Pacemakers: bioengineering

The goal of these and other researchers was to develop a totally implantable pacemaker. Bioengineer Wilson Greatbatch and heart surgeon William Chardack achieved this milestone with their first successfiil human implant in 1960. Greatbatch used then-novel transistors and an epoxy-encased Ruben-Mallory zinc mercuric oxide battery in his design. [5]... 

Bioengineers examine fluid flows when designing pacemakers and other medical equipment that will be implanted in the human body. 

Medical Applications. Virtually all biomedical and bioengineering research projects make use of microscopy at some point. Scientists in the pharmaceutical industry, for example, need to closely examine the physical structure and dispersion characteristics of the active components (chemicals) used in the development of drugs, as well as the materials used to coat medical devices such as pacemakers or other implants. Eluorescence microscopy and confocal microscopy are commonly used for these purposes. 

Microelectronic implants have gained increasing interest in the bioengineering research community [19] and the medical device industry. Heart pacemakers are the most prominent example of an implantable microsystem that exhibits adaptive properties [20]. In the following section, adaptive properties of advanced pacemaker systems are described. Experience gained from heart stimulation devices has led to the development of a new class of implantable neural stimulators and sensor systems, namely neural prosthetic devices. More than a hundred thousand devices have been implanted in chn-ical practice, even though many applications are unknown to the general public [21,22]. Fabrication and the envisioned adaptive control mechanisms are described here upon. 

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