HARVi 1.0 iPad App Explains Fundamentals of Hemodynamics

MIAMI BEACH, FLA.—Inspired by the work of physician/physiologist William Harvey, the author of “De Motu Cordis,” (On the Motion of the Heart and Blood), a new application for the iPad is designed to provide cardiologists with a better understanding of the fundamentals of heart and blood motion.

The app, HARVi 1.0, is an interactive educational tool designed by Daniel Burkhoff, MD, PhD, of Columbia University, New York, and was developed to demystify the fundamental concepts of hemodynamics.

“HARVi [1.0] is really a textbook of CV physiology on an iPad. It has a [patient] simulation in real time that displays signals of pressures and volumes in the pressure-volume domain for the four chambers, and also in the time domain for various pressures, volumes and flows,” Burkhoff said at TCT 2012. “It allows you to interact with the CV system and vary parameter values, and then to also see the effects of those [values] on CV performance” (see Figure).

The model also has the ability to simulate almost any type of CV health and disease, as well to introduce devices.

Motivation for creation

Burkhoff said he was motivated to develop the app because of the new emphasis of interventional cardiology on structural and valvular heart disease.

“There are a great deal of issues related to hemodynamics, and I think taking a different approach and educating a new group of physicians on these concepts can really help to advance the field,” he said.

This understanding, Burkhoff said, will help to explain and predict the effects of different therapies, as well as aid in patient selection for new devices.

“Over the past 25 years, we have gained a great deal of experience in modeling, and we validated most aspects of this model with repeated successes in predicting and explaining effects of device and surgical therapies, for HF in particular,” he said.

Origin of app

This latest iteration of the hemodynamic model is based on an earlier version initially developed by Burkhoff in the 1980s.

“The initial motivation was actually to develop a simulation that would provide a realistic substitute for animal experiments to teach pharmacology and CV physiology,” Burkhoff said in an interview with TCT Daily. “More recently, I did further development of the simulation to help provide more flexibility in modeling not only with health but also with disease and the impact of therapeutics.”

There will eventually be four parts of the textbook; the first part is currently available from iTunes. The cost of the app is $30, and proceeds will be used to complete the simulation and to develop the additional three parts of the textbook.

“The bottom line is that we are in a new era now, and  I think there are new teaching tools that can help teach a new generation of physicians,” Burkhoff said.