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His inventions help millions PHOTO COURTESY OF ROBERT FISCHELL
By Robert Friedman It was just another 11-hour workday for Robert Fischell, 85, who was putting in time recently on a medical device that he says will lower blood pressure by at least 30 points. After having brought relief to sufferers of heart disease, epileptic seizures, diabetes and migraines, among other ailments, physicist-inventor Fischell is now focusing on hypertension. Fischell, who lives in Dayton, Md., has been credited with improving the health of millions, and saving the lives of countless others through the medical instruments he has invented or perfected. He will speak about his work at the Beacon’s 50+ expos in October. In his innovative 15-minute procedure to lower blood pressure, “three steel needles will each deliver a drop of alcohol into the nerves surrounding the renal artery…which will dramatically reduce both the systolic (the top number) and the diastolic (bottom number)” readings, Fischell said. The procedure will “decrease pill usage and dramatically improve the lives of hypertension sufferers,” he said.
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Pacemakers, stents, migraines That’s only the latest in a string of problem-solving inventions. In 1962, Fischell developed the first widely-accepted rechargeable pacemaker. The device, implanted in heart disease sufferers, had lifetime batteries and was one-tenth the size of competing designs. He then invented the implantable insulin pump, which delivered the drug internally to diabetics, rather than requiring patients to inject themselves. Fischell devised flexible coronary stents that open clogged arteries to keep blood flowing from the heart. The Fischell invention accounts for most of the coronary stents now used worldwide. More than 10 million of them have been placed, he noted. He and colleagues have come up with a device that can stop or diminish epileptic seizures. The device is implanted in the cranial bone, wired to that part of the brain that senses an oncoming seizure, and prevents it from happening. And then Fischell created a device implanted like a pacemaker with a wire into
Robert Fischell’s medical inventions, from pacemakers to insulin pumps, are credited with improving the health, and saving the lives, of millions of people. His device to zap away migraines was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
the heart that vibrates like a cell phone to warn of a heart attack. “The warning will be provided even before the patient has any symptom …which is really vital to the 25 percent of all patients who never get any warning that they are having a heart attack,” Fischell said. And that’s not all, folks. The work on life-changing instruments continues. Fischell has put the final touches on an invention that stops migraine headaches at their inception. The portable device is held against the back of the head, a button is pressed, and two magnetic pulses tell the neurons of the brain to hibernate and forget about causing the migraine. “The patients feel a not unpleasant tingle in their scalp,” he said, from the Tran-
scranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) produced by the Spring TMS device. The Food and Drug Administration recently gave the device its final approval. What this will mean, he said, is that migraine headaches will be a scourge of the past for many, and current sufferers will no longer have to buy expensive pills. And, unlike so many medications advertised on TV, there are no side effects from its use. Fischell expects medical insurers to cover the cost of the device, which would require a doctor’s prescription. In another recent effort, Fischell and a University of Maryland colleague are working on a way to significantly reduce See INVENTOR, page 6
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INNOVATIONS k Tech that keeps you safe k A library in your pocket
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FITNESS & HEALTH k Check up on your doc’s vitals k A pill that can end allergies?
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LAW & MONEY k Benefitting from mergers k Don’t outlive your money
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