Interesting post.

I attended the “New Horizons in Medical Electronics” panel last week at ESC, and asked the panel whether
a) increases in efficiency for energy harvesting methods, or
b) improvements in energy efficiency for ultra-low power devices
was the primary “nut to crack” to enable proliferation of such devices. They answered emphatically “the latter”.

Mir Imran also had an interesting comment, however. While it may seem appealing to avoid surgery to replace batteries in implantable devices, the truth is that by the time the battery needs to be replaced (~7 years), the user/patient may prefer to upgrade to new technology anyway – providing a convenient opportunity for battery replacement.

Of course, I wonder how this dynamic would change if the ultra-low power devices were actually programmable – e.g. an ASIP – enabling a degree of “field-upgradability”.

Something to think about.