During his stay at HaeMod, Jorge's research will be focused on developing a computer model of the Fontan circulation, i.e. the cardiovascular system of patients that were born with a single functional ventricle and undergone the Fontan operation. Before the operation, the oxygenated blood carried by the pulmonary veins and the deoxygenated blood carried by the systemic veins get mixed in the heart. The main problem with these patients is the hypoxemia (i.e. low levels of oxygen in the blood). To solve this problem, the Fontan operation is performed. This operation consists of connecting the inferior vena cava and the superior vena cava to the pulmonary arteries, so that blood flows directly to the lungs without flowing through the heart. The figure below shows an example of the circulation of a patient with tricuspid atresia (absence of tricuspid valve), atrial septal defect (no wall between right and left atria, RA and LA) and ventricular septal defect (no wall between right and left ventricles, RV and LV), before and after the Fontan operation. Before the operation, the oxygen saturation is not sufficiently high in the systemic arteries and the pulmonary veins nor sufficiently low in the systemic veins and pulmonary arteries. After the operation, normal-circulation-like oxygen saturation levels can be achieved.

The parameters of the model will be estimated using the pressure (P) and blood-flow (Q) measurements at different locations of the circulation, performed by the physicians at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. Then, different actions will be simulated in the model and its effect on the cardiovascular system will be analysed.

In his PhD, he analysed the influence of modifying some parameters in liver radioembolisation via numerical studies. Liver radioembolisation is a treatment for liver cancer and consist of the catheter-based intra-arterial injection of radiation-emitting microspheres to locally attack the tumours. In the studies, the three-dimensional particle–haemodynamics were numerically analysed in a patient-specific hepatic artery under literature-based cancer scenarios.
As an example of the studies carried out, the videos below show how a 5-mm longitudinal shift in the catheter tip influences the particle distribution in the lobes of the liver. In the first video, the green particles only go to the right lobe. In the second, the red particles treat both the right and the left lobes. The only different between the simulations is a 5-mm longitudinal shift in the catheter tip.

After his stay at King's College London, he will return to his job as a lecturer and researcher at TECNUN Escuela de Ingenieros, the School of Engineering of Universidad de Navarra.