Early History of Cardiac Pacing and Defibrillation

Abstract

The Electricity and the Heart website1 is intended to facilitate the collection, cataloging and presentation of historical information about technical and scientific advances in cardiac devices. Over the course of the past century as the fields of cardiac pacing and electrophysiology have evolved, the technological devices used by physicians and researchers has been a fascinating and rapidly changing portion of the history of the fields. NASPE's Oral History Project houses hundreds of devices collected over the years that illustrate the evolution from crude and simple machines to the sophisticated and advanced technological wonders that are used in the field today. The photos and descriptions of many of these devices show just how far we have come in the advancement of treatment and patient care.