25th Anniversary of Artificial Heart Celebrated in Utah

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(KCPW News) Twenty-five years ago today, the first artificial heart was implanted in a human. And it happened right here at the University of Utah. Barney Clark survived with that heart for 112 days and launched a new era in heart care:

"These are being put in at a rate of about 60 per year in the world, today," says Dr. Jack Copeland heads the University of Arizona team that took over development of the artificial heart some years ago.

"About 80 percent of people that get one of these can get a transplant. And almost 90 percent of those that get a transplant can go on and survive long term."

Copeland says the latest version is much smaller and pumps much more blood than the one Barney Clark received in 1982. Most of the artificial hearts are being implanted in European patients, where biomedical engineer Richard Smith says regulations are more favorable:

"We can move faster in Europe with their regulatory environment and their sort of lack of litigious society in terms of moving technologies like this forward," says Smith.

Cardiologists and scientists are meeting this weekend in Salt Lake City to mark the 25th anniversary of the artificial heart at a conference named in honor of the first recipient, Barney Clark.

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