Abbot’s Aveir DR (left) and VR (right) leadless pacemakers communicate wirelessly with each other from different chambers of the heart. [Image courtesy of Abbott]
The lead engineer on Abbott’s Aveir project explains how his team developed a first-of-its-kind wireless pacemaker system that communicates through blood.When Abbott’s Aveir DR pacemaker system became the first approved by the FDA for dual-chamber pacing this year, it expanded the benefits of leadless pacing to the majority of patients who need stimulation of both the atrium and ventricle chambers.
The lead engineer on the Aveir project, Matthew Fishler, was working on leadless pacemaker technology at Nanostim when it was acquired by St. Jude Medical in 2013. (Abbott then purchased St. Jude in 2017.) He traced the idea for a dual-chamber leadless system in an effort to eliminate lead failures and other complications of tradition…