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Sunshine Heart appoints leading US and Australian cardiologists toMedical Advisory Board

30 / 06 / 2006

Sunshine Heart, Inc. (ASX, SHC) today announced the strengthening of its Medical Advisory Board (MAB) with the addition of two distinguished cardiologists. Sunshine Heart's Medical Advisory Board includes eleven leading international Heart Failure cardiologists and cardiac surgeons.

The new members are Professor Marc A. Silver, Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Director of the Heart Failure Institute at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois School of Medicine, and Professor David Kaye, Associate Director and Head of the Heart Failure and Experimental Cardiology Division, Baker Heart Research Institute, Consultant Cardiologist Cardiovascular Medicine Service and Heart/Heart Lung Replacement Service at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Monash University.

Professor Kaye is internationally recognised for his research work that has led to major advances in the understanding of mechanisms responsible for the development and progression of heart failure (HF) that is directly translatable into clinical practice. He has also been instrumental in the development and application of a range of novel devices for the treatment of heart failure.

"While medication is sufficient for many patients with heart failure, there are an increasing number of patients that are experiencing persistent heart failure symptoms despite such treatment." Professor Kaye said. "For patients with moderate heart failure, devices such as Sunshine Heart's C-PulseTM system have the potential to offer considerable improvement in quality of life".

Professor Silver is a leading specialist in the management of heart failure and was a founding member and the initial membership chairman of the Heart Failure Society of America. He has been a principal investigator in more than 70 large-scale clinical trials. Dr Silver has a long established interest in heart failure, patient care and non-pharmacologic therapy.

Professor Silver said: "Because we still recognise heart failure as a complex of disease symptoms, we are treating patients who have a very advanced disease that has outstripped the normal compensatory controls. For many of these patients, pills and pacemakers attenuate but do not control the disease process. We continue to look for novel approaches that safely, but dramatically restore homeostasis to our patients."