Tofy Mussivand 1942-2024: From shepherd boy to medical devices innovator

Tofigh “Tofy” Mussivant spent 30 years as the chair and director of the cardiovascular devices program at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, gaining national and international accolades along the way.

He was a PhD in biomedical engineering, a member of the Royal Society of Canada and served as an adviser to prime ministers. In Ottawa, he was best known for his role in the high-profile quest to develop an artificial heart.   

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But in interviews later in life, Mussivand often recalled his youth as a shepherd in the highlands of his native Iranian Kurdistan, learning to read and write by the light of a kerosene lamp.

“At night we used to go on the roof of the houses in the summer and stare at the stars. I ask, ‘Why is that, why am I here, what’s my purpose?’” he told Postmedia in an interview in 2010.

“I was bothering my father with these questions, but he didn’t know. Eventually, he got tired of me asking … He put me in a school.”

Mussivand died Jan. 7 after a lengthy illness.

In a statement, the University of Ottawa Heart Institute recalled a passionate and decorated leader, problem solver, educator, humanitarian and innovator who prominently positioned Ottawa and Canada in the fields of medical devices, including artificial hearts as a treatment for heart failure. 

“Dr. Mussivand will be remembered for his contributions to science, technology and medicine, many of which have shaped the present and future of medical devices and provided major impacts on health care globally.”

Mussivand came to Canada in 1964, moving to Edmonton to attend the University of Alberta for a master’s degree in engineering. He would later recall that he knew only two words of English —”yes” and “no” — and got a job as a dishwasher.

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When Mussivand graduated, he became an executive with a utility company. He built and lost a real estate empire after interest rates went through the roof.

His Canadian wife, Dixy Lee, was a physician and Mussivand was fascinated by her medical textbooks. He wanted to learn more about the human body. He earned a doctorate in medical engineering and medical sciences at the University of Akron and Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine.

At the Cleveland Clinic Hospital and Research Foundation, Mussivand began investigating a new concept for a fully implantable artificial heart, remotely powered, remotely monitored, with no wires or tubes.

He was lured back to Canada in 1989 by heart surgeon Dr. Wilbert Keon, the founder of the Heart Institute in Ottawa, who wanted his team to build a prototype implantable electrohydraulic ventricular assist device, known as an EVAD.

In 1996, Rod Bryden, founder of Systemhouse and former owner of the Ottawa Senators, formed WorldHeart Corporation with the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and Corel founder Michael Cowpland, with Mussivand as chairman and chief scientist. 

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“An Ottawa team is in a fierce race to produce an artificial heart. If it wins, the prize will be huge: a worldwide market worth billions of dollars,” said a 1997 article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

“The team, led by Dr. Tofy Mussivand, brings together scientists and entrepreneurs. The goal is to produce a heart that improves patients’ quality of life and doesn’t leave them tethered to a machine in hospital.”

The plan was to complete clinical tests by 2000 and have a commercial product ready a year or two later.

“We have to capture and hold the market to be successful,” Keon told the Canadian Medical Association Journal. “One of our competitors might get there first.”

But there were technical setbacks and a lack of Canadian investors and WorldHeart struggled to be profitable before departing Ottawa for Utah in 2004.

Mussivand would later say the problem was not the WorldHeart technology because key parts were still being used under licensing agreements.

“The problem was a lack of investment at key points to keep ahead of the competition. Patents are not enough. It takes a tremendous amount of capital to finance development of new devices.“

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In 2012, HeartWare International, Inc., which produces miniaturized circulatory support technologies, announced it had closed the acquisition of WorldHeart. 

Mussivand was curious, impatient and indefatigable. He routinely worked from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.

“I never give up. The tougher it becomes, the more exciting it becomes to me,” he said. 

The WorldHeart disappointment led Mussivand to champion the development of a medical devices industry in Canada. He established the Medical Devices Commercialization Centre, a network of medical devices stakeholders, to develop and commercialize devices for the global market. 

Mussivand noted that Canada was a small country, population-wise. Good things happen in Canada, but technologies eventually end up somewhere else, he said. “I’m not against that, but I’m saddened because some of these things could bring jobs and revenue to Canada.“

He was also grateful to Canada. There were attempts to recruit him back to the U.S., but Mussivand said he was “monogamous.”

“Only in Canada some shepherd boy like me could come and get this opportunity,” he said.

Mussivand is survived by his wife, Dixy Lee, children David Troy and Lailee June and  grandson Spencer.

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