Assist devices are not all suited for small people or for patients who are already frail. About 11 percent of those who receive LVAD can cause strokes.

William Altman, CEO of Corinnova, says the Houston medtech company has developed a device called EpicHeart that avoids those issues. To further the device’s development, Corinnova says the company has received a $6.1 million investment from the Wellcome Trust in London to support more tests of the device.




Corinnova technology includes the following features:

• First collapsible and self-expanding thin film soft robotic device for cardiac assist;
• Rapid minimally invasive implantation ability and simple delivery tool;
• Intrinsic pneumatic attachment inside the pericardial sac (no sutures or incisions to the heart or aorta);
• Non-blood-contacting device operation;
• Likelihood of up to 30-40% fewer adverse events than blood-contacting assist devices;
• Biventricular (or normal left ventricular) assist capability;
• Non-obligatory operation;
• Promotion of heart rehabilitation by promoting correct cardiac motion;
• The potential to prevent the development of heart failure after major heart attacks.

Further validation of the EpicHeart™ technology occurred in September, when CorInnova was the winner of a $50,000 award at the Fifth Annual Pediatric Device Innovation Symposium organized by the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National Health System and funded by the FDA National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation. This competition is designed to foster innovation that will advance pediatric healthcare and address unmet surgical and medical needs for children.