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TAINAN, Taiwan

Mani Daneshmand, Roberto Manson and Dawn E. Bowles from Duke University School of Medicine, United States, visited National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), southern Taiwan, on November 13.

Daneshmand, who is a heart surgeon and a faculty in the Department of Surgery at Duke University, said to the NCKU President Hwung-Hweng Hwung, “The Department of Surgery at Duke University would welcome having medical students from NCKU come in to do clinical rotations.”

“The collaboration will give us mutual advantages, for Duke to have access to your excellent students, and we would be able to provide a different perspective on medical care to your students so they can come back with broader point of view,” Daneshmand said.

NCKU’s Heart Science and Medical Devices Research Center (HSMDRC) and the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Duke University, had jointly carried out a cardiac assist device transplantation in the calf in October 2013, according to HSMDRC Director Pong-Jeu Lu.

Lu, who is also a professor at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, had led his research team to develop the para-aortic blood pump (PABP) for over thirteen years.

The pump is designed to be connected to the aorta, and in the left chest, according to Lu, and it provides the support for the blood perfusion, and also support for the decompensated circulation of patient who has heart failure.

“Professor Lu’s pump is quite promising and really a revolutionary treatment for the patient with heart failure,” Daneshmand said.

He also said, “We think the device will provide sufficient support for the circulation which can keep patient alive. Because of the specific design of Professor Lu, it may actually improve the natural heart function as well.”

“We have been collaborating with Professor Lu and his laboratory over the past several years,” according to Daneshmand who noted that this visit is to work closely with Lu to better develop his pump for the treatment of heart failure for patients having diseased aorta.

“We are very much looking forward to future cooperation with NCKU both along what is necessary for this current pump’s specifically doing, whatever tests that are needed to advance it to ultimately being able to use in human being, and also any other projects that maybe available to work with NCKU,” Daneshmand added.