Heart beat identification and pump speed synchronization

A method for synchronizing operation of a heart assist pump device to a patient's cardiac cycle, comprising:

• identifying two or more prior pulses of a heartbeat;
• determining a pulse period based on the two or more prior pulses;
• determining a speed synchronization start point at which time a motor of the heart assist pump will begin a change in speed of operation based on the pulse period;
• and
• begin the change in speed of operation of the motor to a target speed at the speed synchronization start point, wherein changing the speed of the motor comprises one or both of increasing the speed of the motor during systole and decreasing the speed of the motor during diastole.

A non-transitory machine readable medium having instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions are executable by one or more processors to at least:

• identify two or more prior pulses of a heartbeat;
• determine a pulse period based on the two or more prior pulses;
• determine a speed synchronization start point at which time a motor of a heart pump device will begin a change in speed of operation based on the pulse period;
• begin the change in speed of operation of the motor to a target speed at the speed synchronization start point;
• and
• redetermine the speed synchronization start point after a predetermined number of synchronized heartbeat counts.