"The Past, Present and Future of the Total Artificial Heart: A very Houston-centric story"
William "Billy" Cohn, MD
CMO, BiVACOR
Director, Center for Device Innovation
Texas Medical Center
CMO, Obvius Robotics
BIO: Dr. Cohn is the Chief Medical Officer of BiVACOR Inc. and the Executive Director of the Center for Device Innovation at the Texas Medical Center (TMC). He is also a tenured professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine and an adjunct professor of Bioengineering at Rice University, Texas A&M, and the University of Houston. Prior to joining BiVACOR Inc., he served as a Vice President at Johnson & Johnson MedTech, Executive Director for the Johnson & Johnson Center of Device Innovation at TMC, and Director of the renowned Cullen Cardiovascular Research Laboratory at the Texas Heart Institute.
Dr. Cohn has been deeply involved in developing the continuous-flow, totally implantable, artificial heart. In 2011, Dr. Cohn and Dr. O. H. Frazier successfully implanted the first pulseless total heart replacement device in a human patient. The device had been developed at The Texas Heart Institute.
Dr. Cohn has published extensively and has more than 220 US patents or patents pending for his medical device innovations that have been foundational for nine venture-backed startups.