Fighting heart disease with machines and devices-- Multiple approaches to building artificial hearts : technological optimism and political support in the early years -- Dispute and disappointment : heart transplantation and total artificial heart implant cases in the 1960s -- Technology and risk : nuclear-powered artificial hearts and medical device regulation -- Media spotlight : the Utah total artificial heart -- Clinical and commercial rewards : ventricular assist devices -- Securing a place : therapeutic clout and second-generation VADs -- Artificial hearts in the 21st century
A significant medical event is expected in 1992: the first human use of a fully implantable, long-term cardiac assist device. This timely volume reviews the artificial heart program-and in particular, the National Institutes of Health's major investment-raising important questions. The volume includes: Consideration of the artificial heart versus heart transplantation and other approaches to treating end-stage heart disease, keeping in mind the different outcomes and costs of these treatments. A look at human issues, including the number of people who may require the artificial heart, patient quality of life, and other ethical and societal questions. Examination of how this technology's use can be targeted most appropriately. Attention to achieving access to this technology for all those who can benefit from it. The committee also offers three mechanisms to aid in allocating research and development funds.
It wasn’t supposed to be this hard. If America could send a man to the moon, shouldn’t the best surgeons in the world be able to build an artificial heart? In Ticker, Texas Monthly executive editor and two time National Magazine Award winner Mimi Swartz shows just how complex and difficult it can be to replicate one of nature’s greatest creations. Part investigative journalism, part medical mystery, Ticker is a dazzling story of modern innovation, recounting fifty years of false starts, abysmal failures and miraculous triumphs, as experienced by one the world’s foremost heart surgeons, O.H. “Bud” Frazier, who has given his life to saving the un-savable. His journey takes him from a small town in west Texas to one of the country’s most prestigious medical institutions, The Texas Heart Institute, from the halls of Congress to the animal laboratories where calves are fitted with new heart designs. The roadblocks to success —medical setbacks, technological shortcomings, government regulations – are immense. Still, Bud and his associates persist, finding inspiration in the unlikeliest of places. A field beside the Nile irrigated by an Archimedes screw. A hardware store in Brisbane, Australia. A seedy bar on the wrong side of Houston. Until post WWII, heart surgery did not exist. Ticker provides a riveting history of the pioneers who gave their all to the courageous process of cutting into the only organ humans cannot live without. Heart surgeons Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley, whose feud dominated the dramatic beginnings of heart surgery. Christian Barnaard, who changed the world overnight by performing the first heart transplant. Inventor Robert Jarvik, whose artificial heart made patient Barney Clark a worldwide symbol of both the brilliant promise of technology and the devastating evils of experimentation run amuck. Rich in supporting players, Ticker introduces us to Bud’s brilliant colleagues in his quixotic quest to develop an artificial heart: Billy Cohn, the heart surgeon and inventor who devotes his spare time to the pursuit of magic and music; Daniel Timms, the Brisbane biomedical engineer whose design of a lightweight, pulseless heart with but a single moving part offers a new way forward. And, as government money dries up, the unlikeliest of backers, Houston’s furniture king, Mattress Mack. In a sweeping narrative of one man’s obsession, Swartz raises some of the hardest questions of the human condition. What are the tradeoffs of medical progress? What is the cost, in suffering and resources, of offering patients a few more months, or years of life? Must science do harm to do good? Ticker takes us on an unforgettable journey into the power and mystery of the human heart.
This book provides a comprehensive introduction to artificial hearts, summarizing the latest advances in basic technologies, design, evaluation, and management. Featuring 11 chapters, it discusses the origins of the artificial heart, the mechanisms of heart failure, and the principles of artificial heart technologies. Further, it offers an overview of rotary pumps and volume-displacement pumps, and addresses total artificial hearts. Lastly, the book covers evaluation, selection, therapy management, challenges, and the latest innovations. Given its scope, it is a valuable resource for researchers and technicians in the area of biomedical engineering, as well as surgeons.
