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Guidant Receives 510k for New Wireless Pacemaker Communications

August 23rd, 2005 |  Published in Company Profiles, Standards & Regulatory

ContakRenewal

Dispensing with the usual wands, the new CONTAK RENEWAL 3 RF defib/pacemaker and ZOOM LATITUDE programmer from Guidant
uses a wireless radio link for device-to-programmer communications. In
addition to the usual capabilities, the ZOOM LATTIUDE programmer also
includes a remote monitoring capability. The wireless radio link
provides three times faster device interrogation. The only real benefit
here is the faster data link provided by the radio over the wand.
However, the press release does refer to, “additional follow-up
capability, pending FDA approval.” Interesting.

This wireless system is designed to save physicians and patients time
during implant and at follow-up, with device interrogations that can be
three times faster than Guidant’s previous programmer. In addition,
Guidant’s wireless communication technology removes the programmer wand
from the sterile implant field. Guidant plans to introduce these
products in the U.S. during the fourth quarter of this year.

It's not clear from the press release whether these products use the FCC's Medical Implant Communications System (MICS) band (between 402-405MHz), established in 1999. You may recall a post on the release of a Zarlink chip set specifically for this type of application.

UPDATE: Commenter Connie P. was kind enough to reply to me with an
answer to her own question. The ZOOM LATITUDE programmer operates at
914 MHz in a portion of the ISM band that is designated for
radiolocation (active RFID systems like Radianse) and monitoring –
called LMS for Location and Monitoring Service. Of course there are a
myriad of other ISM devices that operated within this same 902 - 928
MHz band . Here's a table showing frequency allocations that include LMS frequencies.

About the author

Gee

After almost 25 years in health care Tim remains with his first love, connectology, the automation of workflow through the integration of medical devices with information systems.


Email Tim | All posts by Tim Gee

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