Partners in medical device discoveries: Since its first days, the Visible Heart® Laboratories have established rich collaborations within the medical device community. Combining industry connections with an unparalleled anatomic library, the VHLs have generated computational models of medical device placements within a large variety of human anatomies. These models allow the VHLs to both educate the community at-large about medical device therapy, while communicating with clinicians about the nuances of specific technologies. 

A library like no other: Since 2016, the VHLs have dramatically increased the collection of hearts in their specimen library, giving students and researchers the tools to learn about this vital organ in both healthy and diseased states. The archives now feature more than 600 human and animal hearts, 300-plus MRI scans, 150-plus CT scans, and 100 computational models. 

Sharing invaluable knowledge: Medtronic’s support is integral to the outreach mission of the labs: from elementary education to free-access resources for students, researchers, medical professionals, and medical device companies from around the world. Each year, the VHLs teach people from all walks of life—from middle schoolers to clinical cardiologists—about cardiac anatomy and device therapy. Additionally, Medtronic’s expertise and donated equipment leverage the labs’ resources and help to accelerate its work. 

Funding ingenuity: As travel and in-person visits were rendered impossible by the global spread of COVID-19, Medtronic’s support provided the VHLs with the resources to pivot. “This has allowed us to do virtual physician and company visits,” says Paul Iaizzo, Ph.D., the lab’s director and co-founder, and holder of the Medtronic Professorship in Visible Heart Research. “Recently, we just did a live webcast with five interventional cardiologists in Japan: performing coronary wiring, bifurcation stenting, and placement and manipulation of stents.”