The University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center, with help from the My Heart Your Heart program, will provide recycled pacemakers to patients overseas who cannot afford new ones. A pacemaker is a small device that sits under a patient’s collarbone and sends electrical impulses to the heart to help it beat normally. These devices can last between 10 and 15 years before needing a replacement.
There is a disparity in cardiac pacemaker therapy between high- and low-income countries due to the high cost of pacemakers.
The cost of pacemakers without health insurance can range anywhere from $19,000 to $96,000. This does not include extended hospital stays, which can cost between $20,000 and $65,000. These numbers increase as additional maintenance and replacement surgeries are needed.
Kim Eagle, U-M Albion Walter Hewlett professor of internal medicine, founded the My Heart Your Heart program in 2009. The program has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Institutional Review Board to conduct clinical studies in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique and Venezuela. Currently, about 200 patients are enrolled in My Heart Your Heart’s clinical research.
Bartolome Finizola, founder and director of ASCARDIO, a nonprofit health care organization based in Venezuela, said in a statement that partnering with Michigan Medicine has helped reduce barriers to access.
“We have a waiting list of around 300 people who could potentially lose their lives in less than a month,” Finizola said. “Almost nine out of every 10 patients live in poverty conditions and are therefore unable to easily access a pacemaker implant. Implanting these reconditioned devices has been our solution and around one in seven (implantations) that we do comes from our partnership with the University of Michigan.”
United 2 Heal is a U-M student organization working to eliminate global health disparities through member volunteer work. As part of their work, United 2 Heal volunteers help My Heart Your Heart process pacemaker donations.
LSA senior Jannis Jacobs, technical team co-director for United 2 Heal, said volunteers help ensure the devices are cleaned and ready to be reused before they are shipped.
“We take the masses of donated pacemakers, we make sure those get cleaned, programmed, sorted and then prepped for shipment,” Jacobs said. “It is important to turn the devices almost completely off, or on low power, to save battery life during the travel process.”
LSA junior Azeem Saifee, technical team co-director for United 2 Heal, said pacemakers are donated with years of battery life left, and donating them ensures the remaining battery can be put to use.
“The minimum battery life requirement for these donated pacemakers is four years,” Saifee said. “Sometimes we will see pacemakers with 15 years (of use left) which are almost brand new devices. If there wasn’t a program like this then those would just go in the trash.”
Jacobs said he values the hands-on experience provided by the My Heart Your Heart program, and the opportunity to give back.
“It is a great feeling because you are directly impacting people in a way that is hard to do anywhere else,” Jacobs said. “It feels like not only are you helping people in the moment, but you are creating a path for countless people to be helped in the future.”
3/13 Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that the program is Frankel CVC program.
Daily Staff Reporter Emma Lapp can be reached at emmalapp@umich.edu.