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Spinoff story
Unique Polymer Finds Widespread Use in Heart Devices
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
A material that a Langley Research Center scientist stumbled on in the early 1990s has helped to keep hundreds of thousands of patients’ hearts beating properly all over the world. Since 2009, medical technology giant Medtronic, based in Minneapolis, has been using the substance now known as LaRC-SI to get a relatively new type of pacemaker implanted into more patients more easily. As a result, many patients who might otherwise have continued to suffer symptoms of congestive heart failure were able to be treated.