Double Header Training at UMC; World Class Heart Transplant Teams to Become the 14th and 15th CardioWest(TM) Temporary Total Artificial Heart (TAH-t) Certified Implant Centers.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- On Thursday and Friday, April 20 and 21, cardiovascular surgeon Benjamin Sun, M.D., of Ohio State University Ross Heart Hospital, and the 13 members of his transplant team were at University Medical Center (UMC), in Tucson, Ariz., to complete Phase I of the CardioWest(TM) TAH-t certification training. On that following Monday and Tuesday, Dr. Michael A. Acker, chief of the division of cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, and seven members of his surgical team are also completing Phase I training.

According to the "U.S. News and World Report 2005 Best Heart Hospitals" list, The University of Pennsylvania Health System is ranked the 20th best hospital for heart care and Ohio State University Ross Heart Hospital is ranked 39th.

The TAH-t is the only FDA, Health Canada and CE approved artificial heart in the world. The artificial heart is a bridge to transplant for patients with end-stage biventricular heart failure who are waiting for a donor human heart.

End-stage biventricular failure is a condition in which a weakened heart slowly loses its ability to pump blood through the body efficiently. The superior blood pumping ability of the TAH-t, up to 9.5 liters per minute, helps to rejuvenate vital organs that have atrophied because of a failing heart.

A New England Journal of Medicine paper published in Aug. 2004 states that, in the pivotal clinical study of the TAH-t, the one year survival rate for patients receiving the CardioWest temporary Total Artificial Heart was 70 percent versus 31 percent for control patients who did not receive the device.

Phases II and III of the CardioWest TAH-t training program are conducted at the hospital being certified. The second phase is devoted to ensuring that the hospital and its transplant team are "implant ready."

The third phase involves proctored surgical training by Dr. Copeland or another TAH-t veteran surgeon. The surgeon travels to the hospital being certified to monitor the first TAH-t implant. All TAH-t certified hospitals have years, and often decades, of experience in human heart transplantation.

The TAH-t is a modern version of the Jarvik-7 Artificial Heart that was implanted in Barney Clark in 1982. In the 1990s the device and technology moved to University Medical Center (UMC) in Tucson and was subsequently renamed the CardioWest(TM) temporary Total Artificial Heart. Budget cutbacks at UMC came close to stopping the study of this technology. To save the TAH-t, SynCardia Systems Inc. was formed in 2001 by Marvin J. Slepian, M.D., Richard G. Smith, MSEE, CCE, and surgeon Jack Copeland, M.D. All three men, along with other medical professionals, are instructors for the TAH-t certification training program.

On Jan. 20, 2006, during its annual share holders meeting, SynCardia projected that TAH-t certified implant centers will increase from nine to 28 hospitals world wide this year. According to SynCardia's President and CEO Rodger Ford, "This growth will convert the company from a scientific venture into a profitable life-saving business."