Students Design Defibrillator Vest

Medical Design Briefs INSIDER

A team of biomedical engineering students at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, designed a lightweight, easy-to-conceal shirt-like garment to deliver life-saving shocks to patients experiencing serious heart problems. The students say their design improves upon a wearable defibrillator system that is already in use.

The long-term treatment for patients at risk of sudden cardiac arrest is to surgically implant a small defibrillator in the chest, similar to a pacemaker. However, such operations cost roughly $150,000, and it generally takes three months of testing and insurance review to get approval for the costly procedure. During this waiting period, insurance providers usually pay for the rental of an external defibrillator garment to protect the patient. More than 100,000 of these devices have been prescribed in the United States during the eight years or so that the device has been available.

Their design changes, the students say, should lead to greater compliance among these patients. The new device incorporates features that should increase ease of use and overall functionality. They replaced the existing chest harness-style garment with a more comfortable vest-like design made of thin, breathable, and stretchable fabric, which also is waterproof for easy cleaning. The shirt can be worn unobtrusively beneath the patient’s clothing. Its electrical components, capable of delivering a 200-joule shock to stop a deadly arrhythmia, are encased in thin pockets on the sides of the garment.

The design also replaced a bulky control box hanging from the patient’s waist with a smaller wireless system worn like a watch on the patient’s wrist. This controller gives the wearer a 30-second warning to stop an impending shock if the system has been activated by a false alarm.

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