New 'Box' Keeps Hearts En Route for Transplant Beating

It's alive -- or at least looks like it is! Until now, hearts en route for transplant were kept in coolers. Ronald Regan UCLA Medical Center is beginning clinical trials to use a box that will keep the heart beating increasing the likelihood it will be accepted by the body of the recipient.

A heart can only be kept on ice for six hours to be viable for a transplant. As reported by Dvice, this Organ Care System, created by Transmedics, keeps a supply of donated blood pumping through the heart. This gives the doctors more time to find the best recipient for the heart and increases the potential for transporting hearts long distances.

Watch it beat here:

Take a look at one of the first transplant recipients to receive a heart this way:

The jury is still out on if this technology will be as good as or better than the cooler method. Seems like a no brainer.

(H/T Gizmodo)