Building Technologies
for Better Health
"

Medical Technology and Engineering Design Research at
IIT Madras

The Biomedical Engineering Lab at IIT Madras is a premier lab headed by Prof. R. Krishna Kumar, an Institute Professor at the Department of Engineering Design. The lab focuses on research and development of technologies and products for enhancing the quality and access to Healthcare. The research applies engineering principles to biomedical sciences, advancing thinking, fostering knowledge, and encouraging the development of novel and innovative technologies for both diagnostics and treatment, benefiting patients worldwide.

Our Projects

Can a human heart be replaced by an artificial heart?

Even though this question was first asked as far back as in 1882 by a Nobel Prize winning scientist, till date there is no perfect artificial heart. Our lab works on some of the critical challenges that are associated with artificial hearts.

The heart is indeed, a delight for Engineers

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Can we model the complete blood flow in a human?

Do you know that the blood flows as waves and gets reflected at various junctions and organs? There is a forward-moving wave and backward moving wave in our body. Why do we have 120/80 as the normal blood pressure and not anything else?

Getting a pulse on the circulatory system

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Can we improve the Design of a Micro Axial Pump?

This study focuses on developing a cardiac support device, mainly targeting, but not limited to the support of the left ventricle, whose insertion can be made percutaneously. The device will be a Percutaneous Left Ventricular Assist Device (PVAD).

Axial Pumps offer a high flow rate while being small in size 

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Can we close a child’s chest after LVAD Implant?

A young boy from Egypt had heart failure at a very young age. Our research saved him when no one else in the world was willing to attempt the surgery.

A 3D model of the Child’s heart developed from CT Scan images provided the answer

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What causes Brain Strokes in Patients with Artificial Heart Pumps?

Our researchers analysed the fluid dynamics of the human circulatory system in order to understand what caused brain stroked in patients with heart pumps. Although prior to the implants, patients had low blood pressure, within a few months of getting the pumps. they became hypertensive, increasing their risk of a brain stroke.

The mechanism of hypertension was always assumed to have an endocrine basis, but this study changed that

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Aortic Valve: The Physiology

The aortic valve is a one-way valve situated between the aorta and the left ventricle. One-way valves open when the pressure on one side is more than on the other side. Do you know aortic valve starts to open even when the pressure difference is not favourable? Why is this important?

Understanding the mechanics of the aortic valve is critical to cardio thoracic surgical procedures

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Why are heart attacks silent killers?

The underlying mechanism of a silent heart attack is no different than that of a classic one. It usually occurs when the buildup of plaque in a coronary artery spontaneously ruptures. We did a detailed mechanistic study of the rupture of a plaque using the finite element method.

As the size of the block increases, the stress drops but strength also drops

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Navigation System for Brain Surgery

Everyone has seen and used GPS navigation systems. Did you know that doctors use such a navigation system during brain surgery? Their destination is the tumour.

Cartosense, a company which was founded and incubated in our lab has developed one of the most advanced neuro-navigation systems

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Brain Shift in Neurosurgery

The accuracy and expertise needed for performing surgery in the cardiothoracic system and the central nervous system are demanding. The possibility of tissue damage while performing these surgeries are high and can lead to a life-threatening situations.

We used finite element and finite volume methods to estimate and reduce brain shift and improve neuro-navigational system accuracy

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Virtual Operations on a Digital Twin

Doctors approached us with the problem of a single ventricle heart defect in a young man from Iran. Although he was very sick and needed to be operated upon, the complexities of the case meant that doctors were unsure about the surgical options. We developed a digital twin of the patient using mathematical models of the entire cardiovascular system.

The inputs gained from the virtual operations helped doctors to chart their course and optimize their strategies for the actual surgery

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An Automated framework for the analysis of fetal ultrasound images

Fetal ultrasound screening is the global standard of care for monitoring the growth and development of the fetus. Routine US screening during pregnancy can potentially diagnose common birth defects. A researcher at our lab designed and developed an automated framework to diagnose Fetal Ultrasound images.

The framework comprises of four main modules, each of which addresses a particular image analysis challenge

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