Technology

Hansen Medical Announces Joint Agreements with St Jude Medical

Hansen Medical, Inc, a developer of robotic technology for accurate 3D control of catheter movement during cardiac procedures, recently entered into joint development and co-marketing agreements with St Jude Medical of St Paul, Minn, a global leader of electrophysiology (EP) technology, to integrate technologies from its Sensei Robotic Catheter System and Artisan Control Catheter with St. Jude Medical's EnSite System.

Combining the Sensei and EnSite technologies is intended to provide physicians with 3D visualisation that will augment their ability to confidently move a catheter throughout the heart, as well as greatly increase control over placement of the catheter in specific locations.

The first generation robotic platform from Hansen Medical is designed to allow physicians to place mapping catheters in hard-to-reach anatomical locations within the heart more easily, accurately and with greatly increased stability as compared to existing manual technique. The Sensei Robotic Catheter System has received CE mark in Europe, and the Artisan Control Catheter is currently pending CE mark approval. Additionally, the Sensei System is pending US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) clearance.

"This agreement facilitates an advanced level of integration of the Sensei system with one of the market-leading 3D mapping technologies for EP," said Dr Frederic Moll, MD, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hansen Medical. "Integration of the Artisan catheter within the EnSite System's 3D map will give physicians the ability to move the catheter deliberately and accurately while seeing specifically, in three dimensions, the location of the catheter inside the heart.”

The EnSite System is used by EP clinicians during EP procedures to create 3D models of their patients' cardiac anatomy and then to visualise catheters used in those procedures as they are navigated to critical anatomical targets.

EH News Bureau