3 June 2025
In a groundbreaking project, researchers have created a collection of lifelike digital heart models to help explore how factors like age, gender, and lifestyle affect heart disease and function.
Researchers created over 3,800 anatomically accurate digital hearts using data from several biobanks, including that of Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals. These models act as virtual stand-ins for real hearts, allowing researchers to study aspects of heart function that are difficult to observe directly.
Published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, the study highlights how digital heart models, known as “cardiac digital twins”, can uncover how everyday habits influence heart health across different groups of people.
The models have already helped reveal that aging and obesity can alter the heart’s electrical signals, offering new clues about why these conditions raise the risk of heart problems.
Another finding using the digital twins was the discovery that the differences seen in ECG results between men and women are mostly due to heart size, not differences in how the heart’s electrical system works.
The study involved Professor Sanjay Prasad, and Dr Brian Halliday, consultant cardiologists at Royal Brompton and was led by Professor Steven Niederer, chair in Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London.
Professor Niederer explained the importance of the research saying:
“Our research shows that the potential of cardiac digital twins goes beyond diagnostics. By replicating the hearts of people across the population, we have shown that digital twins can offer us deeper insights into the people at risk of heart disease. It also shows how lifestyle and gender can affect heart function.”
The research was undertaken in collaboration with King’s College London, Imperial College London and The Alan Turing Institute.
To find out more about our research, please contact us.
Read more research stories or sign up to the research newsletter.