Wilson Greatbatch

Wilson Greatbatch (September 6, 1919 – September 27, 2011) was an American engineer and inventor, best known for inventing the first practical implantable pacemaker. His innovation has saved millions of lives and is considered one of the most significant medical advancements of the 20th century.

Early Life and Education

Wilson Greatbatch was born in Buffalo, New York. He showed an early interest in electronics and engineering, which was further developed during his service in the United States Navy as a radar technician during World War II. After the war, he pursued his education in electrical engineering, earning a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a master's degree from the University of Buffalo.

Career and Invention of the Pacemaker

Greatbatch's career took a pivotal turn in 1958 while he was working as an assistant professor at the University of Buffalo. While attempting to build an oscillator to record heart sounds, he mistakenly installed a resistor with the wrong resistance. This error produced a pulse instead of a continuous current, mimicking the electrical activity of a human heart. This serendipitous mistake led him to conceive the idea of an implantable device to regulate the heartbeat.

After years of experimentation and testing, Greatbatch patented his invention in 1960. The first implantable pacemaker was successfully implanted in a human patient in 1960 by Dr. William Chardack and Dr. Andrew Gage. Greatbatch's invention utilized a mercury battery, which he also improved upon by later developing a lithium-iodide battery that significantly extended the device's life and reliability.

Impact and Legacy

Wilson Greatbatch's invention of the implantable pacemaker has had a profound impact on medical science and the lives of millions of people with heart conditions. His work paved the way for the development of other implantable medical devices, revolutionizing the field of biomedical engineering.

Throughout his career, Greatbatch was granted more than 350 patents. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1986 and received numerous awards for his contributions to science and engineering, including the Lemelson-MIT Prize for Invention and Innovation.

Greatbatch was also a committed philanthropist, focusing on renewable energy projects and humanitarian efforts. He founded Greatbatch Ltd., which continues to innovate in the field of medical devices.

Death

Wilson Greatbatch passed away on September 27, 2011, at the age of 92. His legacy lives on through his life-saving inventions and the continued work of the company he founded.

See Also

• Biomedical engineering
• History of medical devices
• Electrical engineering in medicine