REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – Oct. 7, 2015 – Heartflow Inc., a personalized medical technology company seeking to transform the way cardiovascular disease is diagnosed and treated, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued to Heartflow its 50th patent. The patent, “Method and System for Patient-Specific Modeling of Blood Flow” (U.S. Patent No. 9,152,757), continues the expansion of Heartflow’s patent portfolio based on the company’s non-invasive Heartflow® FFRCT Analysis. The company’s co-founder, Charles Taylor, Ph.D., is the named inventor on the patent.
The Heartflow FFRCT Analysis is the only non-invasive technology available to offer physicians insight into both the extent of a patient’s arterial blockage and the impact the blockage has on blood flow. FFRCT technology solves millions of complex equations simulating blood flow in the coronary arteries to provide mathematically computed fractional flow reserve values from images derived from non-invasive coronary CT Angiography (cCTA). FFRCT values indicate blood pressure differences around a coronary narrowing to determine whether it is likely to reduce blood flow to the heart.
“Obtaining 50 domestic patents is a milestone for any company, especially one of our size and at this stage,” said John H. Stevens, M.D., chairman and CEO of Heartflow. “At our very core, we drive meaningful and continuous innovation. Aggressively protecting our technology is essential to our work.”
The patent claim is part of a family of patents owned by Heartflow that include innovations from company co-founder Christopher Zarins, M.D., as well as Timothy A. Fonte, M.S., Gilwoo Choi, Ph.D., and Ying Bai, Ph.D. In addition to its U.S. patent portfolio, Heartflow is pursuing patent protection in key markets around the world.
The FFRCT platform was developed by combining computational fluid dynamics, image processing and big data technology to produce detailed models of a patient’s cardiovascular anatomy and blood flow. The Heartflow FFRCT Analysis has been evaluated in four large, prospective clinical trials enrolling a total of more than 1,100 patients at major medical centers worldwide. It received CE mark in 2011 and U.S. Food and Drug Administration de novo clearance in November 2014.
About Heartflow Inc.
Heartflow Inc. is a personalized medical technology company seeking to transform the way cardiovascular disease is diagnosed and treated. The company’s Heartflow Analysis is the first available non-invasive solution that enables a physician to more accurately evaluate whether a patient has significant coronary artery disease (CAD) based on both anatomy and physiology. The novel solution, which produces a model of the patient’s coronary arteries, is well positioned to become an integral part of the standard of care for patients who are at risk for CAD because of its potential to improve clinical outcomes, improve the patient experience and reduce the cost of care. The Heartflow Analysis is commercially available in the United States, Europe and Japan. For more information visit www.Heartflow.com.