Past Events
TAH Webinar: Patient Journey
Feb 29, 2024
In this session, Johnny Lemucchi shared his journey of life as a TAH patient after being diagnosed with cardiomyopathy. His inspirational story greatly raises awareness of heart diagnoses and the significance of TAH in real life.
Johnny Lemucchi
Johnny Lemucchi is a businessman and fomer socceer referee based in Downey, United States. He was a TAH patient who was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy in 2016. Fortunately, he was able to receieve a Syncardia TAH transplant before a heart transplant in 2022 and take on a recovering journey. He is now the president of Unique Beating Hearts, a non-profited organisation of individuals with TAH experience who are passionate in creating a safe and supporting community for heart failure patients.
Heart Hackathon: Closing Event
Nov 28, 2023
Participating teams and advisors were invited to attend the Closing event, to conclude the inaugral Heart Hackathon, to recognise and celebrate their tremendous work throughout the year.
Team Bath Heart, Mavic Artificial Heart and AUC Peribsen delivered student team presentations.
Cardiovascular Engineering Event
Sep 28, 2023
The Cardiovascular Engineering Event online session featured aspiring presentations from magAssist and Realheart, both companies achieving medical device.
A Q&A session was also included for any queries to our guests.
magAssist
Established in China since 2017, magAssist is one of the pioneering medical device companies that provide healthcare technology for patients and professionals. Their experienced team, led by Dr. Po-Lin Hsu, has achieved excellence in medical device innovation in both domestic and worldwide regions.
Realheart
Based in Sweden, Azad Najar and his two partners established their company with artificial heart innovations in 2009. The professional and talented team strives and continues to conduct research with leading heart surgeons and engineers along with their full dedication in product development.
Virtual Tour Industry Showcase
Jun 28, 2023
Throughout the Showcase, SynCardia and Hydrix, two of our sponsors who specialised in innovating medical devices, delivered virtual industry tours. Company facilities and their field of work were presented, and an Q&A session was also held for any incoming queries.
SynCardia
As the first company to deliver a total artificial heart commercially in the industry, the expert team at SynCardia from Tucson, Arizona, strives to collaborate with professionals, since 2001, in providing a fully functional artificial heart for patients in need. Particularly, they are committed to designing a medically technological solution for patients with biventricular failure and, thereby, improving patients’ hospital care and long-term wellbeing.
Hydrix
Founded in 2002, Hydrix has transformed from a software and electronics consulting company to one that develops technological solutions and products for various fields. From designing medical devices to implement technology in the mining and defence industries, the compassionate team continues to take on challenging projects and produce outstanding outcomes.
Commercialisation in the Cardiovasular Space Workshop
May 17, 2023
Participating teams were invited to attend the Workshop, featuring Dr. Kurt Dasse, in exploring more about commercialisation of medical devices in the CVS space.
Kurt Dasse, Ph.D.
Based in Cocoa, Florida, Dr, Kurt Dasse is the President and CEO of Inspired Therapeutics LLC, which offers professional consulting services for the commercialisation of medical devices and life science. He is also the Adjunct Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Louisville and the Clinical Professor of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the University’s School of Medicine. His specialities include mechanical circulatory support, respiratory assist and inhaled nitric oxide delivery systems.
CFD for Blood Pumps Webinar
Feb 17, 2023
This educational webinar featured Dr. Katharine Fraser, who delivered a presentation regarding the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for blood pumps.
Dr. Katharine Fraser
Dr. Fraser is a Senior Lecturer from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University of Bath. Her research interest revolves mainly in the improvisation of mechanical circulatory support devices for severe heart failure-diagnosed patients. Her other research areas include other biofluid mechanics, flow alteration of vascular bioreactors and mock artery flow rigs. Notably, Dr. Katharine Fraser’s comprehensive research both enables consultancy work for multiple companies and is utilised by the US Food and Drug Administration.
TAH Symposium
Dec 16, 2022
Competing teams were invited to deliver presentations on their progress and innovations to a panel pf industry experts from the Heart Hackathon’s sponsors. After the presentations, teams received feedback and were given the oportunity to discuss their work with the panel.
