First seminar of BHF Centre of Research Excellence delivered by Dr Chin Lin

The new BHF Research Centre of Excellence has hosted its first seminar. 

Last month, Dr Chin Lin, Associate Professor at Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Centre, Taiwan, delivered the first seminar for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Centre of Research Excellence (CRE)'s 2024-2029 term.

The BHF Centre of Research Excellence, launched earlier this year, aims to drive transformative research into heart and blood vessel diseases at Imperial's National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI). The centre focuses on four research themes: 'Learning from populations', 'Learning from heart disease patients', 'Learning from resilience', and 'Learning from remote personal monitoring', which aim to enhance understanding of the heterogeneity in cardiovascular disease.

Dr Lin's seminar, titled 'Artificial intelligence (AI) enabled opportunistic screening technology for precision healthcare', highlighted his pioneering research on the development of artificial intelligence models and their integration into clinical practice to validate improvements in healthcare quality.

One of the seminar's highlights was Dr Lin's most renowned work on an AI-enabled electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation platform, capable of detecting over 50 diseases from a single ECG. This platform has initiated more than 10 clinical trials and has recently demonstrated the benefits of AI-ECG in reducing short-term mortality.

In addition to his seminar, Dr Lin had productive meetings with Dr Fu Siong Ng (Theme 4 Co-Lead: Learning from Remote Personal Monitoring) and his team, discussing potential collaborative projects aligned with the Remote Monitoring theme of the BHF Centre, including developing AI-ECG models and translating them into clinical practice.

Dr Fu Siong Ng, Reader in Cardiac Electrophysiology at the NHLI, said, "This first seminar of our new BHF CRE was a great success. Dr Lin shared their vast expertise on implementing AI-enabled ECGs into their clinical pathway. This is exactly what we are planning to do as part of the Remote Monitoring theme of the new CRE, to allow us to better monitor our patients outside of the hospital and to study disease heterogeneity.

This visit has already led to regular joint research meetings between Imperial researchers and those in Taiwan, and we are embarking on research projects that involve the sharing of expertise and data. We are also discussing the exchange of staff, with visits in both directions to cement this collaborative relationship." 

Keep an eye on the BHF Centre of Research Excellence's website to hear about upcoming seminars.