For Heart Monitor Implant, Medtronic Thinks Very Small

A heart monitor the size of a paper clip may help keep Fred Schakel alive. Last November, when he thought he was in the best shape of his life, the 46-year-old Indiana dairy farmer had a stroke. Doctors couldn’t identify a reason, so they inserted the monitor, the Reveal LINQ, under the skin of his chest to track his heart’s electrical activity.

The $5,000 device, made by Minneapolis-based Medtronic, is part of a push by the medical technology industry to develop smaller and easier-to-use heart devices that can be inserted without surgery and operate without the troublesome and inconvenient wires found in older heart monitors. The monitor has the potential to create a new market for microdevices. It was conceived in 2006, at a time when the device industry, including Medtronic, was battered by recalls and lawsuits over safety issues. “From the patient’s standpoint, it’s a tremendous win,” says Dr. John Day, the medical director for Intermountain Healthcare’s heart rhythm services in Murray, Utah.