A senior cardiac and thoracic surgeon and his team at the Aga Khan University (AKU) have invented a heart simulator which may go a long way in teaching resident doctors open-heart surgery and other related operations in much better conditions. Dr Saulat Fatmi said that the simulators currently in the market were artificial hearts or hearts which used pneumatic pumps to simulate beating. None could mimic the true heart mechanism and there was no fluid inside the heart to mimic blood. However, after years of failed and tiring attempts, “we are able to invent a beating heart system with magnetic pumps, fluid reservoir and timing device to produce systole and diastole in a cow’s heart”. Dr Fatmi said it had been patented in the United States and the AKU were now ready to modify this to market it on a commercial basis.