Medical Device Company CardiacAssist® Announces Rebranding As TandemLife® With Launch Of New Product Lines

PITTSBURGH, March 31, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

CardiacAssist, Inc. today announced a rebranding of the privately-held company and will begin to do business as TandemLife as it rolls out several new product lines to hospitals worldwide.  Following the FDA clearance of its TandemLung® oxygenator, the new TandemLife company is focused on making advanced cardiac and respiratory support technology available to more patients by providing medical devices that deliver on its mission of Life Support Simplified™.

"Twenty years ago, Cardiac Assist Technologies began the journey to create a circulatory support system unlike anything the world had seen before," said John Marous, President and CEO of TandemLife.  "With the commercial launch of the TandemHeart® system in 2001, we delivered on our commitment and the result was a product that is still widely recognized as a robust, reliable treatment option for patients requiring cardiac support.  While we're incredibly proud of what we created in the early years, it's now time to enter a new phase in our company's history where we have the ability to help more patients than ever before as TandemLife."  In addition to its recently-announced TandemLung oxygenator, the company has developed and commercialized six new products since September 2013, including the ProtekSolo™ cannula line, the ProtekDuo™ veno-venous extracorporeal life support (ECLS) system, and the VoyagerVest™ mobility platform.

In North America, less than 2% of patients who experience a cardiac or respiratory emergency currently receive care with advanced cardiopulmonary support, in part because the complexity of such therapy has restricted its use to only the largest, most advanced hospitals.  With TandemLife, hospitals can deploy a single pump and controller platform upon which all of the company's products operate, eliminating the need to train and certify hospital staff on multiple different systems.  For cardiac support, a physician may choose the classic TandemHeart procedure, the ProtekDuo procedure available since late 2014, or the new TandemLife procedure, depending on each patient's individual needs.  Likewise, for patients experiencing respiratory dysfunction, either the TandemLife or TandemLung procedures may be appropriate.  By offering multiple circulatory support options on a single platform, hospitals can turn to TandemLife as a premier, single-source provider of a comprehensive system to control healthcare costs without sacrificing the quality of care.

"Our transition from CardiacAssist to TandemLife is the end result of years of collaboration between our employees and top tier physicians, patient caregivers and hospital administrators," said Mr. Marous. "We will remain focused on improving patient outcomes and reducing the cost of healthcare by continuing to develop simple, reliable life support solutions.  We expect 2016 to be another banner year for our company with more exciting products still to come."

TandemLife products can be found in approximately 200 centers across North America.  For more information about the company or its products, please visit our website at TandemLife.com.

About TandemLife

TandemLife is a growing, privately-held medical device company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that developed the world's first FDA-cleared and CE-marked short-term extracorporeal circulatory support platform.  TandemLife products have provided critical cardiopulmonary support to thousands of patients in the top hospitals worldwide.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160330/349799LOGO

SOURCE TandemLife