Project description
A novel implant improves prospects for heart failure patients
Systolic heart failure occurs when the left ventricle loses its ability to contract normally and the heart cannot pump blood efficiently to meet the demands of the body. Conventional medications help manage the condition and may improve heart function. Nonetheless, the only cure remains heart transplantation, which is, however, limited by donor availability and the age of the patient. To address this problem, the EU-funded HD4HF project has designed an implantable cardiac device, the Heart Damper (HD), which can be incorporated into the left ventricle. The innovation behind the HD is that it exploits the residual contractile capacity of the heart to restore cardiac function and improve the quality of life of patients.
Objective
This project supports the market introduction of the Heart Damper (HD), a very innovative implantable cardiac device, intended to provide a simple, quick and cost-effective solution to treat patients affected by systolic heart failure.
Heart Failure (HF) is a growing epidemic and a major public health issue: only in EU and US it affects today about 15 million people, with an expected growth of about 38% by 2030. 2 million of these patients are affected by advanced heart failure: a phase in which the pharmacological therapies alone are no longer sufficient to manage the symptoms. Late stage treatments, such as Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) or Total Artificial Heart (TAH) are indeed inevitably associated with high risk of rejection and low quality of life. HF has no actual cure apart from heart transplantation, which is very rare and impossible for people over 65 (80% of HF patients). In addition, HF has a significant social cost, as it doesn’t affect only the individual patient, but also his family and his community. In the US, for example, the costs related to the loss of work and household productivity are estimated at $ 8.2 billion/year (by 2030, $12.3 billion/year).
The Heart Damper, a minimally invasive cardiac device, will make it possible to give patients a longer and better life expectancy, independently from their age, at the same time reducing the staggering associated healthcare costs. Designed to be stably fitted into the left ventricle by a simple transapical surgical procedure, once implanted it moves upwards exploiting the residual contractile cacapacity of the heart, without any need of external energy sources. The device is protected by a patent fully owned by Eucardia, which has been granted in Europe, US and other major countries worldwide.
The SME 1 Instrument will enable Eucardia to assess in detail the technical feasibility and economic viability of its innovation, in order to ease HD market penetration, in respect of HF market segment.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
20123 MILANO
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.