Past Event: Oden Institute Seminar

Innovation in patient care - the HeartFlow story

Christopher Zarins, MD, Co-founder and Sr. VP for Medical Affairs, HeartFlow, Inc.; Professor of Surgery, Emeritus, Stanford University

Abstract

Computational analysis of coronary blood flow based on coronary CT angiography imaging data provides quantitative information on the functional significance of coronary artery lesions. This enables physicians to determine whether or not a patient needs coronary artery stenting or bypass surgery non-invasively, thus avoiding the need for coronary angiography in many patients. This technology, known as HeartFlow FFRCT analysis, was FDA approved for clinical use in 2014 and is now being used to evaluate patients in the US, Europe and Japan. Recently, a HeartFlow production facility has been established in Austin. The scientific and clinical basis for HeartFlow analysis and its importance to clinical care and health economics will be discussed. Bio Christopher K. Zarins, MD, is Emeritus Professor of Surgery at Stanford University and former Chief of Vascular Surgery at the Stanford University Medical Center. He was the longstanding director of cardiovascular biomechanics and cardiovascular tissue engineering research in the Bio-X program. His research interests include hemodynamic factors in atherosclerosis, pathogenesis of aortic aneurysms, carotid plaque localization and complication, anastomotic intimal hyperplasia, vascular biology of artery wall, and computational fluid dynamics as applied to blood flow and vascular disease. Dr Zarins’ scientific research was continuously supported by multiple research grants from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, American Heart Foundation and others over a 35 year period. He has participated in more than 40 clinical studies, including medical device trials and led the groundbreaking studies on endovascular aortic aneurysm repair. Over the past four decades, he has authored more than 360 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals, as well as six books and more than 130 textbook chapters. He has lectured widely at hundreds of regional, national, and international medical meetings and served as President of the Society for Vascular Surgery, President of the International Society for Endovascular Specialists and Editor in Chief of the Journal of Surgical Research. In 2003, he was awarded the Latvian Republic’s Tris Zvaigznu Ordenis (Three Star Order), Latvia’s highest civilian honor for service to the nation in improving healthcare. In 2010, Dr Zarins retired from the full time Stanford faculty to devote his energies to a company he co-founded, HeartFlow, Inc. This company developed a method for computing patient-specific coronary blood flow using computational fluid dynamics and coronary CT angiography imaging data. This provides a non-invasive measure for assessing the functional significance of coronary artery lesions and helps physicians decide on how best to treat patients with coronary artery disease.