Groundbreaking Cardio Replacement

Almost 25 years after his father died of heart failure, Australian biomedical engineer Daniel Timms is trying to revolutionize cardiac care. Timms’ company BiVacor makes an artificial heart that, just like the real thing, can propel blood throughout the body. As part of an ongoing feasibility study, three U.S. patients this year received BiVacor hearts, which kept them alive long enough to wait for donor organs. That result is “remarkable,” Timms says, but his ambitions are even bigger. If short-term trials are successful, BiVacor will test whether its heart can work indefinitely, perhaps eliminating the need for live-organ transplants altogether. “This device didn’t exist for my family,” Timms says, but it could be life-changing—and life-saving—for others.