Smart Pacemaker Simply Dissolves Inside the Body When It's No Longer Needed

An anonymous reader writes: A team of scientists created a novel type of temporary pacemaker -- one that dissolves on its own, without requiring any removal. In their latest research, they've paired the pacemaker with a series of wireless sensors on the skin, which should allow it to smartly monitor a patient's vital signs and adjust its pacing autonomously. Should the device continue to show promise, it could one day be used in patients undergoing cardiac surgery or who otherwise only need a pacemaker for a short while. Last year, researchers at Northwestern University and George Washington University debuted the first version of the pacemaker. [...] In their new study, published Thursday in Science, the group has added more features to their pacemaker. According to author Igor Efimov, a professor of biomedical engineering and professor of medicine at Northwestern University, the pacemaker now comes with a "fully integrated network of wearable devices" attached to a patient's skin, four in total. These devices not only monitor a person's heartbeat and other vital signs like body temperature -- they also wirelessly power the pacemaker and control its pacing automatically as needed. Doctors can remotely monitor the data collected by the device via a computer network. And in experiments with living rodents and dogs, as well as human hearts in the lab, the pacemaker and its closed loop system seemed to work as intended.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.