Medtronic Wants to Implant Sensors in Everyone (OrthoSpineNews)
Today, when doctors suspect that a patient has a cardiac arrhythmia that could lead to a heart attack, they can implant a tiny cardiac monitor smaller than a AAA battery in the patient’s chest, directly over the heart. The company that makes that monitor, Medtronic, thinks the day will come when perfectly healthy people will be clamoring to have that gear inside them as well.
At a Medical Design & Manufacturing conference today, Medtronic program director Mark Phelps described his company’s successful efforts to miniaturize its cardiac technologies. In February, the company began a clinical trial of itspill-sized pacemaker, which is implanted inside the heart. While Phelps presented that tiny pacemaker as a remarkable feat of engineering, he saved his real excitement for the tiny Linq cardiac monitor, which went on sale this year. Phelps declared that the device heralded “the beginning of a new industry” in diagnostic and monitoring implants.
Phelps argued that such an implant could be enhanced with more sensors to give people reams of biometric information, which would improve their healthcare throughout their liv...
