyberHeart project is part of the National Science Foundation’s initiative to advance the state-of-the-art in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS): engineered systems that are built from, and depend upon, seamless integration of computation and physical components, also known as Internet of Things.

While wearable sensors and implantable devices are already being used to assess health, improve quality of life, provide care, and potentially speed up diagnosis, this project has enlisted collaborators from seven leading universities and centers working together to develop far more realistic cardiac and device models than currently exist.

This “CyberHeart” platform can be used to test and validate medical devices faster and at a far lower cost than existing methods, they say. CyberHeart also can be used to design optimal, patient-specific device therapies, thereby lowering the risk to the patient.

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