ALISE (Advanced Life Support Equipment)

Heart–Lung Machine

ALISE is a new portable, miniaturized heart-lung machine designed to support the heart and maintain the body’s oxygen supply in cases of acute heart, circulatory, or lung failure. Weighing only 8 kg, ALISE is the lightest of its kind and is even suitable for deployment via drones.

ALISE can be brought to the patient and connected within a very short time, taking over the functions of these vital organs. This dramatically increases the patient’s chance of survival.

With its unique design, ALISE holds a comprehensive international unique position: it also serves as a reliable platform for pioneering medical technologies, such as first response via drones, eCall, connected car systems, and telemedicine.

Heart, circulatory, and lung failure are the leading causes of death in Western countries and represent the most significant medical and social challenge.

Of all emergency cases involving acute circulatory failure, nearly 80% reach the hospital with a very poor prognosis — meaning they die on the way or survive with severe, sometimes irreversible damage. Many of these patients could survive if they received timely and efficient treatment at the scene, for example with an “ECLS” system.
ECLS (ExtraCorporeal Life Support) is a mobile heart-lung machine that supports the heart and maintains the body’s oxygen supply in cases of acute heart, circulatory, and/or lung failure.

ALISE is a modern ECLS system that can be connected to the patient and put into operation directly at the emergency site. This not only enables safe transport of the patient, but also allows all in-hospital measures — including diagnostics and necessary interventions — to be safely and conveniently carried out under the protection of ALISE without additional risk to the patient.

Advantages of ALISE:

• Exceptionally compact system dimensions

• State-of-the-art technology (electronics, sensors, handling)

• High blood compatibility

• Adaptability within the emergency chain (Transport > Diagnosis > Intervention > Aftercare)

• Improved user-friendliness

• Quick reusability

The market potential today is enormous: hospitals, emergency services, land, sea and air rescue organizations, home-care operations, humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross, military or civil defense missions, fire departments, as well as cruise ships and VIP jets — all belong to the potential customer base.

EVAS (External Ventricular Assist System)

Heart failure (HF) is a common disease that, despite advanced drug therapies, remains associated with high morbidity and mortality rates.

Worldwide, more than 60 million people suffer from severe chronic, irreversible heart weakness (heart failure) that would sooner or later require a heart transplant. The number of heart failure patients continues to rise due to an aging global population and increasing risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. The frequency is expected to increase further in the future, as life expectancy rises and these risk factors become more prevalent in many countries.

Well over 100,000 patients each year in the developed world could benefit from a heart transplant. However, there is a significant shortage of donor hearts, leading to long waiting lists and high mortality among patients awaiting transplantation. Every year, thousands of patients are placed on waiting lists for transplants, but only around 5,000 are actually transplanted. Nearly 30% of patients die on the waiting list before a suitable donor heart can be found.

Over the past two decades, mechanical circulatory support using ventricular assist devices (VADs) has become an established option for patients too ill for medication alone, who are candidates for heart transplantation but must wait for a donor organ.
For short-term circulatory stabilization, these patients are connected in hospitals to “external” VADs. These devices are attached to the patient through a minor surgical procedure, are easy to use, and by quickly stabilizing heart and circulation, they provide crucial time for both patient and physician to make life-saving decisions — up to transplantation.

EVAS is an external VAD featuring an advanced pump system with a magnetically levitated centrifugal pump. The system was developed by our U.S. partner Ension Inc. in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and will soon be ready for deployment.

Advantages of EVAS:

• Enhanced functionality through hydrodynamically optimized, simple design

• Improved blood compatibility via bioactive heparin-coated blood-contact surfaces

• Reduced need for anticoagulant medication

• Lower systemic inflammatory response in patients

• Usable for both adults and children

The Switzerland location is of great strategic importance for the marketing of EVAS and serves as the foundation of its quality concept.