The team led by Professor Junho Moon at Jeonbuk National University (JBNU) College of Veterinary Medicine (Veterinary Obstetrics) developed a wireless power transfer technology that reliably supplies power despite movement and deformation of cardiac implantable devices, and confirmed the effectiveness of wireless cardiac pacing in animal models. The work is expected to form the basis for developing next-generation implantable devices for heart failure treatment.

The study involved Professor Moon as well as Professor Seungpyo Lee from the Division of Cardiology at Seoul National University Hospital, Professor Sanghyuk Kim from the Department of Electronic and Information Convergence Engineering at Kyung Hee University, and Professor Daehyung Kim from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Seoul National University. The results were published this month in the latest issue of Nature Electronics, a leading journal in electrical and electronic engineering. The paper is titled ‘A wearable-to-implant wireless power transfer technology with variation tolerance.’

Implantable cardiac devices require continuous power supply, but the device's position and shape can change with the heartbeat. Conventional wireless power transfer methods have a limitation: even a slight misalignment between the external charger and the implanted device during this process can cause a sharp drop in power transfer efficiency.

To address this issue, the research team developed a deformation-tolerant wireless power transfer technology that is resilient to movement and deformation. The key feature is maintaining high charging efficiency even when the implant shifts or stretches and its alignment with the charger changes.

Notably, the team demonstrated in animal models that cardiac pacing—delivering electrical stimulation to the heart to regulate its rhythm—can be achieved based on a fully wireless connection. They also proved the ability to restore normal rhythm from induced arrhythmias.

Professor Moon was responsible for the in vivo validation using animal models. The team stably implanted devices under the skin and on the cardiac surface of rabbits and pigs, and real-time electrocardiogram monitoring confirmed that cardiac pacing operated at multiple sites in the left and right ventricles.

They additionally applied a wireless overdrive pacing approach—rapid electrical stimulation to control abnormal rhythms during ventricular tachycardia—and restored normal heartbeats, suggesting potential for future clinical application.

The research team stated that this achievement secures an early-stage implantable device technology for heart failure, and that they are developing an innovative cardiac implantable device that could enable both prevention and treatment of heart failure based on this study.

Professor Moon plans to continue follow-up research by establishing various heart failure animal models to develop patient-tailored implantable devices. He said, “We will collaborate on developing patient-specific heart failure implants using the established heart failure animal models, and we hope to contribute to elucidating mechanisms for both prevention and treatment of heart failure.”