Teo Te Wei
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Transcript of Teo Te Wei
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