Development and characterization of unique polymer dielectric coating for medical devices

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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.