From: hibbert@netcom.com
Date: Mon Jul 09 2001 - 18:33:39 MDT
hal@finney.org wrote:
> The goal of the experimental trials with the artificial heart, said
> Lederman, is to "double the life span of these patients," to 60 days.
>
> "Every patient will probably die on the AbioCor," he said. "We need
> to understand that, with this new technology, we may have failures."
>
> It's sobering that this technological advance only buys an expected 30
> days of life. But it is good to see that the CEO is so frank about the
> state of the art, in these days of hype and PR.
Hmmm. I read that as setting expectations low, but with the obvious
subtext that those who understand about continuous improvement would
foresee that the first few patients are getting an early release. It would
be astonishing if there isn't a %10 increase in the length of life from
each patient using it over at least the first 20 patients. If the product
is as good as it's going to get on the first use, then these folks aren't
planning to learn anything from the clinical trials.
And "every patient will die on the AbioCor" just says they aren't likely to
get a natural or competing artificial heart. It doesn't say anything about
maximum lifespan.
Chris
---
Chris Hibbert It is easy to turn an aquarium into fish soup, but
hibbert@netcom.com not so easy to turn fish soup back into an aquarium.
-- Lech Walesa on reverting to a market economy.
http://discuss.foresight.org/~hibbert/home.html
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