The North Eastern Local Group are delighted that Professor Richard Wilkinson from the University of Nottingham will come and speak to us at 3pm on Wednesday 16th December on the topic of "Uncertainty quantification for heart surgeons". An abstract for the talk is provided below.

The event will take place on Zoom and will be preceded by the Annual General Meeting of the local group. The Zoom link will be provided to those who register for the event.

Speaker: Professor Richard Wilkinson, University of Nottingham
Title: Uncertainty quantification for heart surgeons

Abstract

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a type of cardiac arrhythmia that affects about 1 million people in the UK, and is caused when electrical waves in the atria become disorganised, reducing the ability of the heart to pump blood. Catheter ablation is used to remove abnormal tissue, with the aim of stopping the electrical pathways that sustain the arrythmia. Surgeons must decide which tissue to 'ablate' on the basis of limited noisy data: MRI scans of the heart done in advance of the surgery, and the results of electrophysiology studies performed during surgery. About 40% of patients treated for AF go on to suffer atrial tachycardia (another type of arrythmia) which may then require further surgery (with associated risks and costs).
 
In this talk, I will discuss ongoing work that aims to combine the available data on a patient with complex simulation models of electrical activation in the atria, using experience learnt from operations on previous patients, to build a personalised digital twin that can be used during a time-pressured surgery to guide the ablation process.

For further information please contact Kevin Wilson (kevin.wilson@ncl.ac.uk).