PhD Adrian Zurbuchen (Switzerland)
Interview: 28th of August, 10:00 am
University: University of Michigan
Position: Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Michigan
Personal details: Today’s cardiac pacemakers are powered by batteries with limited energy capacity. As the battery’s lifetime ends, the pacemaker needs to be replaced. This surgical re-intervention is costly and bears the risk of complications. Thus, a pacemaker without primary batteries is desirable. Already Zurbuchen’s Master Thesis was about a batteryless clockwork powered pacemaker. Energy-harvesting devices attract wide interest as power supplies of today's medical implants. Their long lifetime will spare patients from repeated surgical interventions. They also offer the opportunity to further miniaturize the existing implants.
Adrian Zurbuchen finished his Master in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Bern. Since July 2016 he works as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Michigan. His lecture at the ESC Congress 2016 is called „The torpedo-pacemaker - towards blood flow driven lead- and batteryless right ventricular outflow tract pacing”. The next step towards batteryless pacemakers?
If you had the chance to meet Adrian Zurbuchen and talk to him in person, what would you ask? Comment your question right here and I’ll do my best to have them answered in my interview at the ESC Congress.
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