The extensive range of research topics covered this week by chalk talks was pretty mind-blowing, but as Dr. G mentioned at one point, a commonality was that many of us are working at the interface of health and clinical application in terms of the research that we are conducting. I think many of the biomedical engineering projects were particularly straightforward in demonstrating their clinical relevance, which was really exciting to me (even though I’m not an engineer). I think I tend to gravitate towards research with clear cut objectives to solve some sort of medical problem and the knowledge that being able to solve these problems would mean directly helping people in a clinical setting. Thus, Rachel’s project on early detection for atrial fibrillation was incredibly interesting to me. Her project strives to develop some sort of algorithm that can differentiate between the “normal” heart rhythms of someone who has AF (and might not know it) and the normal heart rhythms of a healthy individual.
Usually detecting AF requires an EKG, a cardiologist to analyze the rhythm, and AF to be going on at the moment. By being able to detect the presence of AF in patients just by analyzing their normal rhythms, rather than waiting for the distinct irregular waveform of AF to show up, would mean earlier interventions and better prognoses. I was surprised to hear that heart rhythms differ among even healthy individuals, but that these are still yet significantly different from individuals who have AF. It was also encouraging to hear about someone else’s project that involved lots of dry lab work, but still contains so much tangible clinical potential. The implications for this project are pretty tremendous so I’m excited to see where it ends up!
