Press Release:
Australia’s Largest Transplant Hospital To Begin Certification Training
To Become Asia-Pacific Regional Training Center
for CardioWest Artificial Heart
Paris Training Will Feature Roundtable with International Artificial Heart Proctors
Dr. Philip Spratt, Director of Cardiopulmonary Transplant and Thoracic Unit
PARIS – July 24, 2008 – On July 28 and 29, Director of Cardiopulmonary Transplant and Cardiothoracic Unit Dr. Philip Spratt, Cardiothoracic and Transplant surgeon Dr. Paul Jansz and the cardiac transplant team from St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Australia, will travel to Paris to begin the first phase of certification training for the CardioWest™ temporary Total Artificial Heart (TAH-t).
“We are very excited to be the first hospital in Australia,” said Dr. Jansz. “As the future CardioWest training center for the Asia-Pacific region, we look forward to expanding the use of this life-saving technology at our hospital and other top transplant hospitals in Australia and New Zealand.”
St. Vincent’s will be the 35th hospital in the world to complete the first phase of certification training. Since performing Australia’s first heart transplant in 1968, St. Vincent’s has been on the cutting edge of cardiac surgery. The hospital’s current one-year survival rate for heart transplant is 95 percent, compared to 86 percent in the U.S. in 2007 (American Heart Association).
Dr. Paul Jansz, Cardiothoracic and Transplant surgeon
During the training, SynCardia will hold a roundtable discussion with its leading international proctors, including renowned cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Jack Copeland, who since the mid-1980s has pioneered innovations for the CardioWest artificial heart. Dr. Copeland will be joined by Pr. Daniel Duveau, Medical Director at University Hospital of Nantes in France, and Dr. Michiel Morshuis, Dr. Sebastian Schulte-Eistrup and Dr. Latif Arusoglu, senior physicians at the Heart and Diabetes Center NRW in Bad Oeynhausen, Germany.
Also attending the training will be representatives from Device Technologies, SynCardia’s regional distributor for the CardioWest artificial heart. Device Technologies is the certified supplier for more than 70 companies specializing in medical and surgical devices used by public and private healthcare providers in the region.
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About SynCardia Systems, Inc.
SynCardia Systems, Inc. is the Tucson-based manufacturer of the world’s only FDA, Health Canada and CE approved Total Artificial Heart: the SynCardia temporary Total Artificial Heart. There have been more than 850 implants of the Total Artificial Heart, accounting for more than 190 patient years of life on the device.
Originally used as a permanent replacement heart, the Total Artificial Heart is currently approved as a bridge to human heart transplant for people dying from end-stage biventricular failure. The Total Artificial Heart is the only device that provides immediate, safe blood flow of up to 9.5 L/min through both ventricles.
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Media Contact:
Don Isaacs
Vice President of Communications
SynCardia Systems, Inc.
Cell: (520) 955-0660
SynCardia temporary CardioWest™ Total Artificial Heart.
