How can aortic valves be measured digitally during cardiac surgery? The successful completion of the "IDA - Intraoperative Digital Aortography" research project marks the end of a two-and-a-half-year collaboration between Fachhochschule Dortmund and Klavant GmbH, which was part of the "KMU-innovativ Medizintechnik" funding program of the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR).
Funding for the overall project of the two consortium partners amounted to just under two million euros. Klavant GmbH was founded in 2019 with the aim of developing an "aortic valve tester". At the final meeting on May 28, 2026 at the company's site in Minden, the project sponsor VDI also drew a positive conclusion on the milestones achieved.
Digital assistance system
The background to the project is the treatment of diseases of the aortic valve, which are among the most common causes of serious cardiovascular diseases. Valve-preserving operations in particular require a high level of surgical experience. Until now, intraoperative assessment of the success of the operation has mainly been carried out using manual procedures, the significance of which is limited. "The IDA project therefore aimed to develop a digital assistance system that objectifies and specifies the measurement and evaluation of the aortic valve during the procedure," explains project manager Prof. Dr. Jörg Thiem from the Faculty of Information Technology. To this end, Klavant GmbH developed an optical 3D measurement method to capture the aortic valve in the open chest. "In the sub-project, Fachhochschule Dortmund researched AI-based methods for the automatic detection of medically relevant measurement points on the recorded image data," says Jörg Thiem. The combination of high-resolution 3D imaging and artificial intelligence should help to improve treatment decisions and surgical outcomes, optimize the selection of prostheses and increase the safety of cardiac surgery in the future.
Synthetically generated training data
From the perspective of Fachhochschule Dortmund, important scientific and structural results were achieved during the course of the project. The research work was incorporated into a total of three theses and two project papers. In addition, the topic was integrated into a doctoral project. The research results have so far led to three scientific publications. In terms of content, the great potential of synthetically generated training data for AI applications was particularly evident when real data is only available to a limited extent. The investigations made it clear that the quality and variety of the training data have a greater influence on the performance of the systems than the choice of individual neural network architectures. Another milestone was the development of the first solutions for analyzing pathologically altered aortic valves, for example when there are only two pockets instead of the usual three (bicuspid valves).
Market launch in preparation
Significant progress has also been made on the company side. Klavant GmbH is currently preparing the market launch of the developed medical technology product and recently successfully passed an audit for product certification. At the final meeting, the project sponsor VDI paid particular tribute to the fact that the public funding has enabled a level of development to be reached that allows an innovative medical technology product to be positioned shortly before market launch.
Fachhochschule Dortmund and Klavant GmbH see the results achieved as an important basis for further research and development. The project partners therefore intend to continue their successful collaboration.
It is planned to publish the results in the form of a final scientific journal article, to apply for industrial property rights and to further deepen the topic in the ongoing doctoral project. At the same time, an application for a joint follow-up project is currently under review. This would allow the research work established in the IDA project to be continued in the coming years and the methods developed to be transferred to other medical application scenarios.