The defibrillator is still a work in progress, but Strauss recently filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to secure a patent for CardiaGard, a device that will monitor the heart to detect and treat coronary artery disease — a condition that affects more than 15 million Americans.
The device is designed to be inserted into a subcutaneous layer over the heart. Electrodes attached to the wires can detect the slightest changes in the heart’s rhythms in the same way that an electrocardiogram does, he said. The implantable defibrillators currently on the market thread wires into the arteries to monitor and shock the heart. Those wires can cause irritation or result in infection after the surgery.
“There is no risk of causing a patient to go into cardiac arrest when they are actually being operated on because we are not touching the heart,” he said.
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