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Task 2
This task needs to be submitted once for quality checking and
suggested improvements and once for final leveling.
It must submitted for both dates.
Submission Date 1:4th March by 8:30am
Submission Date 2: 25th February by 8:30am
TASK SHEET (LEVELS 3-6)
R OBO - HEARTS
The first functioning artificial hearts have been made.
TASK
Are artificial hearts the answer to the transplant shortage?
Write a script or storyboard for a television documentary about the future of artificial heart
transplants.
Use the Artificial Heart Transplants: Information sheet to help you.
Include:






Explain why there is a need for artificial hearts
Describe or explain how the artificial heart works
Describe the advantages and disadvantages of using artificial hearts
Identify the types of scientists involved in designing and using artificial hearts
Identify views people will have about using artificial hearts
Consider the effects of the use of artificial hearts on the patient, their family and
doctors
Key words
artificial, bioengineering, donor, economic, ethics, ethical, heart, morals,
organ, tissue, transplant, survive
LEVEL LADDER (LEVELS 3-6)
R OBO - HEART
What is your target level? Use the level ladder to help you reach it:
To get
level
3
You might:
 Explain simply why artificial hearts are needed.
 Explain simply how the artificial heart works.
 State how the transplant team use scientific ideas in their jobs.
4
 Describe advantages and disadvantages of using artificial hearts.
 Recognise what science is involved in artificial hearts.
 Identify the science used by the doctors, nurses and designers of
artificial hearts.
5
 Describe the views from different people about the development or
use of artificial hearts.
 Indicate how the development of artificial hearts has affected
doctors, people who are awaiting a heart donor and bioengineering
companies.
 Identify ethical or moral issue(s) linked to developing and
transplanting artificial hearts.
 Link artificial hearts to what we know about the science of organs
and systems.
6
 Describe how the decisions of using artificial heart transplants are
made based on economic, social or cultural context.
 Explain the effect(s) of the artificial heart transplants on society as a
whole and the scientific community.
 Describe how artificial heart transplants have provided evidence for
scientific questions.
 Identify some scientific questions that have come about since the
artificial hearts have been used.
 Describe the science that is used by member of the artificial heart
transplant team.
TASK SHEET (LEVELS 6-8)
R OBO - HEARTS
The first functioning artificial hearts have been made.
TASK
Are artificial hearts the answer to the transplant shortage?
Write a script or storyboard for a television documentary about the future of artificial heart
transplants.
Use the Artificial Heart Transplants: Information and the Artificial Heart Transplants:
Perspectives sheets to help you.
Include:




Suggest what has influenced the need for artificial hearts
Describe or explain how the artificial heart works
Explain how scientists worked to design, develop and use artificial hearts
Explore the economic, ethical/moral, social or cultural arguments for and against of
using artificial hearts
 Consider the effects of the use of artificial hearts on the patient, their family, doctors,
bioengineering companies and society as a whole
 Make a balanced judgement about the future of artificial hearts, evaluating the
economic, ethical/moral, social or cultural implications
Key words
artificial, bioengineering, cultural, donor, economic, ethics, ethical, heart, implications,
morals, organ, tissue, transplant, society, survive
LEVEL LADDER (LEVELS 6-8)
R OBO -H EART
What is your target level? Use the level ladder to help you reach it:
To get
level
6
You might:
 Describe how the decisions of using artificial heart transplants are
made based on economic, social or cultural context.
 Explain the effect(s) of the artificial heart transplants on society as a
whole and the scientific community.
 Describe how artificial heart transplants have provided evidence for
scientific questions.
 Identify some scientific questions that have come about since the
artificial hearts have been used.
 Describe the science that is used by a member of the artificial heart
transplant team.
7
 Suggest the influences on the need to develop the artificial heart.
 Explain how the development of a working artificial heart might
change the worldview on organ transplants, organ donation and our
ability to make organs.
 Suggest economic, ethical/moral, social or cultural arguments for
and against the use of artificial hearts.
 Explain how creative thinking allowed the artificial hearts to become
better and more effective.
8
 Describe ways in which the values of society have led to the
development of expensive artificial hearts.
 Evaluate the effects of artificial hearts on society.
 Explain the unintended consequences that arose from the first
artificial heart transplants.
 Make a balanced judgement about the future of artificial hearts,
evaluating the economic, ethical/moral, social or cultural
implications.
INFORMATION SHEET (LEVELS 4-6)
A RTIFICIAL H EART T RANSPLANTS (1)
HUMAN HEART TRANSPLANT HISTORY
1967 – Christian Barnard carried out the first human heart transplant in South Africa. The
patient died 18 days later.
2004 – With improving surgery and aftercare, nearly 5000 heart transplants had taken
place in the UK alone since 1967. Patients have at least 10 years extra life after a
transplant.
2009 – About 300 heart transplants are carried out in the UK every year – there would be
more if more hearts were available.
THE RACE FOR THE FIRST ARTIFICIAL HEART
Each year, it is estimated that 20,000 people worldwide in need of a heart transplant do
not get one because of the lack of donors.
USA – The first artificial heart, the Jarvik-7, was implanted into Barney Clark. He died 112
days later due to massive organ failure.
