"Mathematica contains routines that we would normally have to write ourselves, and we just don't have the time to do that," Linares said. "For our system, Mathematica just lies quietly in the background and quickly comes up with the answers we need."

Heart Damage Assessment Goes Off Line

People with congestive heart failure are going to love Mathematica after a breakthrough new echocardiography system is released by Dr. Annemarie L. Daly, a cardiology fellow, and Dr. Oscar Linares, a mathematical modeler, at the University of Michigan Medical Center.

Daly and Linares use Mathematica to run a system which will replace an expensive, sometimes dangerous, procedure that threads a small catheter through the bloodstream.

"Our system will take an image, digitize the image, and then process the information using Mathematica," Linares said. "Mathematica quantifies the information so it isn't a subjective test that physicians and technicians can misinterpret. Plus, it creates a totally noninvasive procedure with a 0% mortality rate."

Key features of Mathematica used:

• Symbolic
• Numeric
• Graphic
• Programming