Objectives

The 3D4KARDIA project aims to create a digital and 3D-printed library of clinical cases across the spectrum of heart diseases, which will provide personalized examination of complex clinical cases in detail, employing state-of-the-art machine vision technologies. 3D4KARDIA’s libraries are intended to be employed by medical schools, hospitals, clinics, medical device companies and research centers. To achieve all of the above, the project is required to successfully complete a series of individual technological goals:

To organize and create appropriate clinical protocols for the application of 3D printing technologies in various categories of heart diseases, optimizing that way the preoperative evaluation and enrich the libraries with real clinical cases of heart diseases.

To apply advanced 3D printing techniques to clinical cases in a wide range of heart diseases developing a library consisting of various heart models in order to optimally prepare the doctor before the surgery.

To develop methods for the automatic reconstruction and segmentation of human heart, based from the data of CT scans and to integrate these results into the digital library.

To connect the digital library with the virtual reality environment, which will be useful for the training of doctors as well as for the preparation of the surgery itself.

To evaluate and demonstrate the functionality of the libraries through a pilot installation in a cardiac surgery center.