His prototype and original inspiration came from the commonplace wristwatch. The pacemaker works in roughly three steps. First, when the external environment accelerates or creates motion (i.e. the heart), the clockwork within the pacemaker begins rotating. This rotation winds up a mechanical spring in which it later unwinds and spins an electrical generator. Second, the energy is transferred through an electronic circuit into a small buffered capacity. Lastly, the stored energy is used to apply a small stimulus to the heart when needed.
This device already has been successfully tested on domesticated pigs. The newly developed system allowed them for the first time to perform batteryless overdrive-pacing at 130 beats per minute.
“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,” Zurbuchen said in a news release. “Our new pacemaker tackles the two major disadvantages of today’s pacemakers. First, pacemaker leads are prone to fracture and can pose an imminent threat to the patient. And second, the lifetime of a pacemaker battery is limited. Our energy harvesting system is located directly on the heart and has the potential to avoid both disadvantages by providing the world with a batteryless and leadless pacemaker.”
Despite its early success, there is still more work to be done on the batteryless pacemaker device. The parts in each step are still separate and the researchers are working on a way to integrate each step into one implantable device.