Mechanical Circulatory and Respiratory Support is a comprehensive overview of the past, present and future development of mechanical circulatory and respiratory support devices. Content from over 60 internationally-renowned experts focusses on the entire life-cycle of mechanical circulatory and respiratory support – from the descent into heart and lung failure, alternative medical management, device options, device design, implantation techniques, complications and medical management of the supported patient, patient-device interactions, cost effectiveness, route to market and a view to the future. This book is written as a useful resource for biomedical engineers and clinicians who are designing new mechanical circulatory or respiratory support devices, while also providing a comprehensive guide of the entire field for those who are already familiar with some areas and want to learn more. Reviews of the most cutting-edge research are provided throughout each chapter, along with guides on how to design new devices and which areas require specific focus for future research and development. - Covers a variety of disciplines, from anatomy of organs and evolution of cardiovascular devices, to their clinical applications and the manufacturing and marketing of devices - Provides engineering and clinical perspectives to assist readers in the design of a market appropriate device - Discusses history, design, usage, and development of mechanical circulatory and respiratory support systems
For Readers of Ray Kurzweil and Michio Kaku, a New Look at the Cutting Edge of Artificial Intelligence Imagine a robotic stuffed animal that can read and respond to a child’s emotional state, a commercial that can recognize and change based on a customer’s facial expression, or a company that can actually create feelings as though a person were experiencing them naturally. Heart of the Machine explores the next giant step in the relationship between humans and technology: the ability of computers to recognize, respond to, and even replicate emotions. Computers have long been integral to our lives, and their advances continue at an exponential rate. Many believe that artificial intelligence equal or superior to human intelligence will happen in the not-too-distance future; some even think machine consciousness will follow. Futurist Richard Yonck argues that emotion, the first, most basic, and most natural form of communication, is at the heart of how we will soon work with and use computers. Instilling emotions into computers is the next leap in our centuries-old obsession with creating machines that replicate humans. But for every benefit this progress may bring to our lives, there is a possible pitfall. Emotion recognition could lead to advanced surveillance, and the same technology that can manipulate our feelings could become a method of mass control. And, as shown in movies like Her and Ex Machina, our society already holds a deep-seated anxiety about what might happen if machines could actually feel and break free from our control. Heart of the Machine is an exploration of the new and inevitable ways in which mankind and technology will interact. The paperback edition has a new foreword by Rana el Kaliouby, PhD, a pioneer in artificial emotional intelligence, as well as the cofounder and CEO of Affectiva, the acclaimed AI startup spun off from the MIT Media Lab.
Design of Artificial Human Joints & Organs is intended to present the basics of the normal systems and how, due to aging, diseases or trauma, body parts may need to be replaced with manmade materials. The movement of the body generates forces in various work situations and also internally at various joints, muscles and ligaments. It is essential to figure out the forces, moments, pressure etc to design replacements that manage these stresses without breaking down. The mechanical characterization of the hard and the soft tissues are presented systematically using the principles of solid mechanics. The viscoelastic properties of the tissue will also discussed. This text covers the design science and methodology from concept to blueprint to the final component being replaced. Each chapter will be a brief overview of various joint/organ replacement systems. Engineers working on artificial joints and organs, as well as students of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering are the main intended audience, however, the pedagogy is simple enough for those who are learning the subject for the first time.
In gripping prose, one of the world's leading cardiac surgeons lays bare both the wonder and the horror of a life spent a heartbeat away from death When Stephen Westaby witnessed a patient die on the table during open-heart surgery for the first time, he was struck by the quiet, determined way the surgeons walked away. As he soon understood, this detachment is a crucial survival strategy in a profession where death is only a heartbeat away. In Open Heart, Westaby reflects on over 11,000 surgeries, showing us why the procedures have never become routine and will never be. With astonishing compassion, he recounts harrowing and sometimes hopeful stories from his operating room: we meet a pulseless man who lives with an electric heart pump, an expecting mother who refuses surgery unless the doctors let her pregnancy reach full term, and a baby who gets a heart transplant-only to die once it's in place. For readers of Atul Gawande's Being Mortal and of Henry Marsh's Do No Harm, Open Heart offers a soul-baring account of a life spent in constant confrontation with death.
This book provides a comprehensive overview of mechanical circulatory support of the failing heart in adults and children. The book uniquely combines engineering knowledge and the clinician’s perspective into a single resource, while also providing insights into current and future development of mechanical circulatory support technology, such as ventricular assist devices, the total artificial heart and catheter-based technologies for heart failure. Topics featured in this book include: The history of mechanical circulatory device development. Fundamentals of hemodynamics support. Clinical management of mechanical circulatory devices. Surgical implantation techniques. Current limitations of device therapies in advanced heart failure. Advanced and novel devices in the development pipeline. Opportunities for advancement in the field. Mechanical Support for Heart Failure: Current Solutions and New Technologies is a must-have resource for not only physicians, residents, fellows, and medical students in cardiology and cardiac surgery, but also clinical and basic researchers in biomedical engineering with an interest in mechanical circulatory support, heart failure, and new technological applications in medicine.
