Prioritizing health is a critical concern on Earth, but it takes on even greater importance in the challenging environment of space. Astronauts venturing beyond our planet encounter conditions that can affect blood pressure, bone density, immune health, and various other physiological systems. With this in mind, two NASA inventors embarked on a collaborative journey two decades ago, their goal being the development of technology to monitor astronaut heart health during the extended durations of spaceflight missions. That initial concept has now blossomed into a commercially available product, slated for launch in late 2024, designed to monitor the well-being of heart failure patients here on Earth.
NASA engineers Dr. Rainee Simons, a senior microwave communications engineer, and Dr. Félix Miranda, deputy chief of the Communications and Intelligent Systems Division, leveraged their expertise in radio frequency integrated circuits and antennas. Their focus resulted in a miniature, implantable sensor system conceived to keep track of astronaut health in the demanding environs of space. This technology, developed at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and supported by seed funding from the agency’s Technology Transfer Office, features a small, bio-implanted sensor. The sensor is able to transmit a person’s health status wirelessly to a handheld device. The sensor is designed to be battery-less and wireless in operation.
“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 explained. “No major surgery is needed for implantation, and operating the external handheld device, by the patient, is simple and easy.”
Following the patenting of the invention by Glenn Research Center, Dr. Anthony Nunez, a heart surgeon, and Harry Rowland, a mechanical engineer, licensed the technology and established Endotronix in 2007. Endotronix is now an Edwards Lifesciences company. The company specializes in enhancing proactive heart failure management through data-driven solutions that facilitate patient-to-physician communication, enabling early detection of potential dangers, based on the original Glenn technology. Endotronix has developed the Cordella Pulmonary Artery (PA) Sensor System as its primary monitoring system.
Dr. Nunez discovered the technology while poring over a technical journal that highlighted the concept. He recognized parallels that could be effectively applied in the medical technology sector. The concept has proven to be beneficial in heart failure management, supported by multiple clinical trials that have demonstrated patients’ improved quality of life. Based on the results of Endotronix’s clinical testing, which confirmed the safety and effectiveness of the system, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted premarket approval to the Cordella PA Sensor System in June 2024. The system is designed to assist clinicians in remotely assessing, treating, and managing heart failure in patients within the home setting, with the ultimate goal of reducing the occurrence of 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 noted. “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.”