USA – In 2001 the first complete artificial heart, AbioCor, was transplanted successfully.
Germany – a temporary artificial heart was implanted while the patient waited for a donor.
It has an external power pack. It cost over £60,000 to make.
France – The company Carmat developed the first complete artificial heart that adjusts to
the patient’s activity in 2008.
THE COMPLETE ARTIFICIAL HEART
A motor compresses the left chamber to pump
oxygenated blood out to the body. At the same time,
the right chamber opens to fill with deoxygenated
blood.
Then the right chamber is compressed to pump
deoxygenated blood to the lungs and the left chamber
opens to collect oxgenated blood from the lungs.
Special sensors detect the body’s movements and
change the pace of the beat.
The Carmat Heart made by a
French team
Features
It is made of a special plastic called polyurethane.
It is the shape and size of an ordinary heart.
It beats like a heart using electronic sensors to control it.
A battery that the patient wears outside the body powers it. This needs recharging every
10 hours otherwise the heart will stop.
It is covered in a special tissue to avoid rejection. This is known as a pseudo-skin.
INFORMATION SHEET (LEVELS 4-6)
A RTIFICIAL H EART T RANSPLANTS (2)
THE TRANSPLANT TEAM
Bioengineers
Design, manufacture and test a heart suitable for transplant.
Cardiac doctors
A team of expert doctors advise the artificial heart engineers, anticipate problems and
think up solutions.
The Surgeon
The surgeon has to carry out the delicate surgery to attach the artificial heart. This can
take several hours.
Anaesthetist
The patient is assessed before, during and after surgery to make sure they stay asleep
and breathing under the aesthetic.
The nurses
A team of nurses look after the patient. During surgery up to 15 nurses assist the surgeon.
Before and after surgery they ensure the patient receives the correct medication including
immunosuppressants and painkillers.
THE COMPLETE ARTIFICIAL HEART
‘
This technology is still extremely new and there will be many
problems, particularly blood clots caused by this type of
heart.
The artificial hearts cost so much; very few people will be able to
afford them. It won’t be fair.
Instead of investing the money on new and potentially
dangerous technology, we should make it compulsory for
people to donate their organs on death.
Treat the problem, not the cause. Obesity is the main cause of
heart disease. Tackle this and we won’t need more donors or
artificial hearts.
AF2 LAT: INFORMATION SHEET (LEVELS 6-8)
P ERSPECTIVES (2)
A PATIENT’S VIEW
Without the artificial heart,
I would not have lived to see
my first grand daughter.
THE COST OF DISEASE
The World Health Organisation (WHO) claimed in 2004 that the biggest killer worldwide is
heart disease. This they predict will rise and almost a third of people worldwide will die of
heart disease in 2030.
Heart disease is known as the ‘Disease of the rich’ because people in the Western World
overeat, get overweight and develop heart disease and diabetes.
If everyone who needed an artificial heart had one it
would cost an estimated £2 billion a year. Currently,
a person with an artificial heart can live for 6-12
years longer than they would without one.
WHO TRIES A NEW HEART?
Trialling artificial hearts is very risky. The first patient suffered from convulsions, mental
changes and eventually total organ failure.
The patients chosen for the AbioCor trials were very ill already and only had days to live.
All the patients agreed to the treatment. All lived longer than they would have done without
the artificial heart.
WHO GETS AN ARTIFICIAL HEART?
If artificial hearts become reliable, then in the UK, the NHS would have to provide them.
Only the hearts are very expensive and the NHS could only afford to provide a few each
year. How do doctors decide who gets a heart?
 A 40-year-old wealthy businessman who is obese with a young family.
 A single 50-year-old plumber who has inherited heart disease.
 A married 50-year-old farmer who smokes with grown up children.
INFORMATION SHEET (LEVELS 6-8)
P ERSPECTIVES (1)
HEART BREAKERS?
Jarvik-7
The pneumatic pump actually jolted the whole patient, making it very
uncomfortable. The patient was confined to hospital because they
were attached to a large machine. Some patients died of blood clots
because the blood clotted on the metal and plastic, broke off and
caused strokes. Others died of severe infections because the
patients had tubes from the heart run to an outside pump, where
infection could easily enter the body.
AbioCor
This heart used smaller hydraulic motors, reducing movement.
The heart was made of a special polyurethane and titanium to reduce blood clots,
however blood clots still occurred at the joints, killing some patients.
To prevent infection, no tubes or wires ran through holes in the patients skin. Instead
energy was transferred between an external and internal battery, similar to how electric
toothbrushes are charged.
AbioCor was twice the size of a normal heart and was heavy, although a smaller version
was made. Some patient’s bodies rejected the artificial heart, leading to organ failure and
death.
HEART MAKERS
Scientists who make artificial organs are called bioengineers. The bioengineers who made
the Carmat artificial heart where engineers who make Airbus aircraft.
Other scientists involved were bioengineers who specialise in plastics and tissues. They
made a pseudo-skin that covered the mechanical heart. This special layer hopes to
prevent blood clotting and the rejection of the artificial organ.
A DOCTOR’S VIEW
“I found it intolerable to see young people - aged 40, 45 or 50 - dying of massive heart
attacks without having a prosthesis available to replace their hearts”.
Alain Carpentier, France's leading cardiac surgeon