Development and characterization of unique polymer dielectric coating for medical devices

心律失常，或心律不齐，是一种患者心脏不能正常工作的情况；心脏可能跳动太快、太慢，或任何其他不规则的模式。大多数情况下，心律失常的发生没有任何症状，但在严重的情况下，可能会导致心悸、胸痛、昏厥，甚至心力衰竭。尽管这种情况在老年人群中更为常见，但它可能发生在任何年龄。近年来，大约2%到3%的北美人口受到心律失常的影响，常见的治疗方法包括药物治疗、心脏起搏器植入和心脏手术。心脏消融是移除/破坏这些有缺陷的心脏组织从而恢复心脏功能的多种方法之一 有规律的节拍。在大多数情况下，受损组织位于心脏的左房或左室。为了进入这些区域，一种又长又灵活的器械，也被称为跨中隔针，从患者的腹股沟区域插入，并通过静脉进入心脏。一旦进入心脏，就会进行一种特殊的程序，即跨间隔穿刺法，在心膜上形成一个小洞。这个小孔允许器械进一步进入左心房，在移除有问题的组织之前到达所需的位置。 贝利斯医疗公司是为全球医院开发和制造用于治疗心律失常的体内手术工具(如跨隔针)的领先制造商之一。这些手术器械的关键部件之一是一种特殊的生物兼容外层涂层，用于保护人体组织和工具。 贝利斯医疗公司正在寻求与多伦多大学合作，开发应用于下一代手术工具的涂层的新材料和制造工艺。通过将多伦多大学在聚合物科学和制造技术方面的学术专业知识与Baylis医疗公司的生物医学专业知识相结合，可以预见新型涂层材料的新材料研究和工艺创新，这将使安大略省的医疗保健行业在制造和产品开发方面更具竞争力。

Cardiac arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, is a condition of which the patients heart cannot function properly; the heart can be either beating too fast, too slow, or in any other irregular patterns. Most of the time, arrhythmia occurs without any symptoms, but in serious conditions, may lead to heart palpitation, chest pains, fainting, or even heart failure. Although this condition is more common in elderly populations, it can happen at any age. In recent years, around 2 to 3% of the North American populations are affected by cardiac arrhythmia and common treatments include medication, pacemaker implant, and heart surgery. Cardiac ablation is one of the many methods of which removes/destroys these faulty heart tissues thereby restoring regular beating rhythm. In most cases, the defected tissues are located in the left atrium or left ventricle of the heart. To gain access to these regions, a long and flexible instrument, also known as transseptal needle, is inserted from patients groin area and into the heart though the vein. Once inside the heart, a special procedure, transseptal puncture which creates a small hole on the heart membrane, is performed. The small hole allows the instrument to further enter the left atrium to reach the desire location before removing the faulty tissues. Baylis Medical Company is one of the leading manufacturers that develop and fabricate in vivo surgical tools such as transseptal needles for hospitals globally to treat cardiac arrhythmia. One of the critical components in these surgical instruments is a special biocompatible outer layer coating for protecting both the human tissue and the tool. Baylis Medical Company is seeking to collaborate with the University of Toronto in developing new materials and manufacturing processes of the coating layer to be applied to the next generation surgical tools. Through the combination of the academic expertise in polymer science and manufacturing technologies available at the University of Toronto and the biomedical expertise at Baylis Medical Company, novel material research and process innovations are envisioned for the new coating material that will make Ontario healthcare sectors more competitive in manufacturing and product development.