CardioEngineeringTeam @ BCH

"Zero Distance"

We are a team of professional engineers and clinicians uniquely positioned within the world-renowned Boston Children’s Hospital Heart Center.

Our “Zero Distance” model of working alongside our medical colleagues allows our team to focus engineering resources on clinically relevant problems. We elicit feedback from healthcare providers at every stage of the development/problem-solving process to ensure that our solutions are relevant; any solution we offer must incorporate context sensitivity to accommodate the unique environment of a hospital or operating room. We support cardiac care providers and surgeons in developing and delivering the highest caliber of care to patients and their families.

Services

How we impact clinical care for CHD patients

3D Modeling and Visualization

Patient-specific models for analysis, decision-making, and education

Surgical Planning

Precise planning of interventions to improve surgical outcomes

Computational Modeling

Supercomputer simulation to better understand surgical outcomes before the OR

Research and Development

Clinically-focused device design and model validation

Press

Articles and media about our work

Two surgeons interact with a digital model of the human heart on a large display screen

Videos

Articles

Recent Publications

Publications

About

A brief history of the team

2018

Engineering approaches to Fontan

The lab began as a collaboration between an engineering-trained pediatric cardiac surgeon and a PhD engineer who wanted to tackle a vexing clinical problem using simulation tools from engineering.
2019

3D Models for Understanding Complex Anatomy

Patient-specific 3D models, made as an input to the simulation process, proved to be very useful to the clinical teams as a way to explore the patient's anatomy prior to a surgical procedure. Surgeons and cardiologists began to request the models to help with the planning process.
September 2020

The First Hundred Models

we reached the 100 clinical model milestone in September of 2020, and with requests increasing, we realized that we'd need to grow to support the clinical demand along with our research work.
Spring 2022

Growing the Clinical Service

As the modeling and simulation request volume increased, we were able to hire additional engineers, making it possible to meet the clinical need and tackle more difficult virtual surgery and simulation approaches. This responsive growth has allowed us to model over 50% of cardiac surgical cases at Boston Children's Hospital in 2024.
2025-

Building a Collaborative Network

We're building an international network of pediatric heart centers to make sure these engineering approaches are available for the patients who need it, wherever they are.
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Meet The Team

Co-Directors

David Hoganson, MD

Co-Director
Pediatric Cardiac Surgeon

Pete Hammer, PhD

Co-Director
Engineer

Faculty

Vijay Govindarajan, PhD

Scientific Director of Flow Simulation and Multiphysics Modeling

Reena Ghosh, MD

Physician Scientist; Scientific Director of AV Valve Modeling

Clinical Modeling + Simulation Leads

Dakota Allen, MS

Clinical Lead, Aorta and Pulmonary Artery Reconstruction and Conduction Mapping

Jocelyn Davee, MS

Clinical Lead, Aorta and Pulmonary Artery Reconstruction and Conduction Mapping

Emily Eickhoff, MEng

Clinical Lead, Single Ventricle and Thoracic Modeling

Lauren Marshall, MS

Program Manager, Cardiovascular Engineering Clinical Program

Noah Schulz, MSME

Technical Lead, Cardiovascular 3D Modeling

Mara Thompson, MS

Clinical Lead, AV Valve Modeling and Tetralogy of Fallot

Postdoctoral Fellows

Vikas Kannojiya, PhD

Skannen Kizilski, PhD

Dominic Recco, MD

Ana Vargas, PhD

Device Development and Research

Nick Kneier, MS

Medical Device Engineer

Ryan Kavanagh

Videographer

Jaqui Hale, RN

Research Nurse

Team Alumni/ae

Dani Chaillo, MS

Medical Device Engineer

Shannon Devine, BFA

Medical Visualization Engineer

Patrick Earley, MS

Medical Device Engineer

Akshita Sahni, MS

Clinical Lead, Flow Simulation

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