Machines in Our Hearts

The Cardiac Pacemaker, the Implantable Defibrillator, and American Health Care
Erscheinungsjahr 2001
ISBN: 978-0-8018-6579-4
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 384 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 621 g

Today hundreds of thousands of Americans carry pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) within their bodies. These battery-powered machines—small computers, in fact—deliver electricity to the heart to correct dangerous disorders of the heartbeat. But few doctors, patients, or scholars know the history of these devices or how "heart-rhythm management" evolved into a multi-billion-dollar manufacturing and service industry.

Machines in Our Hearts tells the story of these two implantable medical devices. Kirk Jeffrey, a historian of science and technology, traces the development of knowledge about the human heartbeat and follows surgeons, cardiologists, and engineers as they invent and test a variety of electronic devices. Numerous small manufacturing firms jumped into pacemaker production but eventually fell by the wayside, leaving only three American companies in the business today. Jeffrey profiles pioneering heart surgeons, inventors from the realms of engineering and medical research, and business leaders who built heart-rhythm management into an industry with thousands of employees and annual revenues in the hundreds of millions. As Jeffrey shows, the pacemaker (first implanted in 1958) and the ICD (1980) embody a paradox of high-tech health care: these technologies are effective and reliable but add billions to the nation's medical bill because of the huge growth in the number of patients who depend on implanted devices to manage their heartbeats.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jeffrey, Kirk

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Medizin, Gesundheit: Sachbuch, Ratgeber
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Heart Block and the Heart Tickler
Chapter 2. The War on Heart Disease and the Invention of Cardiac Pacing
Chapter 3. Heart Surgeons Redefine Cardiac Pacing
Chapter 4. The Multiple Invention of Implantable Pacemakers
Chapter 5. Making the Pacemaker Safe and Reliable
Chapter 6. The Industrialization of the Pacemaker
Chapter 7. The Pacemaker Becomes a Flexible Machine
Chapter 8. Slowing the Pace: The Industry's Time of Troubles
Chapter 9. Competition through Innovation: Accelerating the Pace of Change
Chapter 10. Preventing Sudden Cardiac Death: The Implantable Defibrillator

Über Autor(innen)

Jeffrey, Kirk
Kirk Jeffrey is a professor of history at Carleton College, where he teaches American history and the history of technology. He is coauthor (with mathematician Loren Haskins) of Understanding Quantitative History.