Heart assist device

A method of pumping blood, comprising:

• implanting a heart assist device in a patient, wherein the heart assist device comprises:
• a pump housing having a cylindrical inner bearing surface within the pump housing;
• an impeller;
• and
• a rotor coupled to the impeller and retained within the pump housing such that an outer bearing surface of the rotor having a plurality of lands protruding radially on the outer bearing surface is within the cylindrical inner bearing surface of the pump housing, wherein each of the plurality of lands:
• have a taper section that gradually tapers circumferentially from a base diameter section of the rotor to a land diameter section of the rotor;
• have the land diameter section that extends around a land circumference of the rotor and is sized to form a gap from the cylindrical inner bearing surface of the pump housing;
• are spaced apart around a circumference of the rotor;
• and
• extend straight aligned parallel to a longitudinal axis of the rotor such that the base diameter section between adjacent ones of the lands forms a straight path aligned parallel to the longitudinal axis along extent of the rotor with the plurality of lands;
• and
• rotating the rotor and impeller in the pump housing to pump blood in the patient, wherein the gap between the rotor and the pump housing during the rotating creates a hydrodynamic journal bearing with the blood between the rotor and the pump housing.