Bifurcaid

In the field of educational tools, the BIFURCAID App has been developed as a means of guiding and teaching interventional cardiologists across the world the different techniques of coronary bifurcation interventions, in a step by step manner. The App is a combined effort of the Interventional Cardiology department at Mount Sinai Heart headed by Dr. Annapoorna Kini and her team of fellows: Dr. Samith Bhatheja and Dr. Surbhi Chamaria, and the Sinai AppLab headed by Dr. Ashish Atreja and his software development team. Illustrations were contributed by Christopher Smith at the Medical Illustrations department.

Bifurcation means ‘the division of something into two branches or parts’. Coronary bifurcations are considered as one of the most challenging interventions given the technical expertise required and the myriad steps involved. In this complex and advance field of interventions, there is no interactive tool available that aids in this technique of stenting. This app simplifies the process of coronary bifurcation and is an educative tool for young professionals. It is extremely user friendly and is a good medium for interventionalists to help guide them during their procedures.

The app provides:

• The basics of bifurcation stenting and the reasons behind the use of specific equipment through the glossary section.

• Two separate sections for the different entities of Left Main Bifurcation and Non Left Main Bifurcation since the techniques are different in the two disease processes.

• An easy way to navigate back and forth between the various combinations and permutations of disease in the main and side branch to devise a treatment plan and walks the user through each step of the technique.

• A glossary section titled ‘The Basics’ that has a detailed description of all the equipment required, including the type of guide and guidewires to use and the size and type of balloons and stents to use in different scenarios.

• A section regarding methods of troubleshooting when wires or stent delivery systems and balloons are difficult to deliver.

• Hyperlinks to the glossary section from the text in the main app which will help the user reference the text without having to exit that particular step in the algorithm.