Researchers from the United States, Canada, and Europe participated in late March in a three-day theory institute on computational biofluid mechanics.

The workshop was motivated by recent strides in computational fluid dynamics and parallel computing, coupled with improved imaging technology. Paul Fischer (Argonne National Laboratory), one of the organizers of the workshop, said he felt that the time was right to bring researchers in these areas together, in order to determine the steps needed to make simulation a routine part of clinical diagnosis and planning. The meeting drew on expertise from vascular surgeons and pathologists, engineers and applied mathematicians, and computer scientists.

The first and third days of the workshop were held at Argonne. Among the topics discussed were the interrelationship of computational simulation and experiment in hemodynamic investigation, imaging of vascular disease, algorithms for modeling transport in arterial bypass, and the use of computational results for medical planning and diagnosis.

On the second day, the participants met at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Discussions included the theory of mechanochemical transduction, platelet function and thrombosis, vein graft hemodynamics, and mechanisms of hyperplasia. Participants also were given a tour of the UIC biomechanics lab, where they had the opportunity to see recent developments in in vivo and in vitro flow measurement techniques.

The workshop was organized by Paul Fischer (Argonne National Laboratory), Francis Loth (University of Illinois at Chicago), and Hisham Basiouny (University of Chicago), Funding was provided by Argonne through the laboratory's Theory Institute program and by UIC.