Implant Attached to Heart Generates Electricity to Power Pacemaker

Pacemakers, defibrillators and other cardiac implants are life-saving devices, but the batteries inside of them remain their Achilles’ heel. Every five to ten years they have to be replaced in another invasive surgery that patients abhor and that put a high cost on the healthcare system. Harvesting energy from inside the body to power these devices, particularly from the heart’s own movements, has been tried in the past with limited success. Simply not enough current has been produced to power a conventional pacemaker, but researchers at two Chinese universities may have come up with an electricity generator, that attaches to the bottom of the heart, which can generate enough juice and to potentially power a pacemaker indefinitely.