A Cure for Heart Disease
“Imagine if we could cure disease instead of just managing it”
Jay Hoying
Heart Disease in the USA
When someone has heart disease, it means the blood vessels in their heart have become clogged. This can lead to a heart attack.
A patient with clogged arteries can get treatments such as angioplasties or coronary bypass surgeries, but these options only treat or manage symptoms - they do not cure heart disease.
How big is this problem?
Heart disease is one of the most common and costly diseases in the United States:
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States.
One person dies every 37 seconds from cardiovascular disease in the United States
About 647,000 Americans die from heart disease each year - that’s 1 in every 4 deaths
Heart disease costs the United States about $219 billion / year (this includes the cost of healthcare services, medicines, and lost productivity)
3D Printing replacement heart vessels
Jay Hoying and his team at Advanced Solutions Life Sciences are working toward a real cure for clogged arteries: printing replacement blood vessels for the heart using their 3D printing technology.
In the future, if a patient could receive a new blood vessel to replace the damaged one in their heart, they could be cured of heart disease and drastically lower their risk of having a heart attack.