New pacemaker powers itself using heartbeats and may last a lifetime

A team of Chinese scientists has developed a revolutionary self-powering pacemaker that generates electricity from the heart's own beat, a breakthrough that could finally make lifetime cardiac implants come to life.

The device — described in a study in Nature Biomedical Engineering — addresses a critical flaw in current medical technology. Traditional pacemakers rely on batteries that deplete after roughly 10 years, forcing patients to undergo risky and expensive surgeries to replace them. In contrast, this new miniature device is designed to operate indefinitely, creating what the lead author of the paper calls "symbiotic bioelectronics."

Developed over seven years by a coalition including the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), Tsinghua University, and Peking University, the pacemaker uses a unique "integrated energy regeneration module."

It converts the kinetic energy of the heart's motion into electricity via electromagnetic induction. To ensure durability, the team engineered a simplified magnetic levitation system that minimizes friction. In laboratory tests simulating 300 million heartbeats — equivalent to 10 years of use — the device showed only 4 percent wear and tear.

The power output is equally impressive. The pacemaker generates an average of 120 microwatts, far exceeding the 10 microwatts required for stable operation.

The device is leadless, capsule-sized, and made from biocompatible materials, allowing it to be implanted through the femoral vein using a minimally invasive catheter. In a one-month trial involving a pig with severe bradycardia (slow heart rate), the pacemaker successfully maintained a normal rhythm using only the energy harvested from the animal's heartbeats.

Ouyang, an associate professor at UCAS, stated that the team aims to bring the device to clinical trials before 2030. The goal is to produce a unit that lasts two to three times longer than current imports — which can cost up to 160,000 yuan ($22,969) — at a fraction of the price. The researchers believe this "energy harvesting" technology could eventually be applied to other implantable devices used for bone repair, neural regulation, and pain management.