Calon-Cardio's Fully Implantable ventricular assist device

The majority of chronic heart disease patients ultimately suffer from heart failure. With the ageing of the population and advances in the treatment of cardiac disease, the number of patients with heart failure continues to increase. Although the majority of patients will remain stable for several years with standard medicines and surgery, a growing number will develop symptoms of advanced heart failure and may be referred for evaluation for heart transplantation. For selected patients who are too ill to wait for a heart donor or who are not eligible for a heart transplant because of age or other medical problems, ventricular assist devices (VADs) offer life-saving therapy and the only hope of returning to a good quality of life. Initially designed as temporary support to bridge patients to heart transplant, these devices are now being used as lifetime support or destination therapy. However, current technology is still imperfect with a recognised need to manage adverse events (AEs).

This project will develop a Fully Implantable VAD to specifically address the main weaknesses of current VADs with a pump that offers improved haemodynamic performance, the elimination of driveline infection risk, lower manufacture and lifetime costs, and gives patients the freedom to perform everyday tasks unencumbered.

The novel design of our new FIVAD will bring together expertise in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computational fluid dynamics, and biomedical engineering to deliver a novel pump and wireless energy technology.