Overlook Medical Center gives hearts a boost, using unique Optimizer device

SUMMIT, NJ – OCTOBER 2024 – Overlook Medical Center, part of Atlantic Health System, recently began using the Optimizer, a unique device designed to help the heart deliver more oxygen-rich blood to the body for patients who have experienced heart failure.

The Optimizer® System, from Impulse Dynamics, shares traits similar to pacemakers and defibrillators – it is implanted under the skin of the upper chest, with electrical leads placed in the heart’s right ventricle through the veins and delivers electrical pulses to the heart muscle.

However, unlike a pacemaker or defibrillator, instead of causing a contraction of the muscle to treat heart rhythm disturbances, Optimizer delivers those pulses in order to cause subsequent beats of the heart to be stronger or more forceful, resulting in more oxygen-rich blood to be delivered with each beat using Cardiac contractility modulation, or CCM Therapy.

“The Optimizer delivers a boost in more ways than one,” said Michael Weinrauch, MD, chair of cardiology at Overlook Medical Center. “It takes a novel approach to assisting the heart to do its job, and it gives us another option to help our patients recover from heart failure. We are excited to use this to help patients live better.”

Heart failure is a condition in which the heart slowly weakens and cannot pump with force required to supply oxygen-rich blood to meet the body’s needs. Patients with heart failure experience debilitating symptoms, including breathlessness, fatigue, confusion, and swelling in the legs that make everyday activities challenging and significantly diminish their quality of life.

Traditional treatments for heart failure provide limited or no improvement to the heart’s ability to pump with more strength, and nearly 50 percent of people with heart failure die within five years of being diagnosed.

Heart failure affects an estimated 6.5 million Americans and nearly 64 million people worldwide. By 2030, over 8 million people in the United States — one in every 33 — will have heart failure, according to statistics published in the European Journal of Heart Failure.

Today, most heart failure patients are prescribed medications intended to slow the progression of the disease and manage their symptoms. As the condition progresses, these treatments can lose their effectiveness, and the quality of life for heart failure patients can continue to decline.

CCM therapy, which is delivered by the Optimizer system, is an FDA-approved treatment that is proven to improve the quality of life for heart failure patients. CCM therapy is a safe and effective minimally invasive treatment option for many heart failure patients that improves the quality of life for patients who are no longer adequately responding to medications to manage symptoms or slow the progression of heart failure.

Marlton, N.J.-based Impulse Dynamics’s Optimizer System was granted “Breakthrough Device” designation by the FDA and is the first and only FDA-approved (as of March 2019) device in the United States or elsewhere to offer CCM therapy. The Optimizer has been used to treat over 9,000 patients. It is currently available in the United States, Europe (obtained CE Mark in October 2016), China, Brazil, India, and over 40 other countries worldwide.

About Atlantic Health System

Atlantic Health System is at the forefront of medicine, setting standards for quality health care in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the New York metropolitan area. Powered by a workforce of 20,000 team members and 5,440 affiliated physicians dedicated to building healthier communities, Atlantic Health System serves more than half of the state of New Jersey including 14 counties and 7.5 million people.

The not-for-profit system offers more than 550 sites of care, including its eight hospitals: Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, NJ, Overlook Medical Center in Summit, NJ, Newton Medical Center in Newton, NJ, Chilton Medical Center in Pompton Plains, NJ, Hackettstown Medical Center in Hackettstown, NJ, Goryeb Children’s Hospital in Morristown, NJ, Atlantic Rehabilitation Institute in Madison, NJ and CentraState Healthcare System in Freehold, NJ.

The system includes Atlantic Medical Group, part of a physician enterprise that makes up one of the largest multispecialty practices in New Jersey with more than 1,700 physicians and advance practice providers. Joined with Atlantic Accountable Care Organization and Optimus Healthcare Partners they form part of Atlantic Alliance, a Clinically Integrated Network of more than 2,500 health care providers throughout northern and central NJ.

Atlantic Health System provides care for the full continuum of health care needs through 27 urgent care centers, Atlantic Visiting Nurse and Atlantic Health Virtual Visits. Facilitating the connection between these services on both land and air is the transportation fleet of Atlantic Mobile Health.

Atlantic Health System leads the Healthcare Transformation Consortium, a partnership of six regional hospitals and health systems dedicated to improving access and affordability, has a medical school affiliation with Thomas Jefferson University, is home to the regional campus of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Morristown and Overlook Medical Centers, and is the official health care partner of the New York Jets.