A Model of Health: Mathematical modeling tools play an important role in optimizing new treatment options for heart disease.

Models are crucial in the biomedical sciences since they provide information that is not otherwise accessible and help in discriminating among possible schemes of interpretation of complex phenomena. Italian research teams have been very active in this field with important contributions in the area of heart mechanics, which typically requires sophisticated three-dimensional (3-D) approaches to simulate wall and blood fluid mechanics. These models are increasingly being used to assess the patient-specific pathological scenario and to predict possible therapy outcomes.