Thank you for visiting the OpenHeart Project repository on GitHub.

This document (the README.md file) will give you some information about the project.

• Background
• Aims and Objectives
• OpenHeart Structure
• Who we are
• What we need
• How to contribute
• Contact us

However, if you already know about OpenHeart and are here to contribute, feel free to jump straigth to the Issues and / or Contributor Guidelines.

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are attributed as the leading cause of death throughout the developed world, accounting for 29% of all deaths in Australia in 2014. CVD often leads to heart failure (HF) and evidence from current literature suggests that HF is the fastest growing CVD globally. The use of mechanical circulatory support (MCS) in the management of acute and chronic HF is continuously expanding with more than 20k devices implanted worldwide by 2016. However, the research field of MCS consists of researchers from multiple international research laboratories and universities spread around the globe and research is often undertaken in isolation within each laboratory, limiting inter-laboratory collaboration and thus the full potential of the field of MCS.

It has been reported that currently an estimated 85% of all global research resources are wasted due to false and non-reproducible results or slow and potentially inefficient translation of knowledge into useful applications. Risk factors for high rates of false results are: flexibility in study designs, definitions and analyses and a lack of collaboration between researchers. Adoption of large-scale collaborative research with a strong replication culture has been shown to be successful in several biomedical fields (e.g. genetic and molecular epidemiology). Sharing of data, protocols, materials and other resources has been promoted in other fields, creating a foundation for reproducible research practices. It has also been shown that improvements in study design standards can improve the reliability of research results, while improved training and continuing education of researchers is also important. There is a clear need and untapped potential for improved collaborative efforts and subsequent improvement of research quality and outcomes within the field of MCS.

The OpenHeart Project is an open-source research project which aims to improve research practices within the field of MCS and ultimately improve outcomes and quality of life for heart failure patients around the globe. Key objectives of the OpenHeart Project are:

• Improved collaboration, standardization and sharing of existing knowledge
• Improved training and education
• Development of new and improved solutions for mechanical circulatory support

To promote improved collaboration and standardization between researchers and laboratories within the field of Mechanical Circulatory Support (MCS) an open-source research platform has been developed. Within this platform we can leverage the existing resources and expertise within ISMCS to develop new and improved solutions for mechanical circulatory support (MCS) of heart failure patients to improve patient outcomes and quality of life. Furthermore the OpenHeart Project seeks to improve education and training of emerging researcher within the field of MCS through the development of online curricula and training tools, which will be available to students for free around the globe.

The below infographic visualizes the current OpenHeart Project structure and how the different proposed entities interact with each other. Further information can be found below the infographic.

Key entities of the OpenHeart platform are the OpenHeart website, data repositories, MCS Wiki and team collaboration tools. The OpenHeart website will be the point of first contact for researchers interested in the project. The website will provide information about the background, aims and progress of the OpenHeart Project. Through the website researcher will be able to sign up to participate in the project.

Team collaboration tools, MCS wiki and data repository will be implemented using the software solutions Stride, Confluence and Bitbucket (Atlassian, Sydney, Australia). Atlassian offers free user licenses to open-source research projects, thus making the participation in the OpenHeart Project free for everyone. Embedded networking capabilities will provide the opportunity to propose collaborations and projects between participating laboratories and universities as well as to raise and discuss current research questions. Furthermore, a discussion forum can be used to discuss exchange and collaborative use of equipment and resources.

An MCS wiki will be implemented as a knowledge base especially for PhD students and early career researchers. Within the wiki the most common terms in the field, equations and information can be defined. Collating this background information in one space under the guidance and approval of senior researchers in the field of MCS will improve the education of PhD students and emerging researchers in the field of MCS around the globe. Furthermore, standardized protocols of study designs, experimental set-ups, data acquisition and data analyses will be developed within the OpenHeart Project and presented within the MCS wiki. The networking capabilities and MCS wiki are the two key entities to achieve improved collaboration and standardization within the field of MCS and improved education and training of emerging researcher. Subsequently this will improve the overall research quality and outcomes within the field of MCS, while saving research time and subsequently research money.

The key entity of the OpenHeart platform to develop improved solutions for MCS will be the open-source data repository. Within this repository researchers can upload and share their data with the research community, thus leveraging the existing expertise to develop new and improved solutions for MCS. Data will include (but will not be limited to) 3D design files to develop new and improved devices, code for improved patient monitoring and control systems and experimental results. Collaborators will be able to freely upload and download files and comment directly to uploaded content. Build in version control within Atlassian’s Bitbucket software allows for efficient tracking of development progress for each device and component of devices. All information within the OpenHeart repository will be licensed under a common creative license (CC BY V4.0). Under this license it will be free to share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format as well as free to adapt, remix, transform and build upon the material for any purpose.

The OpenHeart Project was initiated by Prof Geoff Tansley (Griffith University) and developed by Dr Jo Pauls (The University of Queensland in collaboration with Ms Amanda Miotto (Griffith University) and multidisciplinary colleagues at The Prince Charles Hospital – Critical Care Research Group, Innovative Cardiovascular Engineering and Technology Laboratory (ICETLAB), The University of Queensland and Griffith University. In order to gain worldwide support for the OpenHeart Project collaboration with the International Society of Mechanical Circulatory Support (ISMCS) was agreed upon and a platform prototype was presented at last year’s annual ISMCS conference in Tucson, USA. Since then multiple research laboratories from around the globe signed up to participate on the OpenHeart Project.

You! In whatever way you can help.

We need expertise in webdesign, user experience design, documentation, video tutorial creation and animation to improve upon the current state of the website and existing documentation.

Information on how to best contribute at this stage of the project can be found in the Contributor Guidelines

If you want to report a problem or suggest an enhancement we'd love for you to open an issue at this github repository. That way we can get right on it. You can also contact the OpenHeart Project by email (contact AT openheartproject DOT org).

Thank you so much for visiting the OpenHeart Project and we do hope that you'll join us on our quest to improve the our research community and ultimately research outcomes in mechanical circulatory support.

The OpenHeart Project adheres to a Code of Conduct