Dear Reader,

I hope you are doing well. I welcome you to the new month and hope it is a great month for all of us. I am going to reflect on the following:

1. Technical Reflections: The development of smart stents for managing heart diseases.
2. Behind the Scenes at CM Videos: Update on experiments on YouTube Community Posting
3. Quote for the Week: The danger of following your passion

I want to specially welcome anyone who has recently joined the newsletter and is receiving this weekly edition from me for the first time. I am happy to have you hear and please get involved in the community, as we seek to create effective computational modelling solutions.

Let us get into the newsletter.

Technical Reflections

The development of smart stents for managing heart diseases

I recently drafted a PhD proposal under the topic:

The aim of this PhD research is "on developing SMART 3D printed bioresorbable stents using biocompatible materials such as polylactic acid (PLA) and polycaprolactone (PCL). These stents will restore blood flow while incorporating sensors for real-time monitoring, offering a personalized, functional approach to cardiovascular diseases treatment through advanced 3D printing techniques." The PhD will be advertised through my university and hopefully a prospective student would come and work with me on this exciting topic. If you are interested, please do send me a reply and we can take the discussion forward.

I refer to this as I am keen on exploring the computational modelling challenges posed with research and development of what has been described as SMART stents.

What are SMART stents

A smart stent is an advanced type of medical stent designed to monitor and respond to conditions in blood vessels, particularly in the coronary arteries. While traditional stents are simply metal or polymer tubes that keep narrowed or blocked arteries open, smart stents incorporate sensors and sometimes even therapeutic functions to provide additional, real-time benefits. Smart stents are part of a broader movement toward personalized and proactive healthcare, combining monitoring, feedback, and therapeutic action to support recovery more effectively than traditional stents.

The key uses of such stents in management of cardiovascular diseases are:

1. In vivo monitoring of arteries: Smart stents can track various health indicators, such as blood flow, pressure, and the formation of new cell layers on the stent (a process called endothelialization). This monitoring helps doctors assess whether the artery is healing properly and detect early signs of potential complications, like restenosis (re-narrowing of the artery) or thrombosis (clot formation).
2. Transmission of real-time blood activity: These stents are often embedded with tiny sensors that send data to external devices. For instance, sensors can measure changes in blood flow or cell buildup around the stent, transmitting these readings so that doctors can assess the patient’s progress without invasive procedures.
3. Controlled drug-delivery activities: Some smart stents are designed to release medication over time to prevent complications. This controlled release can help reduce the risk of blood clots forming on the stent or lessen inflammation, promoting smooth healing and reducing the chances of the artery re-narrowing.
4. Biodegradability and customization: With advancements in materials, some smart stents are made from biodegradable polymers that slowly dissolve as the artery heals. This minimizes the risk of long-term complications associated with permanent implants. Additionally, 3D printing allows for custom-made stents that perfectly fit a patient’s artery anatomy.

In order to develop such stents, we would use 3D printing technology and then subsequently undertake a computational assessment. In next week's newsletter, I will continue with the discussion by reflecting on the computational modelling challenges facing anyone working in this area.

Behind the Scenes at CM Videos

Update on experiments on YouTube Community Posting

I have been running an experiment on my YouTube Community page on the CM Videos channel. The essence of this was to use it as a further engagement space where I can engage my subscribers on technical issues around computational modelling and wider academic journals. This was in form of what I called Quiz for the Week. It has been going for a while now and it is becoming really popular to my subscribers. Recently, one of such quizzes saw a response of 780 persons respond to the quiz, as shown below.

Here are some of the lessons I have learned from the experiment.

• My YouTube audience is a super clever and intelligent in this area of computational modelling. No matter how I structure the questions, the audience always seem to figure out the correct answer. I am very happy to have this audience.
• It is surprisingly popular and I feel people like the idea of a mini quiz in the middle of their YouTube journey. Imagine the dopamine effect of getting an answer right in the middle of just browsing content.
• I also think the fact that I provide detailed answers to the answers to the quizzes means that people are finding it an avenue to learn and be instructed further by myself other than the videos.
• It is also a very good way to create engagement - image having 770 responses to a quiz. These are real individuals.
• I have also seen people subscribe to the channel simply from such posts which again is exciting as I never imagined someone subscribing to a channel simply from the community tab.

Thank you everyone for keeping the ball rolling on the experiment. I hope to share more about it in future editions of this newsletter.

Quote of the Week

The danger of following your passion

I am taking my quote for this week from Cal Newport's book titled So Good they can't Ignore You; Why skills Trump Passion in teh Quest for Work you love. I was looking through the book again, and read a bold statement in the back of the book which says: 'Follow your passion' is a bad career advice.

I starting thinking about this and although I know about the quote in the past but I needed the post of view of Cal again for this got me into reading the initial pages of the book again. I followed the story of Thomas whose vision was to become a Zen monk and he achieved that. However, he suddenly realized the emptiness of this passion and that changed his perspective significantly. So, here is my quote for the week:

I will leave you with the quote above and hopefully you realize that whatever you are passionately pursuing now will soon be accomplished but there is always that insatiable desire to keep seeking more. It is all the more dangerous if that motivation for you is a passion that when you achieve it often leave you with an anticlimatic experience. My advice is that you be aware of this and ensure that your happiness is not anchored on achieving things but in living every moment mindfully and satisfactorily.

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