Gloria Zoernack from Virtonomy hosted a live workshop as she introduced the software v-Patient, which has been provided to competing teams to use.
Gloria Zoernack
As the first employee at Virtonomy, Gloria is the platform product manager and VR engineer who is dedicated in web development, especially in multi-user web XR viewer. Graduated with Master of Science specialisaing in biomedical computing, Zoernack also constructed the statistical module of the company’s platform.
v-Patients
Virtonomy introduces v-Patients, enabling medical device developers to perform development and testing in a virtual environment, thereby accelerating development, reducing risks, expenses, and regulatory burden. Virtonomy’s end-to-end digital twin and simulation solution is based on an ever-expanding database of real clinical data to reflect anatomical variability, demographic diversity and pathological conditions.
Webinar:
Intellectual Property
Nov 21, 2022
Alyssa Telfer (Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick, in relations to Hydrix) delivered a presentation regarding the foundation of intellectual property and patents, which are crucial for consideration upon initiating innovations.
Shing Yue Sheung (Navi Medical Technologies) presented advice on conducting pitches to various audience under intellectual property protections.
Alyssa Telfer
IP advisor and MedTech patent attorney at Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick.
Alyssa is passionate in advocating intellectual properties for worldwide innovative bodies in the field of medical devices. Equipped with over 20 years of patient granting experience both in Australia and across the sea, Telfer strives to protect the intellectual property rights of both individuals and companies.
Shing Yue Sheung
Shing Yue Sheung is the COO and Co-Founder at Navi Medial Technologies, which is a company that focuses on developing medically technological solutions for children who are in need. Sheung is on the Forbes 30 under 30 Asia List and was awarded the 2018 MBS Alumni Leadership Award for his outstanding achievements. Academically, he graduated with First Class Honours in Masters of Engineering and appeared on the Dean’s List.
Kick-off Event
Oct 24, 2022
During the Kick-off Event, Steven Langford from SynCardia delivered to the participating teams a presentation about the basics and overview of the cardiovascular system, as well as the purpose of a total artificial heart (TAH). An ideation workshop was also held in which the teams were challenged by a problem relevant to the TAH, of which their solutions were reviewed by our sponsors.
Steven Langford
Steven Langford is the Commercial Support Manager-West at SynCardia. He is also the Clinical Expert R&D for Total Artificial Heart in worldwide-recognised clinical application and regulatory liaison of the product. His specialised areas include clinical research, cardiology and market development.
Information Webinar
Jul 16, 2022
Throughout the session, various professionals, including Dr. Shaun Gregory, Dr. Sam Liao, Dr. Thomas Logan and Steven Langford, delivered presentations on the overview of the Hackathon, experience as a cardiovascular engineer, as well as the start-up and challenges of being involved in medical device businesses.
Shaun Gregory
As the Founder and Academic Director of Heart Hackathon, Professor Shaun Gregory’s work is dedicated to enhancing outcomes for patients with heart and/or lung failure through the development and implementation of improved medical devices. He works towards his goals through his roles as Professor and Director of the Centre for Biomedical Technologies (QUT), Founder of the Cardiovascular and Respiratory Engineering and TEchnology laboratory (CREATElab), Co-Director of the Artificial Heart Frontiers Program, NHMRC Investigator Fellow and Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow
Sam Liao
Dr. Sam Liao is a mechanical/cardiovascular engineer from Hydrix. He displays his profound research interest in the blood flow systems of heart and tissue engineering, and is proficient in using creative problem-solving and design control skills with his multidisciplinary project teams.
Thomas Logan
Dr. Thomas Logan is the Chief Engineer at magAssist who specialises in power electronics and motor design alongside its research. With his expert engineering team, Dr. Logan finished the technological designs for the control systems and microsensors of artificial hearts, as well as the product prototypes, which have all been approved for the technical indicators of clinical use. He continues to develop featured technologies for the extracorporeal artificial heart projects and product promotion within the company.
Steven Langford
Steven Langford is the Commercial Support Manager-West at SynCardia. He is also the Clinical Expert R&D for Total Artificial Heart in worldwide-recognised clinical application and regulatory liaison of the product. His specialised areas include clinical research, cardiology and market development.