Suzhou City leaders led a team to observe key projects in Suzhou High-tech Zone and learn more about the development of magAssist

The 2021 Suzhou City Key Projects Site Observation Activity entered Suzhou New District on September 4. Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, Municipal Party Secretary Xu Kunlin, Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, Acting Mayor Wu Qingwen led relevant city leaders, the county-level cities (districts) and the main responsible comrades of the relevant departments of the city, to in-depth project site. The goal was to understand the progress of construction, to further strengthen service protection, accelerate the implementation of results, to make greater efforts to coordinate the promotion of economic and social development. Chen Zhenyi, director of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress, Li Yaping, party secretary, Zhou Weiqiang, chairman of the CPPCC, and Zhu Min, deputy secretary of the municipal party committee, participated in the activities.

Secretary Xu Kunlin and Mayor Wu Qingwen got an in-depth understanding of the development of magAssist.

During the event, Ifan Yan, Vice President of R&D of magAssist, introduced the development and product layout of magAssist to the leaders at all levels, and demonstrated the first Extracorporeal Ventricular Assist Device developed by magAssist, and gave a comprehensive explanation of its development progress, key technologies and application scenarios.

R&D Progress

The Extracorporeal Ventricular Assist Device developed by magAssist has passed the ethics committee review of Wuhan Union Medical College Hospital in December 2020 and entered the clinical trial, and successfully provided 12 days of mechanical circulatory assisted therapy to a 31-year-old female with end-stage heart failure, blood type O, in June 2021 to gain time for the patient to wait for a donor heart, and the patient successfully received a heart transplant 12 days later and is now recovering well. This marks the success of the first clinical trial of China's first independently developed domestic extracorporeal magnetically levitated artificial heart in the world.

Key technology 

The key to the artificial heart is blood compatibility, and its design and optimization depends on the integration of medical, biomechanical, fluid dynamics, mechatronics, electronic circuit design, material molding, industrial design and user interface design technologies, which also reflect the cross-disciplinary and multidisciplinary nature of Extra-VAD research and development. magAssist has the advantage of the core technology pathway to enhance blood compatibility - magnetic levitation technology, the latest computational fluid dynamics optimization technology and special bearing combination driven mechatronics technology - which is currently recognized internationally.

Computational Fluid Dynamics

Through the new generation of fluid dynamics design and optimization technology, the negative impact on blood caused by rotation such as shear force, frictional warming, and stagnant area of poor flow is reduced, thus improving blood compatibility and achieving the international gold standard of blood compatibility.

Complete magnetic levitation suspended rotor

Active complete magnetic levitation technology avoids the crushing and friction caused by traditional bearings on blood, which significantly avoids damage to blood cells, reduces the possibility of hemolysis and thrombus formation, and brings longer lifespan.

Mechatronics Technology

Mechatronics technology brings better energy conversion efficiency, more anti-vibration performance and smaller size, which also significantly expands the clinical use scenario. The circulatory assist device, traditionally used only in the intensive care unit (ICU), has the possibility to go to the emergency room and be put on the ambulance.

Application Scenario

The Extra-VAD can be used for patients in cardiogenic shock due to heart failure, or patients whose hearts have lost pumping function due to external factors such as influenza or car accidents, etc. Currently, only Abbott in the United States has similar products in the world, and they have not yet entered China. Because of its high anti-shock and anti-torsion performance, and IPX4 level waterproof performance, magAssist's extracorporeal magnetically levitated artificial heart is conducive to in-hospital and ambulance transfers, and is suitable for outdoor, operating room, emergency and other complex environments, and can meet a wider range of use scenarios.

Secretary Xu Kunlin and Mayor Wu Qingwen emphasized

Xu Kunlin and Wu Qingwen, after carefully understanding the development plan of medical device industry in Suzhou New District, urged the relevant comrades to continue to improve the supporting services, build a better innovation ecology, and strive to make the name of medical device industry even more famous.

Xu Kunlin and Wu Qingwen also stressed that Suzhou New District has a large collection of universities and institutes and rich innovation resources, so it is necessary to seek momentum from reform and vitality from opening up, further strengthen the core position of innovation, fully utilize the resources of universities and institutes, improve supporting services, and accelerate the transformation of achievements and industrial clustering. At present, especially to strongly promote the construction of the Suzhou campus of South University, to create a science and technology circle around South University of Taihu Science City. We should focus on "high" and "new", focus on project attraction, industrial upgrading and other work, provide all-round support, the whole chain of services, shape the high quality of life, the most innovative ecology. We will strive to become a "paradise for entrepreneurs and innovators", and continue to expand and strengthen new industries to achieve higher quality development.