Abiomed, which also makes other products to assist rather than replace failing hearts, was one of about 20 companies that vied for money from a federal grant program begun in 1964 to encourage development of heart disease technology, including an artificial heart. The program envisioned that an artificial heart could be implanted by 1972. But it didn't happen until 1982, when Dr. Robert Jarvik put the Jarvik-7 into Barney Clark.