An innovative new batteryless cardiac pacemaker based on an automatic wristwatch and that is powered by heart motion was recently presented at ESC Congress 2014. Adrian Zurbuchen, a PhD candidate in the Cardiovascular Engineering Group at ARTORG, University of Bern, Switzerland, presented the prototype device, which does not require battery replacement, on August 31, 2014.

Zurbuchen said in a statement, “Batteries are a limiting factor in today’s medical implants. Once they reach a critically low energy level, physicians see themselves forced to replace a correctly functioning medical device in a surgical intervention. This is an unpleasant scenario which increases costs and the risk of complications for patients.”

Zurbuchen’s presentation offers a way to power a cardiac pacemaker using the heart motion, an alternative energy source.

The idea of using an automatic wrist mechanism to channel the energy of the heart’s motion came four years ago from Professor Rolf Vogel, a cardiologist and engineer at the University of Bern.

Zurbuchen said, “The heart seems to be a very promising energy source because its contractions are repetitive and present for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Furthermore the automatic clockwork, invented in the year 1777, has a good reputation as a reliable technology to scavenge energy from motion.”

He continued, “We have shown that it is possible to pace the heart using the power of its own motion. The next step in our prototype is to integrate both the electronic circuit for energy storage and the custom-made pacemaker directly into the harvesting device. This will eliminate the need for leads.”

According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a pacemaker is a small device placed in the chest or abdomen to help control abnormal heart rhythms.