A prototype for a leadless pacemaker that converts the heart's oscillations into voltage generated 10.9% of the energy needed to stimulate one heartbeat in a laboratory benchtop experiment.
If the amount of "harvested" energy could be increased to better power the pacemaker's battery and the device is shown to be safe and effective in humans, a future version of this device could offer the advantages of a leadless pacemaker without potential difficulties when replacing the battery.
Babak Nazer, MD, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle will present findings from this experimental device at the upcoming American Heart Association (AHA) 2023 Scientific Sessions in Philadelphia.
"We have a generation one prototype to harvest 10% of the energy needed to power the next heartbeat and we are continuing to improve upon multiple elements of our device — material, shape, and assembly — to at least get that harvesting efficiency to 20% before we start to seriously engage in any relationships with any existing medical device companies," Nazer summarized in an interview with theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology.
The team is eager for feedback from physicians, researchers, and potential medical device company partners, he said, regarding the amount of energy harvesting/battery-life saving they would want to see.
