The SCIC Research Group, led by the newly appointed Dr. James White, is leading research in the field of scar imaging and its impact on cardiovascular outcomes. To date, this work has shown that the amount, location and appearance of scarring in heart muscle strongly predicts the future onset of heart failure and sudden cardiac death. His team is now aggressively pursuing ways to use this knowledge to protect patients against these outcomes, and this preventative intervention will reduce the burden of disease.

The method, called “image-guided therapeutics”, is a novel approach to patient care; developing tailored treatment plans for individual patients based upon imaging results. Dr. White is one of the first investigators to test this approach using cardiovascular MRI. He has established a series of novel software packages aimed at converting MRI images into 3D interactive models that can be used to guide a host of invasive therapies.