Can humans engineer reliable artificial hearts?

At least four companies are trying. Eliza Strictland writes at IEEE Spectrum,

The human heart is a marvel of engineering. Inside the chest of the average adult, that hard-working muscle beats about 100,000 times per day, pumping blood through arteries that branch up toward the brain and twine down to the toes.

So it’s no wonder that biomedical engineers have had a tough time building a mechanical replica to keep patients with heart failure alive and well. Since the 1950s, ambitious researchers have tried to build artificial hearts but have always come up short. Now, four different companies think they’ve found the right technology, and they’re out to prove it. In 2017, clinical trials and animal tests could finally demonstrate that permanent artificial hearts are ready for the clinic.

About 5.7 million people in the United States alone are currently living with a diagnosis of heart failure, meaning their hearts are gradually becoming less effective at pumping blood. Some of the worst-off patients join the waiting list for a heart transplant, but donor hearts are scarce and many people die while waiting.

Read more here.