Demcon and Haermonics partnership leads to life-saving innovation

Haermonics and Demcon have been working together since 2016 on a system that should be capable of saving 10,000 lives per year from 2030 on. This is an innovative rinsing technique, preventing patients from dying of complications due to blood clots after a successful open-heart operation. The concept, devised by the leading heart surgeon Dr. David Koolbergen, is currently being tested in various Dutch hospitals. In August this year, the final phase of the development started, leading to the launch of the Haermonics Pure™ as a full-fledged CE-certified system.

“Because of the excellent test results, we already started developing the end device last August,” says Wouter Markus, CEO of Haermonics. Now is the perfect moment to seal the partnership between both companies from the Eindhoven region. However, our collaboration started already in 2016, based on nothing more but mutual trust and a transparent and honest relationship.”

Saving 10,000 lives by 2030
Performing open-heart surgery is like practicing top-level sports. Markus: “For about six hours, the team works continuously and under high pressure. A small mistake might just cost someone’s life. However, although the surgery as such was successful, the patient might still die due to a seemingly small detail: a blood clot. We can prevent that with our Pure at Heart technology. Our goal is to save 10,000 lives by 2030.”

Dr. Koolbergen discovered over the years that cleaning the chest cavity with warm, saline water fixes the coagulation mechanism. The drainage system Haermonics is developing is based on that principle. The system consists of a tube that rinses the pericardial space with a warm saline solution. The drains remain unchanged. They are connected from the chest cavity to a canister and linked to a vacuum system. The continuous rinsing process starts immediately after surgery.

Shared responsibility for social interest
Haermonics employs its own engineers since they want to control both the head and tail of the entire process. Everything in between, like development, engineering, and production, is outsourced to Demcon. Markus: “Demcon has a solid reputation. They have joined this challenge despite of the risks involved with the lengthy developments of medical devices. They really live up to our expectations.

Eric Tielemans, managing director of Demcon location Eindhoven, is also very pleased with this partnership. “Our ideal client is well aware of what’s going on in their market. They obviously know perfectly what they are doing, and they want to contribute to society. Demcon engineers do not only have a passion for technology but also an intrinsic motivation to make this world a better place. In this project, we can check all the boxes.”

The right ecosystem speeds up development
Two and a half years ago Haermonics moved from Amsterdam to Eindhoven. Markus: “In Amsterdam, we could not find a good match with companies close to us. In Eindhoven, it’s the complete opposite. Not only does it harbor a huge technical network, but we also became part of the Brainport ecosystem in which we all work together and share our knowledge and connections.”

“Keeping secrets won’t get you there” Tielemans adds. “In the Brainport region, we share coffees as well as insights and ideas. Being able to have an open and honest dialogue with a customer, even when it becomes uncomfortable, is in my opinion one of the most important pillars of a good collaboration.”

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