Reversing The Downward Spiral Of Heart Failure

Article preview from Start-Up - June, 2013

Medtech start-ups are pioneering innovative device solutions that they hope will end the vicious cycle of costly hospitalizations and declining patient health. Profiles of BioVentrix, Calon-Cardio Technology, Cibiem, DC Devices, and LoneStar Heart.

Reversing The Downward Spiral Of Heart Failure

Article preview from Start-Up - June, 2013

Medtech start-ups are pioneering innovative device solutions that they hope will end the vicious cycle of costly hospitalizations and declining patient health.

If you suffered from heart failure (HF) as recently as just two decades ago, treatment would consist solely of a drug therapy regimen of diuretics along with diet and lifestyle changes. Open-heart surgery, including valve repair or replacement and bypass, was also available to improve the heart's function and stave off HF. The gold standard treatment for end-stage HF was heart transplantation, but this option was and is only available to about 3,000 US patients each year.

Over the last 20 years, the treatment paradigm has shifted significantly to a mechanical device-based approach to slow the progression of HF and improve patients’ quality of life, with myriad minimally invasive options available. These include cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) devices, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), and left ventricular assist devices (LVADs). LVADs in particular in the last few years have become smaller and less expensive. They are being used as a destination therapy, and have helped improve outcomes for HF patients in whom death was imminent. 

However, about 40% of the approximately six million US patients with HF live day to day in New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class III or IV status, with a declining quality of life mainly due to symptoms caused by fluid buildup in the lungs, as the failing heart struggles to do its job. And, despite all of the currently available drug and device therapies, and more than $30 billion in health care costs each year, these patients are at high risk for hospitalization and mortality. A critical question to ask is, does anyone ever get better, with all the resources that are being deployed in their care? The unfortunate answer is no.

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