Medtronic buys Israel's CathWorks after its AI heart test matches the invasive standard
The $585 million deal follows a 1,900-patient trial showing CathWorks' wire-free FFRangio angiogram analysis was as safe as pressure-wire testing.
On 20 April 2026 the medical technology giant Medtronic completed its purchase of CathWorks, a privately held company founded in Kfar Saba, Israel. The deal is valued at $585 million, plus undisclosed earn-out payments. Medtronic had taken a minority stake in CathWorks in 2018, signed a co-promotion partnership in 2022 and announced in February 2026 that it would exercise its option to buy the company outright.
CathWorks makes the FFRangio System, which uses artificial intelligence and computational modelling to judge how much a narrowing in a coronary artery is restricting blood flow. Cardiologists normally answer that question by threading a pressure wire into the artery and giving the patient a drug to dilate the vessels, a procedure that measures only one spot at a time. FFRangio instead works from the ordinary X-ray angiogram images already taken during catheterisation, producing an estimate of fractional flow reserve along the whole coronary tree without a wire or a drug. It also helps doctors size stents and predict the effect of treating a lesion, and it is sold in the United States, Europe and Japan.
The acquisition closed shortly after the one-year results of the ALL-RISE randomised trial were presented at the American College of Cardiology's 2026 meeting and published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study enrolled more than 1,900 patients at 59 hospitals in North America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and found that guiding treatment with FFRangio was non-inferior to wire-based measurement for major adverse cardiac events after a year, while saving procedure time and resources. CathWorks is one of several Israeli medical device makers bought by global firms in 2026.
“Welcoming CathWorks to Medtronic will expand access to the transformative FFRangio technology.”
Physiological testing helps cardiologists avoid unnecessary stents and treat the arteries that truly need it, but many patients never get it because the wire-based method is invasive and time-consuming. A validated, wire-free alternative built into routine angiograms could make that better decision-making standard in catheterisation labs worldwide.
Sources
- Medtronic completes acquisition of CathWorks, expanding its leadership in transforming care for patients with cardiovascular diseaseMedtronic, April 20, 2026
- Medtronic Completes Acquisition of CathWorksCardiac Interventions Today, April 20, 2026
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