Each year, The Australian selects a list of 100 innovators who they consider are doing interesting work across a range of sectors from energy to medicine to e-commerce. The judges’ job was to identify the most exciting ideas emerging across the country. They intend to spotlight the talented men and women who are changing the way we live in one way or another. The extract from The Australian is below:
Sydney based senior cardiothoracic surgeons Professors Michael Vallely and Paul Bannon and Dr Hugh Paterson, along with medical device engineer Ashish Mitra, invented a heart valve with the potential to revolutionise cardiac surgery. Existing artificial mitral valves require part of the native valve to be removed by surgeons during insertion, which can damage heart pump function. The Sydney Heart Valve is shaped to augment the native valve, allowing its full retention and preserving ventricular function. “It is particularly important in heart failure patients who cannot afford further damage to their heart”, Patterson says the team has canvassed key opinion leaders in cardiac surgery around the world says Bannon: “They agree that this is a major step forward in valve design.”
