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Dr Arunashis Sau, Academic Clinical Lecturer at the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI), was recently awarded the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Clinical Future Leaders Fellowship.

The fellowship, which will support over the next seven years with £1.7 million in funding, is designed to support outstanding clinical researchers as they develop their own projects and teams.

Dr Sau is aiming to use the fellowship to develop an AI-based platform which brings a range of clinical data types together to support more accurate and efficient care for people living with heart rhythm disorders.

Discovering the role artificial intelligence can play in cardiovascular research

The genesis of this project emerged from Dr Sau’s work in Professor Fu Siong Ng’s research group. A clinician by background, he joined Professor Ng’s group in 2020.

There, he took on projects that enabled him to use his newfound coding skills, developed during the pandemic, to investigate how AI models could be used in clinical research.

While writing a BHF Clinical 91ÌÒÉ« Training Fellowship in 2020, Dr Sau found which described a huge set of data taken from electrocardiogram (ECG) readings. “I felt that this data was relevant to my work on atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common heart rhythm disorder, which was my focus at the time,” said Dr Sau, “So I sent an email to the team behind the paper. This sparked an ongoing collaboration around applying AI to these datasets.”

How the fellowship will advance the field

Dr Sau’s previous research has been centred on using AI to interpret ECGs more deeply to detect hidden disease and ; as a clinician, he deals predominantly with heart rhythm disorders, performing procedures like cardiac ablation and permanent pacemaker or defibrillator implants.

The fellowship will bring both sides of his expertise together, integrating diverse data modalities – from electronic healthcare records to cardiac imaging – to develop an AI-powered pipeline to predict which treatments will benefit heart rhythm disorder patients the most, on a case-by-case basis.

“The overall aim is to apply the AI platform to three different groups: large populations of patients or volunteers (like the UK Biobank), people with inherited cardiac conditions, and patients who are being treated for heart rhythm disorders”, Dr Sau explained.

“By the end of the seven years, I hope to see the models transition from the development stage to implementation in clinical settings, where they could have a wide range of uses.”

Big challenges – and bigger opportunities

Speaking about the potential obstacles that may arise as the project develops, Dr Sau said, “Handling the sheer amount of data that we are looking at is a challenge in itself, as are the technical challenges that will inevitably arise when developing a complex, AI-powered platform.”

“The fellowship also has a strict timeline of seven years,” he continued. “Although this might sound like a long time, there is a lot that needs to be done in order to achieve the goals within that period.”

But despite the possible hurdles, Dr Sau is optimistic about what can be accomplished through the fellowship.

“I’m really excited to expand my skills in developing AI models across different data types,” Dr Sau said, adding, “There is so much potential with clinical free text [unstructured narrative notes taken by healthcare providers during patient observation], for instance. Using large language models (LLMs) to interpret these records could enable us to use this information in an entirely new way.”

Dr Sau also discussed how the project will facilitate more detailed work with patients who are undergoing procedures to treat heart rhythm problems, including collecting data during procedures.

“Comparing the data we receive from invasive and non-invasive measurements could provide valuable insights”, he explained.

Becoming a future clinical leader

The process of applying for the fellowship began just over a year ago. As the idea developed, Dr Sau spoke to a number of colleagues about the shape and direction of the proposal – and of his future career.

“I discussed my ideas with lots of people, including many of my colleagues at NHLI, who gave me great advice on how to make sure the project was both ambitious and achievable. Professor Ng, in particular, has been a huge support and a real mentor. I am so grateful for his, and everyone’s willingness to provide such valuable feedback and encouragement as I was developing my proposal.”

Upon receiving the news that he had been awarded the prestigious fellowship, Dr Sau felt “an immense sense of happiness and relief.”

“I am truly thankful to the BHF for putting their faith in me and in this project. I hope that the work I do over the next seven years will have a real, positive impact on people who are living with heart rhythm disorders.”