NASA Johnson Space Center to Assist BiVACOR Inc. with Artificial Heart System

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Sep 25, 2019, 15:19 ET

HOUSTON, Sept. 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA Johnson Space Center will provide its unique, advanced risk-management services as part of a Space Act Agreement with BiVACOR Inc., Houston, in the company's efforts to improve the robustness and reliability of its Total Artificial Heart (TAH) system – an implantable rotary bi-ventricular blood pump and associated external electronics.

News media are invited to the agreement's signing ceremony, which begins at 1 p.m. Central Time, Tuesday Oct. 1, 2019 at the Gilruth Center (Discovery Room) off Space Center Boulevard adjacent to Johnson Space Center. Media wishing to attend should arrive no later than 12:30 p.m. at the Gilruth Center via Space Center Boulevard near the intersection of NASA Parkway.

The Reimbursable Space Act Agreement will utilize NASA's expertise in Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) with an initial scope of work allowing NASA to provide a PRA to BiVACOR to help the medical industry assess the risk of advanced ground breaking high reliability technology for medical components that must operate in extreme environments.

Attending the ceremony will be NASA JSC's Director of Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) Russ DeLoach, S&MA Deputy Director Rex Walheim and Daniel Timms, Ph.D., BiVACOR biomedical engineer. They will be available for questions from media as part of the ceremony.

Media planning to attend should RSVP to the JSC Newsroom at 281-483-5111 by Monday, Sept. 30 in order to obtain a head count for seating at Gilruth.

The agreement with BiVACOR could have a significant impact on the medical community, by using NASA's expertise in risk and reliability analysis.

SOURCE NASA