BIOTRONIK Blog

2023 was a landmark year for BIOTRONIK – not simply in name or number – but in action. The company’s 60 th year of operations was a busy one for lifesaving innovations like the Amvia pacemaker and CRT-P family and Oscar catheter, to laying the groundwork for helping a whole new community of patients with the Prospera TM spinal cord stimulation system, a BIOTRONIK first.

A contribution by David Hayes, MD, Chief Medical Officer at BIOTRONIK Inc.

In the midst of celebrating 60 years of service in partnership with the healthcare community, BIOTRONIK’s Electrophysiology business marked another important milestone of its own in 2023 – its 20 th anniversary.

After starting enrollment in 2019, Dr. Valentina Kutyifa announced the first results of the BIOTRONIK-supported BIO-LIBRA trial at the Annual Heart Rhythm Society meeting (HRS 2022).

BIOTRONIK Employees Share Their Experiences as Relatives of Cardiac Patients

More than 1.7 million cardiac implantable electronic devices are implanted worldwide each year. Young implant wearers in particular have many questions about whether and how their life will change after the procedure. One of the most important ones: whether and to what extent they can practice sports again. Media coverage of the Danish professional soccer player Christian Eriksen, who had an ICD (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator) implanted after collapsing during an international match, has further increased interest in the interaction between cardiovascular diseases and sport.

Rolf Opuchlich has been with the BIOTRONIK Quality Team since 1997. In 2020, he received his own device. Despite knowing just about everything there is to know about the defibrillator he now wears, on his first vacation after getting his implant he was still a bit restless. “I was fairly nervous that first time,” says Rolf looking back at his first flight with his ICD after implantation. “Even though I know our devices well and had everything I needed with me.”

Continuing a company tradition that started a decade ago, BIOTRONIK employees at the company’s headquarters mounted their bicycles in early July to race through Berlin as a team during VeloCity Berlin—an event that sees teams come together for either a 60km race or a 90km race through the German capital.

Around 49 million people in the EU suffer from cardiovascular diseases. Here, Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) accounts for the major share of the diseases. In this context, narrowing of vessels by atherosclerotic processes is closely linked to an unhealthy lifestyle. This was also the case for the North Rhine-Westphalian deacon Rainer Beerhenke. After successful stent placement and a bypass surgery in 2021, the 58-year-old is again living life to the full and is one of the first patients to take part in the EU-funded TIMELY project, which aims to improve the range of therapies for CAD patients.