Exploring beyond Earth exposes humans to conditions that can affect blood pressure, bone density, and immune health. Considering these challenges, NASA inventors Dr. Rainee Simons and Dr. Félix Miranda collaborated 20 years ago to develop a technology for monitoring astronaut heart health during long-duration spaceflight missions.
This technology is now being used to monitor the health of patients with heart failure on Earth. A commercial product based on the technology is scheduled to launch in late 2024.
Dr. Rainee Simons, a senior microwave communications engineer, and Dr. Félix Miranda, deputy chief of the Communications and Intelligent Systems Division, applied their expertise in radio frequency integrated circuits and antennas to create a miniature implantable sensor system. This system is designed to monitor astronaut health in space. The technology, developed at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland with seed funds from the agency’s Technology Transfer Office, uses a small, bio-implanted sensor to transmit a person’s health status to a handheld device. The sensor is battery-less and wireless.
“You’re able to insert the sensor and bring it up to the heart or the aorta like a stent – the same process as in a stent implant,” Simons said. “No major surgery is needed for implantation, and operating the external handheld device, by the patient, is simple and easy.”
After Glenn patented the invention, Dr. Anthony Nunez, a heart surgeon, and Harry Rowland, a mechanical engineer, licensed the technology and established Endotronix in 2007. The company, now an Edwards Lifesciences company, focuses on proactive heart failure management with data-driven patient-to-physician solutions.
The primary monitoring system by Endotronix is called the Cordella Pulmonary Artery (PA) Sensor System. Dr. Nunez learned about the technology while reading a technical journal. He recognized its potential uses in the medical technology industry, and it now aids in heart failure management through clinical trials, where patients have shown improvements in their quality of life.
Based on successful clinical testing demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of the system, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Cordella PA Sensor System in June 2024. The system is intended to help clinicians remotely assess, treat, and manage heart failure in patients at home to reduce hospitalizations.
“If you look at the statistics of how many people have congestive heart failure, high blood pressure… it’s a lot of people,” Miranda said. “To have the medical community saying we have a device that started from NASA’s intellectual property – and it could help people worldwide to be healthy, to enjoy life, to go about their business – is highly gratifying, and it’s very consistent with NASA’s mission to do work for the benefit of all.”
