This talk is by visiting scholar Dr Giovanni Biglino, a bioengineer with an interest in medical humanities, currently based at the University of Bristol. He makes 3-D models of the hearts of children with congenital heart disease and collects narratives from the parents, allowing interdisciplinary co-design of new approaches to imaging and treatment. In this talk, he explores three different sources of information and insight: a 2-dimensional image of the affected heart; a 3-dimensional model of the same heart; and the narratives of parents whose children have congenital heart disease. He will explore how these different sources can be combined in a co-design approach to improve the investigation and management of this condition.

The seminar: An exploration of the dimensionality of the heart, describing different approaches that can increase our insight into the organ (particularly in the presence of congenital heart disease). Analyses based on two-dimensional data derived from cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide functional information, including knowledge of changes in ventriculo-arterial coupling, which can be gathered by applying wave intensity analysis to the MRI data. Three-dimensional data can also be extracted to manufacture replicas of patients’ hearts and vessels by means of 3D printing technology, which can have a wide range of applications, from training medical staff to potentially aid in the decision-making process when discussing surgical/interventional strategies. Finally, the experiential dimension should also be considered and opens the door to taking into account the narrative of patients, leading to co-creating original artworks.
The speaker: Giovanni Biglino is a biomedical engineer. He studied at Imperial College London and obtained his PhD in cardiovascular mechanics from the Brunel Institute of Bioengineering. He has carried out research at Great Ormond Street Hospital for children and University College London, with the cardiac engineering team, focusing on congenital heart disease. Now he is a Lecturer in Cardiovascular Bioinformatics and Medical Statistics at the Bristol Heart Institute. He has studied biostatistics at Harvard Medical School and has started to enthusiastically explore the world of narrative medicine at Columbia University. His current research is very collaborative, involving cardiologists, surgeons, imagers, psychologists and artists.