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Auckland University scientists have developed technology to power a wire-free heart pump that could save the lives of thousands of heart patients.

It could eventually offer an alternative to heart transplants.

It weighs only 92 grams and can be powered 24 hours a day for the wearer’s lifetime.

The pump uses magnetic fields to transfer power through a patient’s skin, rather than using wire cables.

A new company, TETCor, was created to take the technology for powering a wide range of devices implanted in the human body to market.

The new technology came out of collaboration between scientists from Auckland University’s Bioengineering Institute, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Department of Physiology. The existing method, using a wire cable that goes through the stomach and chest caused serious infections in about 40 percent of patients, and sometimes death.

TETCor chief executive Simon Malpas said heart pumps needed a huge amount of power.

The new wire-free version uses a coil outside a person’s body to generate a magnetic field.

The wires were also prone to breaking and restricted a patient’s activities. . A second coil placed inside the body, near the collar bone, picks up the signal from this field and creates power for the pump.

Dr Malpas saw the potential market as 50,000 people each year globally, within 10 years. The two companies plan to work together to combine the power transfer technology with the pump technology, and plan to begin patient trials within 24 months. If these pumps stop, you only have about one minute to live.

“It’s probably the most extreme implantable medical device you can get.”