Objectives of the service
MyoCaid is a new product for the treatment of advanced heart failure.
Patients with heart failure suffer from breathlessness, reduced exercise tolerance and have a significantly shorter and restricted life. MyoCaid offers a new treatment for heart failure which aims to address these issues by assisting the failing heart, giving it the opportunity to recover and improving the patient’s quality and quantity of life.
MyoCaid is used by cardiac surgeons and cardiologists to support the failing heart and help people to recover after damage. This project develops a fully functioning prototype for MyoCaid so it can be improved, making it ready for patients and the NHS.
Users and their needs
The NHS, patients, and clinicians need an improvement in the way that heart failure is treated. Heart failure is responsible for 8% of hospital beds and an associated healthcare cost of £4.3bn in the UK. MyoCaid aims to reduce hospitalisation from heart failure, as well as improve the morbidity and mortality associated with the disease. Aside from these benefits to patients, the reduction in hospitalisation and the alleviation of bed occupancy will relieve the strains on the NHS service and the providing clinicians.
Similarly, heart transplantation is not currently a scalable solution for patients with heart failure, and a mechanical device which has the potential to offer similar benefits would be preferable. MyoCaid is accessible to the majority of patients who currently are not amenable to heart transplantation. The project team has worked with world-leading engineering teams to enact a change in the way that heart failure is treated by doctors and experienced by patients, giving hope to a disease which, otherwise, has a very poor prognosis.
MyoCaid initially aims to benefit the UK and NHS and in future will expand to markets in Europe and the USA.
Service/ system concept
The mechanism of action of MyoCaid is very different to conventional left ventricular assist devices, and works by assisting the failing heart, rather than bypassing or replacing it. To achieve this, CDL have innovated in the field of magnetic levitation, motors and pump design, to build something which can fit the form factor and blood compatibility which would be necessary in a left ventricular assist device. This concept allows left ventricular assist devices to become the gold standard treatment for end-stage heart failure, rather than just a bridge to heart transplantation, which is how it is currently used. This both dramatically increase the impact on patients of this treatment, and also increases the size of the market for the product.
While the engineering approach is rather complex, this concept of assisting the heart brings however significant competitive advantages:
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cardiac surgery is not required to implant the device
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less damage is caused to the red blood cells, and there is less risks of clots forming
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lower energy usage, leading to a more efficient motor which can be powered by an implantable battery
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the applicable patient population is broader
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the risk for the device to cause damage on implantation is lower.
These benefits translate into better outcomes for patients and improvements in the prognosis for patients and lower healthcare costs for the NHS.
MyoCaid is also designed to improve on the technology used in prior left ventricular assist devices. This includes improving on haemocompatibility and the magnetic levitation of the impeller blades.
Space Added Value
MyoCaid utilises technology previously developed for space flight: frameless motors are used in GPS satellites and in rocket guidance systems and are used on the Mars Rover because of their excellent reliability. Magnetic levitation technology was pioneered in space stations in oxygen blowers, which was used as they do not form sparks, which reduces the risk of igniting the oxygen. They have also been innovated in the use of reaction spheres, which are used to control the angular velocity of geo-orbital satellites. Similarly, passive magnetic levitation has been studied to improve the efficiency of carbon dioxide scrubbers.
Aside from the motor principles, work at NASA has advanced the field of fluid modelling, including turbulence modelling, which we also use to predict red blood cell shear.
Advanced coatings initially developed to improve the durability of spacecraft can also be used to create an extremely hydrophobic coating to MyoCaid, to reduce the chance of blood clots forming, and improve the durability of the impeller blades.
Current Status
Following the contract signature on 6th February 2025 the activity was kicked off and the current work is focused on improving on the impeller design and motor design currently via finite element modelling and computational fluid dynamics:
The project team is performing iterative testing on MyoCaid to continue to improve the impeller and motor, optimising the performance and efficiency of the pump as a whole. The next steps in MyoCaid’s development are to retest the iteration of the motor and bring the device ready for in-vivo testing. The next project milestone is the Baseline Design Review, currently expected by April 2025.
Prime Contractor(s)
