Purdue engineer, IU cardiologist collaborate to offer innovative tool and fresh hope for babies with heart defects

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – When he was a medical student, none of Mark Payne’s textbooks told him that a cardiologist should consult an engineer before deciding on a patient’s treatment.

But today, as a pediatric cardiologist with Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health and professor at IU’s School of Medicine, Payne wouldn’t consider investigating how to make the best use of an echocardiogram to evaluate congenital heart defects without involving engineers from Purdue University.

Pavlos Vlachos, the St. Vincent Health Professor of Healthcare Engineering and director of the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering, leads a Purdue team whose recent innovations are on track to be a game-changer for cardiac surgeons and to rewrite cardiology textbooks. Working with Payne, who contributes clinical and medical expertise, the two researchers are confident that they can help save babies’ lives by making echocardiograms — ultrasound image recordings of the heart — much more useful and surgery decisions far better informed.

More information can be read on the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research website.

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Media contact: Amy Raley, araley@purdue.edu