Houston, Texas, USA. June 21, 2012 — MicroMed Cardiovascular Inc., manufacturer of the HeartAssist 5(TM) left ventricular assist device (LVAD), recently integrated the capacity for wireless monitoring into its Conquest Controller. The Conquest Controller release is pending approval by regulatory agencies.
This innovation will allow continual remote monitoring of data from the Heart Assist 5(TM) LVAD. As a result, clinicians, doctors and technicians will be informed automatically and in the background without requiring the patient to do anything or having to come in to the clinic or hospital facilities.
Prior to M2M technology, clinicians could only access device data when the patient physically plugged the HeartAssist 5 into MicroMed’s HeartAttendant(TM) so that data could be transmitted via a local internet connection. The internet solution provided useful data, but limited patient mobility, and meant data reporting could not be continuous.
The HeartAssist 5 was originally developed by the heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey in partnership with NASA. It is the smallest and lightest full support LVAD in the world, weighing only 92 grams, and is nearly silent. Because of its miniature size, it is one of the few LVADs that can be implanted above the diaphragm, adjacent to the heart. The HeartAssist 5 System consists of two devices: MicroMed HeartAssist 5(TM) LVAD and the MicroMed Controller.
MicroMed’s Conquest M2M application was built as a joint partnership with Numerex Corp using the Numerex FAST platform. This resulted in cellular cost savings and allowed remote monitoring of the device to be constant and consistent, resulting in relevant reporting around the clock.
“The partnership with Numerex has been spectacular. They provided the expertise we need along with their Numerex DNA(R) solution to move our idea quickly and reliably to market,” said Bryan Lynch, vice-president of product development at MicroMed.
