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.

Atrial Fibrillation Is the Most Common Type of Heart Arrhythmia and Affects About 30 Million People Worldwide.

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.

It’s hard to think of information that feels more personal than data about our own health. Yet we’re generating and monitoring more health data now than ever before. Whether it’s specific technology designed to help manage certain medical conditions—such as BIOTRONIK’s Patient App or remote care with Home Monitoring—or the plethora of more general, consumer-grade wearables and health apps, there are more and more digital options to help manage patient health.

An American survey last year found that health-related goals topped the priority list of New Year’s resolutions for 2021. Around half of those surveyed wanted to exercise more or lose weight, while about 40 percent wanted to improve their diets and 10 percent wanted to quit smoking. Of those people who make resolutions, many say they do, in fact, keep them. Around half of respondents in one such survey said they kept at least some of their 2020 resolutions. About 35 percent said they met all of their goals and just 16 percent say they didn’t keep any of their resolutions.

How a CLS Pacemaker Helps Cabaret Artist Wolfgang Koch Live Life to the Fullest