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Session: Poster session II
Session starts: Thursday 24 January, 16:00

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S. Dobbenga (Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands)
J. Hassing (Life Science and Technology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands)
K. Thomson (Industrial Design, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands)
S.P. Pellegrini (Department of Precision and Microsystems Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands)
N. Tolou (Department of Precision and Microsystems Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands)

Abstract:
As technology improves, more medical devices are designed for implantation in the body, for example hearing aids, pacemakers and deep brain stimulators. When a battery is used as power supply for an implantable device, a surgery is needed every time the battery needs to be replaced. Patients will suffer multiple surgeries for battery replacement during their lives, depending on the battery life span of the implanted medical device. Combining these implantable medical devices with an energy harvester offers the possibility to create a lifelong power supply for implantable devices, and therefore save the surgeries for battery changing. The goal of this research is to investigate the potential of the energy harvester as power supply for implantable medical devices in terms of saved surgeries. The research was done on combining the energy harvester with the pacemaker, which is the most commonly implanted device. The data acquisition was performed using a research of the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Netherlands, which was on the amount of pacemaker surgeries in the Netherlands. The amount of pacemaker surgeries divided in age groups was shown for the year 2009, also a distinction was made in gender, and time of hospitalization (one-day for battery changing and long-term for first surgery). The average life expectations of men and women in the Netherlands and the battery lifespan are used for calculating the amount of battery changing surgeries these patients will suffer during a lifetime. It was shown that using an energy harvester as power supply for pacemakers could save up to an average of 3 surgeries per patient per lifetime and about 1600 pacemaker surgeries per annum in the Netherlands. This may result in saving more that 25m€ per annum in the Netherlands alone. This research encourages further development of the use of energy harvesters in medical devices.