Project description
Non-invasive cardiac arrhythmia ablation with proton therapy
Heart arrhythmia affects millions of people and the numbers are expected to grow due to the aging populations and lifestyle changes. The current standard catheter ablation procedure requires hospitalisation and has a high risk of complications, such as bleeding, infection, and damage to heart valves or blood vessels. Swiss EBAMed developed a non-invasive device, Cardio-kit, for the treatment of heart arrhythmia using proton therapy. It monitors the heart in real-time and automatically adjusts the stop/go signal to the proton therapy machine based on the cardiac cycle, providing accurate, effective and safe treatment of the moving target within the heart. The EU-funded Cardio-kit project will enable optimisation of the Cardio-kit hardware and software and start of clinical validation procedures necessary for commercialisation in Europe.
Objective
Heart arrhythmia is a major worldwide public health problem, accounting for 15–20% of all deaths. Heart arrhythmias affects over 15 million people in Europe and North America and this number is expected to double in the next 50 years due to the aging population and lifestyle changes. Catheter ablation is the current gold standard for heart arrhythmia treatment. The surgical procedure is performed by introducing a catheter under anaesthesia into the heart chambers, to ablate selected target regions by applying heat. This invasive procedure requires patient hospitalization, a staff of 10 doctors, and has a high risk of complications, such as bleeding, infection and damage to heart valves and blood vessels.
EBAMed developed Cardio-kit, a non-invasive medical device for heart arrhythmia treatment using proton therapy. Cardio-kit is a plug & play system that can be integrated into any existing proton therapy machine. Cardio-kit enables monitoring of heart movements in real-time, and automatically adjust the Stop/Go signal to the proton therapy machine based on the cardiac cycle in which to intervene. Cardio-kit ensures an accurate, effective and safe treatment of the moving target within the heart at the right time. In this way, Cardio-kit facilitates an out-patient procedure, as it does not require any hospitalization or sedation. The procedure is quick, safe, painless and suitable for any age and health condition patient with no side-effects.
The EIC funding will enable EBAMed to optimize the Cardio-kit hardware and software components, and to perform all the clinical validation activities necessary to obtain CE Mark and start commercialization in Europe.
Fields of science
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinecardiologycardiovascular diseasescardiac arrhythmia
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencessoftware
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic health
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinesurgerysurgical procedures
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineanaesthesiology
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
1202 Geneve
Switzerland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.