We are pleased to welcome Professor Merryn Tawhai, Director at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland to give a talk on '12 Labours: a Digital Human for Predicting Patient-specific Treatment Outcome in Pulmonary Hypertension' on Tuesday 10 October 2023.

Abstract:

12 Labours: a Digital Human for Predicting Patient-specific Treatment Outcome in Pulmonary Hypertension

M.H. Tawhai

Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

The ‘12 Labours’ project is developing a consistent computational modelling framework for multi-scale multi-organ system modelling, along with workflows for clinical translation. We are leveraging 12 Labours to establish a ‘digital human’ framework for pulmonary hypertension (PH) as a basis to interpret patient imaging and physiological data. We have first focused on developing our framework for chronic thromboembolic PH (CTEPH) as a translational tool for patient pre-surgical assessment, and as a proof-of-concept for other groups of PH. CTEPH is associated with arterial obstruction by fibrin clots and small vessel vasculopathy. The condition can be treated surgically in some patients via pulmonary endarterectomy (PEA), however, outcome is dependent on the extent of small vessel remodelling which cannot be assessed using routine clinical data or resolved directly from imaging. Our approach utilises routine clinical computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) to derive a structure-based model of the pulmonary circulation for simulation of pre- and post-surgical conditions, to estimate the extent of small vessel remodelling as a key predictor of patient outcome.

Short Bio:

Merryn Tawhai is Professor of bioengineering and Director of the Auckland Bioengineering Institute at the University of Auckland. She was previously the Director of the New Zealand Medical Technologies Centre of Research Excellence and is currently on the Board of Directors for Cure Kids Ventures. Her particular research expertise is in computational analysis and models of pulmonary disease. She is leading the translation of data-driven digital human technologies to clinical implementation across several areas of application. Professor Tawhai is a Fellow of Te Apārangi Royal Society of New Zealand, the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, and an elected member of the Fleischner Society. She was awarded the MacDiarmid Medal by the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2016 for the translational potential of her research.