2021-09-02
Realheart brings together expertise from five other artificial heart projects
Artificial hearts is a small field that not many people in the world work in and requires a high degree of specialisation. This makes it difficult for Realheart to find skilled candidates, but the fact that the company has received a lot of international attention recently has made recruitment easier.
''When I joined Realheart in 2017, almost no one knew about the company internationally. Now we are being contacted by people with this kind of expertise who want to join the company. We will soon have experience from AbioCor, OregonHeart, Reinheart, SynCardia and Zurich Heart within the company. This makes us extremely strong in terms of expertise, despite our small size," said CEO Ina Laura Perkins.
The three consultants who are now joining the team are Dr. Carl McMillin, a highly experienced materials expert who will work on the fully biocompatible version of the product, ensuring that all materials work well with the body tissue; Oliver Voigt, who has worked at SynCardia, among other companies, and who will be working on commercialisation as well as advising on product development and testing; and finally Ian McEachern, a product designer and systems developer who, among other projects, was responsible for developing Oregonheart from a sketch on a napkin to the prototype that was implanted in a calf in just one year. He will work on the final design version of the product.
''The human body is constantly changing, and the heart needs to be able to adapt to new situations and needs safely. It must never ever fail. That's why we need people with a high safety-critical product development mindset who understand the pitfalls that exist and can navigate around them. This team has that. Their collective knowledge of different designs and controls will be valuable not only in the development of our total artificial heart, but also when it comes to other innovations in the company's future product portfolio," said Ina Laura Perkins.