Department of Engineering / News / Cardiologists, scientists and engineers gather to discuss new ways to improve assessment and treatment of Cardiovascular Disease

Department of Engineering

Cardiologists, scientists and engineers gather to discuss new ways to improve assessment and treatment of Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiologists, scientists and engineers gather to discuss new ways to improve assessment and treatment of Cardiovascular Disease

Heart coronal cross-section

The FAST Assessment and Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease Workshop was held in Cambridge earlier this month. Organised by the FAST Healthcare NetworksPlus an EPSRC-funded project, of leading researchers from the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford and University College London, working together to improve treatment effectiveness in NHS England.

…insightful opportunity to discuss challenges and unmet clinical needs for treatment of cardiovascular diseases. It was great to discuss with top experts in the field and, in just one day, being able to select the most urgent needs, and to to pitch ideas for solving them.

Dr Luigi Occhipinti, Founder and Director of Engineering, CITC Ltd.

There was a balanced representation of the NHS, industry, and research institutions with 65% of the delegates from UK Universities. 

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is the number one cause of death globally. This seminal workshop was held to provide a platform for the development of a plan to explore how engineering and physical sciences research can help improve assessment and treatment pathways for CVD.

Speakers from clinical, engineering and industrial communities provided delegates with their perspectives on the clinical requirements that should be driving the development of these pathways, the technical opportunities that lie ahead and the barriers that exist and which have to be overcome for potential adoption in the public healthcare system here in the UK.
There were presentations from:

Prof Martin Bennett, British Heart Foundation, Professor of Cardiovascular Sciences, Department of Medicine, Cambridge University

Prof John Clarkson, Director of the Cambridge Engineering Design Centre, Cambridge University

Dr Paul Flynn, Clinical Director, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge 

Dr Luis Garcia-Gancedo, Director in Sensor Technology at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)

Debbie Morgan, Programme Director, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge

Dr Thomas Stone, Clinical Scientist, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Prof Lionel Tarassenko, Founder Director of Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Head of Department of Engineering Science, Oxford University

Prof Paul White, Consultant Clinical Scientist and Head of Clinical Engineering at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 

What happens next?

The output from this Workshop will be an openly-accessible roadmap that sets out the engineering and physical sciences research challenge in a clear clinical context.

Call for Proposals

The roadmap will be accompanied by a Call for Proposals for pilot projects which initiate new research collaborations to address the roadmap.  Proposals to the Call must include at least one person in the research team who attended this Workshop. 
Both the Roadmap and the Call will be published on www.fast-healthcare.org.uk in February 2017.

Feedback from the delegates

…a fantastic and very productive workshop.
-Dr Daniele Catalucci, National Research Council (CNR), Institute of Genetic and Biomedical Research (IRGB) -UOS Milan and Humanitas Research Hospital, Milan, Italy

The combination of academics, physicians and industry partners as well as a range of excellent presentations made this a really useful event, where real progress was made to outline potential future pathways for CVD assessment and treatment. I look forward to the next event!
-Dr Luis Garcia-Gancedo, Director, Sensor Technology, GSK

“…insightful opportunity to discuss challenges and unmet clinical needs for treatment of cardiovascular diseases. It was great to discuss with top experts in the field and, in just one day, being able to select the most urgent needs, to pitch ideas for solving the same and to elaborate roadmaps.
-Dr Luigi Occhipinti, Founder and Director of Engineering, CITC Ltd. 

 “Many thanks for organizing the workshop which was very interesting and constructive.”
-Aurore Lyon, University of Oxford

For more information about the Network, events or to join the mailing list, please email:
Vika Lebedeva-Baxter, Network Manager at: vvl21@cam.ac.uk 

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