Cardiovascular disorders

Dr Ahran Arnold is a Senior Lecturer in Cardiology and Consultant Cardiologist at Imperial College London. With the Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Cardiovascular and Respiratory Diagnostics Fellowship, he aims to create AI algorithms that can assist clinicians in carrying out pacemaker procedures and with taking care of the patients in question.

Pacemakers are implanted devices that prevent slow heart rates by stimulating heart muscle. Conduction system pacing (CSP) is a new type of pacemaker technology that allows pacemakers to produce stronger, more coordinated heartbeats by stimulating the natural electrical pathways of the heart. CSP has the potential to revolutionize pacemakers by improving each heartbeat to treat and prevent heart failure. However, CSP is currently only performed in specialist centres, meaning that several patients don’t have access to it. A key reason for this is the complex analysis of heart traces (ECGs) required to confirm that CSP has been successfully achieved.

With Foundation funding, Dr Arnold will develop an AI algorithm that will teach itself to recognise successful CSP from heart tracings, so that healthcare professionals who are less familiar with CSP can still offer it to their patients.