Physical simulator for trans-venous cardiac pacemaker implantation training

Cardiac pacemakers are life-saving and life-restoring technologies. They are used to treat patients with heart disease.

Implantation of the pacemakers involves accessing the chambers of the heart via large veins and inserting pacemaker leads into these chambers. A pacemaker box is placed in the anterior chest wall and drives the signals to the heart via the leads. Simple pacemakers have two leads that go to the right side of the heart.

Complex pacemakers, for biventricular pacing, can have three leads, with the additional lead going to the left side of the heart via the cardiac veins. Globally, 50 pacemakers are implanted per annum per million population. This is carried out by a cardiologist, sometimes by one who has specialised in electrophysiology.

The implantation takes place under X-ray fluoroscopy guidance in the cardiac catheter laboratory.

The training is stipulated by professional bodies, such as the American Heart Association, and is extensive and lasts approximately 3-years. This training is mostly patient based with little adjunctive techniques, such as simulators.

There is significant scope to increase adjunctive training to meet the disease burden and also to help increase implantation rates in low to medium income regions.

This project aims to design, build and evaluate a novel physical simulator for training for trans-venous pacemaker implantation.