A method for determining cardiac status comprises for a given patient, constructing a patient-specific, three-dimensional, computational model of the patient's heart; and executing the constructed computational model, said executing generating a quantitative analysis of cardiac function. A method of performing cardiac surgeries comprises: a) assessing surgical options based on a patient-specific, three-dimensional, computational model of a patient's heart; and b) performing surgery based on one or more of the surgical options. A computer system comprises: a) a data source containing data of a patient's heart; b) a modeler coupled to receive data from the data source, the modeler generating a patient-specific, three-dimensional, computational model of the heart based on the heart data; and c) a processor routine for computationally providing information about a certain cardiac function using the three-dimensional heart model and for applying computational, quantitative analysis of the cardiac function, wherein the quantitative analysis of the cardiac function provides an assessment for surgical options, optimizing surgical techniques, or predicting outcomes.