Not everyone can afford a pacemaker, so these doctors are recycling them 

Doctors at the University of Michigan are pioneering a new approach to making life-saving pacemakers more accessible to those in need. It all started when a man walked into a Michigan hospital more than a decade ago, asking to donate his late wife’s pacemaker. Despite the device being relatively new, it was not legal in the United States to reuse pacemakers. This sparked the idea of exploring whether used pacemakers could be properly sterilized and implanted for use in low- and middle-income countries.

The team, led by Dr. Thomas Crawford, conducted a randomized trial involving nearly 300 patients across seven countries. The early results, presented at an American Heart Association conference in Chicago, showed that refurbished pacemakers, when sterilized and implanted correctly, performed just as well as new ones with no increased risk of infection.

This breakthrough has the potential to make a significant impact on the millions of people worldwide who cannot afford life-saving devices like pacemakers. In countries like Canada and the U.S., pacemakers are approved for single-use only, in line with manufacturers’ instructions. However, in less wealthy nations, the cost of a pacemaker often falls on the patient or their family, leading to millions of preventable deaths each year.

The University of Michigan’s “My Heart Your Heart” project aims to address this disparity by collecting and sterilizing donated pacemakers from hospitals and funeral homes for use in countries where access to these devices is limited. The ongoing clinical trial in seven countries has shown promising results, with no significant differences in health outcomes between patients who received new pacemakers and those who received refurbished ones.

While the ethical implications of using refurbished pacemakers in wealthier countries are still under debate, Dr. Crawford and his team believe that the benefits of extending and improving patients’ lives outweigh the concerns. They are committed to continuing their research and exploring similar initiatives for implantable cardiac defibrillators, which are even more costly than pacemakers.

Ultimately, the goal is to provide affordable and effective cardiac devices to those who need them most, regardless of their financial circumstances. By reimagining the way pacemakers are used and recycled, these doctors are paving the way for a more equitable healthcare system worldwide.