Although heart disease is a global health issue, current heart surgery planning suffers from outdated tools and techniques that lack accuracy and efficiency. To address this issue, Dr. Dasi has developed Precision TAVI (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation), a predictive modeling software that creates a “digital twin” of the patient’s heart and provides physicians with a personalized treatment plan to reduce the risk of common post-surgical complications. Importantly, patients who were once considered inoperable due to their complex disease state are now candidates for trans-aortic valve replacement.

Precision TAVI received full U.S. Food and Drug (FDA) approval as the world’s first predictive modeling software for valve replacement, marking an important step in commercializing the technology and establishing it as the new standard of care. The life-saving software is currently in use in dozens of hospitals nationwide and holds the promise of fewer medical interventions, significant healthcare cost savings, and better quality of life for patients.

In the future, Dr. Dasi hopes to expand the use of this technology to applications in pediatrics, neurovascular and endovascular surgery, and all cardiac structures (e.g., mitral and tricuspid). The goal is to fully integrate the modeling software with AI robotic surgery.

“One surgery at a time, our technology helps avoid complications, enables lifelong planning for optimal structural heart care, and has the potential to save billions in unnecessary costs,” said Dr. Dasi.

Research Goals 

• Precise surgical planning: Adapting AI modeling software for use beyond trans-aortic valve replacement. 
• Preventing post-surgical complications: Studying cardiac fluid mechanics in a post-surgical context to continually improve patient outcomes and lifetime management.
• Heart valve improvement: Examining the post-surgical effects of valve replacement and current valve biomaterials to improve performance and durability of prosthetic devices.

Activities

• AI predictive software: Using AI modeling software to study cardiac biomechanics and fluid mechanics to improve prosthetic valve design, functionality, and durability.
• Fluid mechanics: Studying the effects of fluid mechanics on artificial heart valves to decrease post-surgical complications (e.g., thrombosis).
• Tri-leaflet prosthetic aortic valve: Developing a biocompatible, antithrombotic, calcification-resistant valved conduit for heart valve replacement with incorporated hyaluronic acid to improve patient outcomes.

Leadership

• Co-founder and chief technology officer of DASI Simulations (2020–Present)
• Rozelle Vanda Wesley Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University (August 2021–Present)
• Georgia Institute of Technology Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies (August 2020–April 2023)
• Fellow, American College of Cardiology (2022)
• Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (2022)