Philips and HeartFlow Announce Global Collaboration Agreement on FFR Technology

August 28, 2017—Royal Philips and HeartFlow, Inc. announced that they have entered into a collaboration agreement regarding diagnostic and planning tools for interventional cardiologists to evaluate and treat patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD). Under the agreement, Philips will promote the use of the HeartFlow FFRct Analysis in conjunction with Philips' catheters for imaging and assessing measurements of coronary arteries. The Philips catheters used in this arrangement include the company's coronary fractional flow reserve (FFR), instant wave-free ratio (iFR), and intravascular ultrasound solutions.

Philips and HeartFlow's commercial collaboration will initially focus on the United States, with the intention to expand joint efforts globally in the near term. Also, the two companies have entered into an exclusive agreement to codevelop an improved catheterization lab x-ray image–derived FFR or iFR solution to enhance workflow while improving the diagnosis and subsequent treatment of patients with CAD.

According to the companies, the HeartFlow FFRct Analysis is a noninvasive technology to provide insight into both the extent of CAD and the impact of the disease on blood flow to the heart. Data from noninvasive coronary CTA are securely uploaded from the hospital's system to the cloud and provide a personalized, digital, three-dimensional model of a patient's coronary arteries, which is then analyzed by powerful computer algorithms to evaluate millions of complex equations to simulate blood flow in the model and assess the impact of blockages on coronary blood flow.