A technology that was originally intended for use in electronic gadgets is now being re-purposed to diagnose heart arrhythmia.

John Rogers, University professor of material science and engineering, and colleagues have developed a type of bio-compatible silicon that allows physicians a more complete picture of the heart.

Rogers described their product as comparable to a type of medical “Saran wrap” that can wrap around the heart and then produce an electronic image.

“Essentially, our technology produces a kind of movie of the heart,” Rogers said.

The technology, used in hospitals now, is what Rogers described as more of a “patchwork” method, only allowing physicians to see one part of the heart at a time. Rogers’ new technology is more of a kind of adhesive that is flexible, rather than the rigid technology of the past.

The original idea came from a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. Rogers was giving a talk on this new type of bendable silicon and the student asked if he had considered medical purposes. Before this time, Rogers had been thinking of using the silicon for electronic gadgets.

“Problems in human health seemed a lot more compelling than the next generation of iPods,” Rogers explained.

From there, after collaborating with both University of Pennsylvania and Northwestern professors, the idea emerged into actuality. Rogers said he believes this may pose a myriad of advantages.

“We believe this new technology will be easier, cheaper and faster,” he said. “If you can diagnose faster then morbidity goes down, it provides a much more rapid and safe way to do things.”

At this time, trials on pigs have been conducted using the new technology.

“The most exciting instance part of the research has been actually measuring the EKG signal from the surface of the pigs,” said Dae Hyeong Kim, a University graduate student involved with the project. “It was the first real, practical use of our technology.”

Brian Litt, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a collaborator on the project, said it is very probable that human trials could begin in the next year. To Litt, the technology was a sort of answered prayer.

“We’ve known for a long time that implantation devices have limitations,” he said. “We’ve been looking for this type of a device for a long time and it was something that just sort of fell out of the sky. We’re optimistic that it may play a major role in medical devices of all kinds.”

Rogers said a long-term goal of the researchers is to develop a type of silicon that can not only produce an image for diagnosis, but also one that could actually treat arrhythmic hearts. Currently, they have already developed silicon that can treat the disorder by emitting a constant electric current that regulates the heart and destroys bad tissue. The feat now is trying to combine the two products into one.

Rogers explained that they would also like to try and duplicate this sort of a device made specifically for the brain.

In the future, Rogers said that the technology could be used for multiple other things, including those types of gadgets he originally envisioned developing. But he said his perspective has changed.

“We’re still somewhat interested in gadgets,” Rogers said, “but health concerns are at the top of our priorities.”