Heart disease continues to be a leading cause of disability and death worldwide. Recent research has refined our understanding of the many causes of heart disease and provided many new therapies to treat heart disease. But effective treatment requires reliable and accurate diagnosis, and certain causes of heart disease can only be diagnosed with expensive medical procedures that are not widely available. Our proposed three-year research project will utilize UK Biobank imaging and other data with artificial intelligence (AI) methods to develop computer software tools to diagnose heart disease more easily and reliably. AI methods are able to identify subtle features in complex data that are sometimes difficult or time-consuming for physicians to see. AI methods are powerful tools that a physician can use with noninvasive imaging and other tests to obtain a more accurate perspective of a patient’s symptoms. In this way, our research will provide physicians with new clinical tools to better diagnose and treat patients who experience chest pain and other symptoms of heart disease.
