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The Invention of the Medical Implant: A Life-Saving Breakthrough
A plain-language history of devices placed inside the body, from early hip and lens implants to pacemakers, valves and cochlear implants, and what made them work.
Medicine and the Body
Heart Devices and Implants
Pacemakers, defibrillators, valves and artificial hearts.
The History of the Prosthetic Heart: A Life-Saving Device
How the idea of replacing or assisting the heart developed, from perfusion pumps and the heart-lung machine to animal experiments and the first bridge devices.
The Invention of the First Artificial Heart: A Medical Marvel
The Jarvik-7 era of the early 1980s, the first human implants in Barney Clark and Bill Schroeder, and the ethical debates that followed the total artificial heart.
The Invention of the Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator: A Life-Saving Device
How Michel Mirowski and colleagues developed the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, from the idea in the late 1960s to the first human implants around 1980.
The Invention of the Implantable Defibrillator: A Life-Saving Device
Before any defibrillator could be implanted, doctors learned to shock the heart from outside. This article follows external defibrillation from animal tests to hospital use.
The Invention of the Implantable Pacemaker: A Life-Saving Device for Heart Patients
The path from early external pacing experiments to the first implanted pacemakers of the late 1950s, with the roles of Elmqvist, Senning, Greatbatch and others.
The Invention of the Medical Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator: A Life-Saving Breakthrough
How implantable defibrillators got smaller and easier to implant after the first models: transvenous leads, pectoral placement, better shocks and large clinical trials.
The Invention of the Medical Implantable Heart Valve: A Life-Saving Breakthrough
A history of replacement heart valves: Hufnagel's early valve, the Starr-Edwards ball-and-cage valve of 1960, tissue valves, newer mechanical designs and their materials.
The Invention of the Medical Implantable Pacemaker: A Life-Saving Breakthrough
How power sources shaped the pacemaker, from early mercury-zinc and rechargeable cells to lithium batteries, and how battery life drove design and follow-up.
Related topics
More in medicine and the body
Prosthetic Limbs Artificial arms, hands, legs and feet through the centuries. Sight and Hearing Aids Bionic eyes and ears, implants and the microscope. Exoskeletons and Artificial Tissue Wearable assistive frames, soft robotics, artificial muscle and skin. Microscopy How lenses opened the microscopic world and changed medicine. Medical Imaging Seeing inside the body with scans. X-Rays Discovery and early use of X-ray machines. Diabetes Care Technology Insulin, pumps and the artificial pancreas. Vaccines and Genetics Polio vaccine, DNA and gene editing. Medical Instruments Everyday tools of examination and treatment, told as history.