The Living Heart Project, led by Dassault Systèmes has been bringing hope to heart treatment patients since the vision of a digitally simulated human heart has turned into reality. For the medical industry, when the project team delivered a commercially available heart in less than two years, it was a game changing event. But the real impact of the Living Heart Project could be seen in the toothy grin of one of the project’s youngest fans and heart patient: Annika Seed.
Annika, from East Greenwich, Rhode Island, was born with tetralogy of fallot and pulmonary atresia, which causes a variety of congenital heart defects. To date, Annika has had eight different surgeries to correct her condition. Her parents, Allison and Adam Seed, credit Boston Children’s Medical Center with saving her life. You’d never know any this from looking at her, however; both her energy and smile are contagious, which Dassault Systèmes employees found out when she and her family made a trip to our Boston office last month to visit our CAVE immersive virtual reality room and experience the full Living Heart 3D experience.
Members of the American Heart Association (AHA) also accompanied the Seed family on their tour of our virtual reality center since the AHA has been such an integral part of Annika’s story. For over a year, Annika has been a “heart ambassador” for the AHA, with her story and message appearing on billboards throughout New England, and Annika herself has made appearances at fundraisers. At the AHA’s Southern New England Heart Ball, where Dassault Systèmes was a sponsor, Annika and her family approached Steve Levine, head of the project to tell him how much hope the Living Heart Project gave to Annika and other young heart patients.
Levine immediately saw why Annika was such an effective spokesperson for the AHA, and moreover, Levine can relate to the Seeds’ story. His own daughter, now in her late twenties, was born with a congenital heart defect that reversed the left and right chambers of her heart. Doctors have told Levine that based on the limited information they have, her heart may begin to “wear out” when she becomes about thirty. Talks about transplant and treatment options were marred by the rarity of her condition, with data being limited and the unlikely fact that her heart was even working properly. Levine said in an interview with Wireless Design Mag, “They said they would need a thousand cases like her to get the data they needed. So I thought, well, what if we could just generate a thousand versions of her heart on the computer?”
Enter the Living Heart.
The project, which Levine spearheaded, took shape in 2013, and has the potential to completely change the field of medicine forever. The interactive, 3D model of the heart holds the potential to allow doctors to examine, as well as test, different treatment methods with the accuracy of the real thing without the risks. Levine calls the innovation “an awakening of what is possible in the medical field.” This awakening would change the lives of people like Annika forever.
Annika and her entourage put on 3D glasses and experienced the Living Heart Project just as medical professionals and researchers are currently seeing it. The level of detail lived up to expectations, and Annika walked away more enthused about the project than ever before. “It was pretty cool, it was like going inside a real heart,” said Annika after leaving our virtual reality CAVE. The experience can sometimes be overwhelming to people who haven’t experienced immersive 3D, but Annika handled it like a pro, saying afterwards she only had “a few butterflies in her stomach” when it started. Annika also took a closer look at the desktop-sized “zSpace” Living Heart display, which offers a smaller holographic 3D display of the heart. Of Levine’s venture, Allison, her mother said: “I can’t put into words how thrilled we are to have been able to experience your work. I am so excited to see what we can do together to make this outstanding breakthrough visible to everyone.” The day ended with specially prepared cupcakes, of which Annika quickly secured extras for her brother and sister who could not attend, but was sure to leave one for the Living Heart Project team to share.
If you’d like to check out the Living Heart for yourself, be sure to download our new app for the iPhone: Living Heart Project Experience for Cardboard. You’ll be able to experience this amazing development in medical science from the comfort of your own home.
For a short overview of what the Living Heart Project is all about, watch this short video:
