Making Heart Transplants Obsolete with Small Removable Pump

On the 50th anniversary of the first heart transplant, which occurred in December 1967, a University of Houston biomedical engineer is creating a next-generation heart pump for patients suffering with heart failure. Results are so promising that Ralph Metcalfe, professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering, who oversees the research project with William Cohn, director of the Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center, predicts radical improvement in treatment of failing hearts will happen within a decade.