Alois A. Langer (born February 24, 1945, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American biomedical engineer best known as one of the co-inventors of the Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD).
He studied electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed his Ph.D. thesis at Carnegie Mellon University.
After graduating from MIT, he pursued a combined PhD in electrical engineering and biotechnology at Carnegie Mellon University.
The company president, Dr. Steve Heilman, had previously met with Baltimore cardiologist Dr. Michael Mirowski to discuss the possibility of developing the ICD.
Langer also had to design a battery that would power the device for several years without failing or causing any immune response in the body.
Langer was present in the operating room with the ICD device in hand; ready to be implanted into the first human.
From this observation, Langer got the idea for developing a patient worn device that would monitor the heart rhythm 24 hours a day and relay any trouble to medical staff.
In 1990 Langer founded Cardiac Telecom Corporation in Greensburg, PA and started development on telephonic monitoring systems.
The HEARTrac system was designed for patient in hospital rooms as cheaper alternative to expensive ICU Monitoring or cardiac step down units.
In 1996, Langer flew to Tempe, Arizona for the Super Bowl XXX in order to demonstrate the HEARTrac system.
On August 31, 2007, Langer’s Cardiac Telecom Corporation voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in order to reorganize the firm.