Hearts powering our own pacemakers

Saw this article on CNET today, implications are huge for the future, how about a battery that doesn't run out!


http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57617483-76/nanoribbons-let-beating-hearts-power-their-own-pacemakers/


3 Comments

How about a PM with...

by donr - 2014-01-20 05:01:13

...20 year old technology in it? The way PM/ICD technology changes that means that in 20 yrs you would have the same PM you have today. Sort of like having tubes when you could have integrated circuits.

According to my cardio, right now we could have a PM w/ a 50 year battery - just use a seed of Plutonium w/ a half life of better than a thousand years. That's what goes on deep space missions. But following Moore's rule of technology improvement for digital devices (Stated in 1965) - capability doubles about every 2 yrs, we would be hosting obsolete devices after 4 - 6 yrs.

I really don't think there's much of a future for such a device - at least for implanted devices.

EXCEPT: In the event someone does not need newer technology for their PM's purpose.

Don

I also

by MelodyMarch - 2014-01-20 05:01:14

see the day when all the software upgrades can be uploaded during an interrogation, that would then at least double the life of a device, if you could get firmware upgrades if your condition warranted it. Then you would only need a new one when leads needed to be replaced or when you needed more memory or power for your software.

Call me naive and new on this, but I am also of the opinion that if it ain't broke, don't replace it. But then all the companies and doctors wouldn't make their money. The patient, however would be at a lower risk of infection (and other complications) with fewer procedures.

Ultimately, I think technology is going to find the balance for us, we patients want the best of all worlds (fewer procedures, but latest/greatest software to help our conditions) It will also come down to a cost component.

IT's NOT just software...

by donr - 2014-01-20 06:01:07

...& firmware - it's HARDWARE that is driving this train.

You cannot write 64 bit software & fit it onto a 32 Bit hardware pkg. If you went back just 20 yrs to the early 90's, you'd find that our PM's of today are as different from those as a Boeing 777 is from a B727.

Materials & mfg techniques are changing that fast.

Look at what Microsoft demands of Intel for the next generation PC. Today's Windows would not even fit on the hard drive of 20 yrs ago.

I'll give you another example - the Inter Cochlear Implant for restoring hearing to people whose cochlear micro hairs have been destroyed by excessive loud noise or disease. 30 yrs ago, that device could not exist because the hardware - in this case the material that the semiconductors were made of did not exist. Good old Silicon was totally incapable of doing the job. It took a material called Gallium Arsenide to create the computing power - processing speed - in the extremely small spaces allowed for the device within the cochlea.

Before a PM is designed & built to take advantage of a heart powered generator, we will need to solve the problem of hardware being available for the PM that can benefit from the generator. How about a zipper for the pocket opening?

OTOH, perhaps a quantum leap in nano technology will allow a PM to be designed & built that can be removed & replaced by a large hypodermic syringe. Or perhaps inserted & removed through a blood vessel catheter.

The sky is only as limited as Man's imagination. But I think this technology is a dead ended alleyway. The Rubbishbin of technology is full of failed devices that were out of phase w/ their time. F'rinstance - the Edsel (Car); the Tucker (another car), The Convair 990 (Airplane), Boeing 377 (Airplane), 8 track tape decks. (My apologies to Marx, Engels & Lenin)

Don

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