SBIR Phase I: Novel Defibrillator

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project lies in its potential to develop a new mechanism for painlessly terminating atrial fibrillation. Cardiac arrhythmia is one of the leading causes of death and debilitation. A common means of terminating harmful rhythms is delivering a shock via an external or implantable defibrillator. The pain from the shock is the number one concern for patients with implantable defibrillators, and because of the pain, an implantable option is not practical for atrial fibrillation. The high-risk, high-reward research to be conducted under this project will significantly advance the field of defibrillation therapy and aims to lead to the introduction of a new class of implantable medical device technology. The proposed project seeks to develop and evaluate an implantable device that achieves non-destructive temporary conduction delay in cardiac tissues for the painless termination, and potentially prevention, of life threatening arrhythmias. Cardiac arrhythmias are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the developed world. More than 1,000 Americans die each day from sudden cardiac arrest. The project intends to initially target the development of a device to achieve rapid and painless termination of life threatening arrhythmias to treat atrial fibrillation. The successful development of the proposed device has the potential to benefit millions of patients. Additionally, by virtue of its painless modulation of arrhythmogenesis, the proposed device may well also terminate incipient arrhythmias. The phase I project will develop instrumentation, conduct experiments and develop a cardiac model and simulation environment to validate the technique in support of the development of a prototype system. The determination of a dose response characteristic of the proposed therapy in this phase of the research is an expected long-term outcome of the project.