New Technological Breakthroughs for Patient-Specific Healthcare and Schizophrenia

By Dr. Yash Agarwal
Business Development Manager, Synopsys, India

Patient-specific healthcare is becoming increasingly significant as a way of applying new medical technologies. Progress has been driven by improvements in medical imaging, and recognition by healthcare institutions of the value of pre-surgical treatment planning solutions. The growth of these methods in Indian healthcare is particularly important for widening access to new technologies, enabling more simple, more affordable, and scalable techniques that can easily be adopted.

One excellent recent application of this approach is through computational neuromodulation as a way of treating mental disorders like schizophrenia. The National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru are developing simulation workflows using transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) for non-invasive schizophrenia treatments that are fast, affordable and suitable for areas like India where access to healthcare is limited.

NIMHANS are working with international partners including Dassault SIMULIA, Advania, the UberCloud, Synopsys, and sponsors Hewlett Packard Enteprise and Intel, to predict tDCS performance. Schizophrenia and other mental health conditions are difficult to treat due to the complexity of the brain and patient variation. In comparison to traditional high-risk invasive treatments, tDCS is non-invasive and uses electrodes to carry out electrical treatments on fully conscious patients to precise requirements, shortening treatment time without side effects.

Researchers at NIMHANS use computer simulation to create different treatment protocols by predicting the optimal placement of electrodes. Since 2016, NIMHANS have taken advantage of the simulation expertise of Dassault SIMULIA to create realistic models. The process starts by obtaining MRI scans of patients that can be processed and converted into 3D models. In Synopsys Simpleware™ software, regions of interest can be segmented and models of the electrodes placed in different configurations. Simpleware software is used to export finite element (FE) meshes for simulating current distribution in SIMULIA Abaqus software. Multiple models were tested using Advania’s High-Performance Computing (HPC) cloud services, as well as the UberCloud HPC container.

The work already completed by NIMHANS is showing promise for pre-surgical planning of patient treatments, and is scalable through HPC to take on more precise forms of treatments. In general, patient-specific modelling offers Indian healthcare a method that can be adapted for large and diverse populations, is semi-automated through software environments, and reduces reliance on highly expensive human and animal testing. India also has a large population of young engineers to adopt new technologies in a national healthcare industry growing at over 15% CAGR and expected to be valued by over USD 250 billion by 2021.