Artificial heart running on embedded software controls blood pressure

By Jean-Jacques DeLisle, contributing writer

Scandinavian Real Heart is in the final developmental stages of its revolutionary Total Artificial Heart (TAH) and has selected AdaCore embedded software as its operating system. The new heart features a complicated motor control system whose software will allow the heart to control blood pressure, which is a huge leap from conventional artificial hearts.

Image: Linköping University.

The TAH will function more like an organic heart, allowing patients to be more active and have a better quality of life. According to Fredrik Pahlm, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Project Manager at Scandinavian Real Heart, the technology will “save patients with heart failure and give them a better quality of life than the alternatives that are available today.” The end result is a better, longer-lasting, and more adaptable heart.

Professor Lars Asplund, Main Software Architect at Scandinavian Real Heart, says, “Our heart pump has to work uninterrupted throughout the life of the patient … The quality and reliability of all parts of the system are crucial. We want to create software with the highest level of safety, and we know that SPARK, together with Ada, is the best option.” The software is well-known for its reliability and has its origins on military applications. Is it poetic justice that it is now being used to save lives?

Jamie Ayre, Commercial Team Lead at AdaCore, says, “Innovators like Scandinavian Real Heart continue to choose AdaCore’s comprehensive suite of software development and verification solutions, particularly for lifesaving and safety-critical applications,” The system’s reliability is the primary reason for the choice, as Ayre continues to explain: “AdaCore provides the open-source tools and libraries that embedded systems developers need to craft the most complex software with high assurance, integrity, and reliability while lowering development and verification costs.” Its open-source code and simple-yet-efficient programming language makes AdaCore the best match for the job.

This advancement in prosthetic hearts is life-changing for many. Thousands of people are waiting on heart transplants at any given moment, and many will not live long enough to receive a transplant. The Scandinavian Real Heart TAH offers those people a new lease on life by allowing them to survive for long periods of time while awaiting a transplant. Some people cannot accept a donor heart for medical reasons and could be given prosthetic hearts indefinitely. The TAH not only offers a chance for a better quality of life for some people, it opens the doors for years of life that may never be had without it. There is no price that we can put on the life of a human being, and every moment that we spend with those we love is irreplaceable. Technological advancements like this are of the utmost importance, and as medical technology and artificial organs become more advanced, we can expect to see people living longer and healthier, regardless of disease and organ failure.