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Researchers and surgeons at Florida International University (FIU) are helping turn the tide on cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, through early detection, advanced surgery and collaborative innovation.
FIU’s heart research spans the full continuum from bench to bedside: From unraveling the molecular mechanisms behind disease progression to training an AI-powered algorithm that “listens” for early signs of disease to life-saving pediatric heart surgery and minimally invasive robotic procedures.
“Heart disease doesn’t have a single solution,” said Joshua Hutcheson, an American Heart Association Fellow and director of the new FIU-Florida Heart Research Foundation Center for Innovation in Cardiovascular Health. “But when you bring together people with different expertise and a shared purpose, real breakthroughs happen.”
Hutcheson, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at the FIU College of Engineering and Computing, is leading efforts to detect heart disease earlier, before symptoms appear. Working with Research Assistant Professor Valentina Dargam, the team developed an AI-based algorithm that analyzes heart sounds and can identify disease signatures that are too subtle for the human ear. The AI-based diagnostic algorithm is 95% accurate in classifying healthy heart sounds and nearly 85% accurate in differentiating between types of heart disease.
The team is working with minimally invasive heart surgeon and Chief Medical Executive of Baptist Health Heart & Vascular Care and Chair of Cardiovascular Sciences at FIU Dr. Tom Nguyen, to test the algorithm in a real-world clinical environment.
Doctors at the Institute also are advancing robotic cardiac surgery under the leadership of Nguyen and Dr. Makoto Hashimoto, an internationally recognized surgeon and professor at FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, and director of robotic cardiac surgery. Robotic procedures pioneered by Hashimoto allow surgeons to repair complex heart defects through small incisions, reducing pain, scarring and recovery time.
Hashimoto has rapidly built one of the region’s busiest, most advanced robotic cardiac surgery programs while also generating data to demonstrate novel robotic techniques can be applied safely and effectively to various conditions that once required more invasive procedures, helping to move the technique toward standard of care.
For the estimated 40,000 children born with congenital heart defects, FIU physician-scientist Dr. David Kalfa is pushing the boundaries of what is surgically possible. Kalfa, professor of surgery at FIU Medicine and chief of cardiovascular surgery at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, has pioneered partial heart transplants for infants.
Now, he and his FIU research team are developing a bioreactor system that allows donated heart valves to be preserved for weeks — effectively “banking” tissue. This approach could provide the first off-the-shelf living valve replacements that grow with children, addressing the critical need for cardiac valves capable of growth and self-repair in pediatric patients with congenital valve disease.
These and other top researchers are available to discuss breakthroughs in heart health.
