PACING THE HEART:IMPACT OF PACEMAKERS ON THE SOCIETY

The BioBusiness Revolution: Healthcare and the Biomedical Sciences: Past, Present, FutureTeo Te Wei

G13

BACKGROUND In the past, no cure for

immediate heart stoppage

Heart Failure

Mortality rate was high

HOW TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM? To create a prosthetic device

that would permanently manage a heart in complete block

Pacemaker

WHAT IS PACEMAKER? Device that consists of a pulse

generator, electrodes and a leadPacemaker

Pulse Generator

Lead

Electrodes

WHAT IS PACEMAKER?

Delivers electrical impulses to the heart so as to regulate the heartbeat

TIMELINE

External Pacing

Internal Pacing – Implant

Qualified as a

major surgery Externall

y Programm-able Pacer

Stabilized Pacing

Users exceed 150,000

500,000-600,000

users

110,000 annual

implants

1950s

1960s

1970s

1975 1990s

ADVANTAGES Kept patients alive in complete

heart block

Enabled many of them to enjoy moderately active lives

The doctor could noninvasively and repeatedly alter pacing device

DRAWBACKS Battery of the internal

pacemaker may run low

Require further surgical procedures

KEY TAKEAWAY POINTS Pacemaker brought about a lot

of advantages in the medical history and saved a lot of lives

Pacemaker was constantly refined to suit to new heart diseases

Prolonged mortality rate

RATING 5/5

Displayed the evolution of heart pacing and the impact on the lives of people

Covered both advantages and drawbacks of the pacemakers

ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION Do you think that the battery of

the pacemaker will be able to operate indefinitely in the future?

Will mankind be over-reliant on technology and implanting a pacemaker even when not required or as a preventive measure of heart attacks?

THE END

‘The best and most beautiful

things in the world cannot be seen

or even touched - they must be

felt with the heart’ - Helen Keller

REFERENCES Pacing the Heart: Growth and

Redefinition of a Medical Technology, 1952-1975, Kirk Jeffrey, Technology and Culture, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Jul 1995), pp. 583-624