A change of heart: Utah companies send heart health worldwide.

• Author: Campbell, Carolyn
• Position: Executive Living

Flora Floyd suffered a heart attack in 1997. She was diagnosed with severe cardiomyopathy, or a weakened heart muscle. Despite medical attention, she suffered from constant shortness of breath, her activity level declined and her quality of life was rapidly disappearing. On Jan. 13, 2010, Floyd made history as the first person in the United States to be implanted with the Levacor Ventricular Assist Device (VAD) manufactured by Salt Lake-based WorldHeart Inc. Floyd's surgery was successful. She now walks and expects to go home soon to await a heart transplant.

Pumping Hope

There are currently 2,000 heart transplants performed nationwide annually, while the estimated need is between 50,000 to 100,000. "There is a big difference in the supply of donor hearts and the number that are needed for transplantation. That is where we come in," says Pratap Khanwilkar, co-founder and vice president of rotary systems and business development for WorldHeart. Levacor is a heart pump that utilizes a magnetically-levitated rotating disk to circulate blood. Khanwilkar explains that advantages to the pump include increased safety due to enhanced blood compatibility and multi-year reliability, a wide range of applicability in patient sizes and flow rates, and improved quality of life because of imperceptible noise and vibration.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"We try to help people with failing heart muscles," he says, adding that chronic heart failure is a slow rate of decline in heart-pumping ability, where the heart pumps increasingly less blood to meet the body's needs. If the heart can't pump enough blood, it affects other organs, such as the liver and kidneys. "This severely curtails a person's ability to be mobile and active," he explains.

Along with contributing to the heart health of many people, WorldHeart also contributes to Utah's business community. "We founded a company called MedQuest in 1993, as a spinoff of the University of Utah. We grew it locally until we were ready to start clinical trials," Khanwilkar says. "We sold the company to a public company called WorldHeart in 2005. Just last year, WorldHeart moved its headquarters from Oakland, California to Salt Lake City. From a business standpoint, we formed this company in 1993 with $5,000. Now it's a publicly traded, growing company."

A Valve for Life

A long distance runner with seven marathons to his name, Tom Price knew he had a heart murmur. He kept running until aortic valve disease stopped him...