Shelly Fan in Singularity Hub:
Scientists just unveiled the world’s tiniest pacemaker. Smaller than a grain of rice and controlled by light shone through the skin, the pacemaker generates power and squeezes the heart’s muscles after injection through a stint. The device showed it could steadily orchestrate healthy heart rhythms in rat, dog, and human hearts in a newly published study. It’s also biocompatible and eventually broken down by the body after temporary use. Over 23 times smaller than previous bioabsorbable pacemakers, the device opens the door to minimally invasive implants that wirelessly monitor heart health after extensive surgery or other heart problems.
“The extremely small sizes of these devices enable minimally invasive implantation,” the authors, led by John Rogers at Northwestern University, wrote. Paired with a wireless controller on the skin’s surface, the system automatically detected irregular heartbeats and targeted electrical zaps to different regions of the heart.
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