A computational framework for cardiac modeling based on distributed computing and web applications

Cardiac modeling is here to stay. Computer models are being used in a variety of ways and support the tests of drugs, the development of new medical devices and non-invasive diagnostic techniques. Computer models have become valuable tools for the study and comprehension of the complex phenomena of cardiac electrophysiology. However, the complexity and the multidisciplinary nature of cardiac models still restrict its use to a few specialized research centers in the world. We propose a computational framework that provides support for cardiac electrophysiology modeling. This framework integrates different computer tools and allows one to bypass many complex steps during the development and use of cardiac models. The implementation of cardiac cell models is automatically provided by a tool that translates models described in CellML language to executable code that allows one to manipulate and solve the models numerically. The automatically generated cell models are integrated in an efficient 2-dimensional parallel cardiac simulator. The set up and use of the simulator is supported by a user-friendly graphical interface that offers the tasks of simulation configuration, parallel execution in a pool of connected computer clusters, storage of results and basic visualization. All these tools are being integrated in a Web portal that is connected to a pool of clusters. The Web portal allows one to develop and simulate cardiac models efficiently via this user-friendly integrated environment. As a result, the complex techniques and the know-how behind cardiac modeling are all taken care of by the web distributed applications.