With the advent of percutaneous and minimally invasive treatments for an expanding patient population with valvular and other structural heart diseases, the need for ancillary devices to facilitate these procedures is growing. These often degenerative diseases increase in frequency with advancing age. Older or debilitated patients are often poorly suited for conventional open surgical approaches which carry higher perioperative risks. These patients, who are now candidates for innovative percutaneous procedures can look forward to a better quality of life and enhanced longevity. Transcatheter therapies require unique delivery systems including wires, catheters, balloons, snares, as well as embolic protection devices. These platforms may be highly unique to a specific therapy, however often have heterogeneous functionality with broader applications.
The opportunity for successful development and wide dispersion of these novel systems requires creative relationships between structural interventionists, minimally invasive cardiac surgeons and biomedical engineers. Our success is embedded in the formation of project specific groups developed in collaboration with the cardiac device industry.