Gutruf Working to Create Remotely Powered Pacemakers

BME assistant professor and Craig M. Berge Faculty Fellow Philipp Gutruf is creating a new type of heart pacemaker with one major change: it doesn't have a battery. Instead of a built-in battery, the devices rely on "near field" powering, similar to the technology that allows your phone to wirelessly charge. The new devices could be less invasive and more precise for patients. 

"Current devices are either like a small pill, or relatively large boxes, that gets implanted and has one contact with the heart," Gutruf said in an interview with 12News. "We have rethought this a little bit... It's essentially a mesh that looks a little bit like rose petals that engulf the heart to enable these multiple points on contact."

The University of Arizona-led team detailed their research in a paper published in Science Advances. The study was helmed by researchers in the Gutruf Lab.