Pacemaker Powered by Heartbeat
Pacemakers save lives, no doubt about it. But they can also be irksome little devices. Powered by batteries, it’s not unusual for a pacemaker patient to undergo surgery as often as every 5 years to replace the batteries. For a child inserted with a pacemaker, that could total 30 to 40 surgeries in a lifetime.
University of Michigan researchers recently unveiled a pacemaker prototype that would eliminate the need to change batteries in the device—and unwanted surgery. During the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2012, researchers presented the experimental device that converts energy from a beating heart to power the pacemaker. The dime-sized prototype runs off of piezoelectricity—the electric charge generated by motion. The concept was discovered by accident. Researchers at Michigan’s Department of Aerospace Engineering were studying a potential unmanned aircraft powered by vibration from its wings. They experimented with simulated heartbeat-induced vibrations connected to a cardiac energy harvester. They discovered the energy harvester produced more than 10 times the power needed by a pacemaker.
“The approach is a promising technological solution for pacemakers, because they require only small amounts of power to operate,” lead study author M. Amin Karami, research fellow at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, said.
Another bonus to the heart-powered pacemaker: It uses magnets to both enhance its power production and decrease harvester sensitivity to heart rate changes. Basically, devices such as cell phones and microwave ovens would not interfere with its function.
About 700,000 people worldwide use pacemakers to regulate their heartbeats. In the United States, the devices cost about $5,000 initially, but that
