Report of the DynAMo scientific session and Business Meeting, WC2000 Chicago

The scientific session included talks from most of the research partners. The recent development
in model construction and related areas were addressed. The subjects covered the area from medical imaging as
the starting point for model construction to clinical application of models.
The abstracts can be found at WC2000 web site.
The session was a success. It was one of the better session in the conference. That is, of course, our
subjective opinion, however the talks were good with substantial content and they sparked lively discussion
during the session.

The audience in the session had a strong interest on the themes of the project.
Several people expressed their interest in joining the DynAMo group. The DynAMo is an open forum and
we would like to encourage all interested in the subject to contact us (Jaakko Malmivuo or Jari Hyttinen).
 
 

The DynAMo business meeting Friday 28 July, 2000, 10.15 - 12.00am
 

The meeting was the first international DynAMo business meeting. Thus the discussion covered
some basic questions regarding the formation and the purpose of DynAMo.

Everybody gave strong support for the project and expressed the importance of the subject
and the idea of DynAMo.
Project coordinator Jari Hyttinen introduced the topics for discussion.
The basic point in the project is not just to develop new models, but to bring together the
experties of modelers, imaging biomedical signal measurement experts to provide the .

During the discussion two tasks of DynAMo were especially addressed:

1) Establishing a modeling database, which would facilitate:

•  comparison of modeling methods
•  testing of ideas and methods in a number of different models
•  easy access of data for persons entering this field
The idea is that the DynAMo partners would provide their data and software in their own web servers.
An excelled example for other partners was introduced by Chris Johnston from University of Utah.
They are in a process to provide their software and some model data in the net.
Other partners may provide they data as well - lesser contributions than that of the utah group is wellcomed.
The software and model web pages of RGI will be updated during the autumn.

2) Establishing a project of "electric human man"

The urgent need for complete data set including dynamic anatomy and measurements of
physiological functions from a one individual was acknowledged.
For the development and validation of models a solid and  complete database is lacking.
In the meeting the dream database for heart modelers  was formulated  including:

possibly a patient with WPW-syndrome

body surface ECG

endocardial ECG mapping data

MR image set of the whole thorax with a number of sets from various time instances of the heart beat

3D-ultrasound of the blood and heart movements

bioimpedance measurements such as impedance tomography for establishing studies of tissue impedance

exact site of the extra pathway

The partners of were eager to promote such a concept. However, the project have a number of  practical and
possibly ethical problems

Professor Olav von Ramm from Duke University and Professor Olav Dössel from Karsruhe promised to do a
survey regarding the possibilities to organize the measurements and the possible ethical problems