John Stevens, chairman and chief executive officer of HeartFlow, said that with Siemens’ global reach and technology resources, Siemens was an ideal partner. The agreement allows for facilities to have more seamless transfer of the images, and avoids the delays of waiting for IT approvals.

“It makes the workflow easier for the radiologists and imaging cardiologists,” Stevens said.


HeartFlow and Siemens have been in contact for a while, though as the partnership is non-exclusive, it doesn’t prevent similar agreements with other manufacturers.

The HeartFlow technology is currently being used by nearly 60 customers around the world, Stevens said, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in the U.K. recently issued a final guidance statement noting that HeartFlow FFRct should be considered as an option for patients with chest pain who undergo coronary CT angiography.

In the U.S., insurance company Aetna noted in a policy that it considers cardiac CT angiography of the coronary arteries medically necessary for calculation of FFR using HeartFlow FFRct for patients with “stable, recent onset chest pain of suspected cardiac origin” and a clinically determined 10 to 90 percent risk of coronary artery disease.

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