2022 Critical Heart Disease Congress (CHDC·2022) | “BreathMo® - An Ultra-portable ECMO System” by Dr. Chia Hao Hsu from magAssist Inc.

On December 29, 2022, the 2022 Critical Heart Disease Congress (CHDC) & International Society for Mechanical Circulatory Support (ISMCS) Parallel Forum was held online and offline as scheduled. In the panel discussion entitled “Basic Research and Development and Clinical Application Transformation of Mechanical Circulation Support Devices”, Dr. Chia Hao Hsu, Director of the Science and Innovation Department of magAssist Inc., delivered a speech themed “BreathMo® - An Ultra-portable ECMO System” in which she detailed the development of BreathMo®, a next-generation portable extracorporeal membrane oxygenation system developed by magAssist Inc.

Despite high clinical demand, domestic products remain to be developed

Facing difficulties through independent R&D

Dr. Chia Hao Hsu pointed out that the incidence rate of cardiopulmonary failure in critically ill patients is as high as 60%, and the fatality rate is as high as 23–75%. ECMO is the most effective treatment for end-stage respiratory failures, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made it a household name in recent years. As of 2021, the Chinese Society of Extracorporeal Life Support (CSECLS) of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association reported that 592 ECMO centers had been developed in China, and ECMO had been used in more than 10,000 cases annually.

It can be seen that there is a strong demand for ECMO use in domestic clinical practice, but the ECMO devices used at present rely on imported products, and no domestic ECMO products are currently on the market, so the huge clinical demand is in contradiction with the lack of domestic products.

ECMO is effective, but it comes with certain limitations
At present, several ECMO products commonly used in clinical practice mostly adopt mechanical bearings, which cause great damage to the blood at high rotation speeds and form thrombosis near the artificial membrane lung, leading to complications in patients. ECMO is a complex system that relies heavily on experienced nursing teams and is extremely demanding and inconvenient for operators to use. Both doctors and patients want an ECMO product that addresses these problems.

magAssist’s solution

A next-generation portable maglev-controlled ECMO system
BreathMo®, a next-generation portable maglev-controlled ECMO system developed by magAssist, will address many of the current problems in ECMO use. Core technology of BreathMo®

· Highly integrated and more portable modular design

· Ultra-stable maglev hemodynamic platform

· Long-lasting and high-compatibility oxygenator

· Portable and intelligent console

The entire BreathMo® weighs less than 10 kg and is designed in an all-in-one cart that integrates the host, oxygenator, motor, oxygen cylinder and water tank. With this portable design, the device can be smoothy delivered to the patients who need it, which reduces waiting times for patients and improves the success rate of treatment.

The product’s performance reaches international levels
Compared with several mainstream ECMO manufacturers internationally, BreathMo®, developed by magAssist Inc., achieves optimal performance in its oxygenators, pump heads and monitoring and control systems. BreathMo® adopts full maglev bearings which have better blood compatibility than mechanical bearings and can effectively reduce thrombogenesis when used with an artificial membrane.

The results of animal experiments are favorable

· The system can operate normally for 14 days

· The system has a good oxygenation effect

· No significant thrombosis occurs in the instrument or animals

· No instrument-related hemolysis event or liver or kidney function impairment occurs

· No system-related infection occurs

Finally, Dr. Chia Hao Hsu shared that the next-generation ECMO of magAssist Inc. will be a portable and intelligent ECMO system. magAssist Inc. technical blueprint centers around an intelligent and interconnection-controlled for life support in case of multi-organ failure. Although cardiopulmonary assistance support technologies integrating artificial hearts and lungs already exist, and magAssist will establish a comprehensive support platform for artificial organs in the future to achieve effective collaboration for multi-organ support, improve the curative effects, reduce the nursing costs and reduce the threshold of equipment use through real-time status monitoring, precise system control, automated physiological feedback and efficient system response, thus saving more patients.