Rune Elmqvist developed the first implantable pacemaker

Artificial pacemaker

A pacemaker is a medical device that uses electrical impulses, delivered by electrodes contacting the heart muscles, to regulate the beating of the heart...

 in 1958, working under the direction of Åke Senning

Åke Senning

Åke Senning was a pioneering Swedish cardiac surgeon, who implanted the first human implantable cardiac pacemaker in 1958, invented the Senning operation, and contributed to many other advances....

, senior physician and cardiac

Heart

The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...

 surgeon

Surgery

Surgery is an ancient medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a patient to investigate and/or treat a pathological condition such as disease or injury, or to help improve bodily function or appearance.An act of performing surgery may be called a surgical...

 at the Karolinska University Hospital

Karolinska University Hospital

The Karolinska University Hospital is a university hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, with two major sites in the municipalities of Huddinge and Solna....

 in Solna

Solna Municipality

Solna Municipality is a municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden, located just north of the capital Stockholm. Its seat is located in the 'city' of Solna....

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

.

Elmqvist initially worked as a medical doctor

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

 (having trained in Lund

Lund

-Main sights:During the 12th and 13th centuries, when the town was the seat of the archbishop, many churches and monasteries were built. At its peak, Lund had 27 churches, but most of them were demolished as result of the Reformation in 1536. Several medieval buildings remain, including Lund...

), but later worked as an engineer

Engineer

An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...

 and inventor.

In 1948, he developed the first inkjet ECG

Electrocardiogram

Electrocardiography is a transthoracic interpretation of the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time, as detected by electrodes attached to the outer surface of the skin and recorded by a device external to the body...

 printer which he called the mingograph while working at Elema-Schönander, a company which later became Siemens

Siemens

Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...

-Elema. In 1957 he received an honorary doctorate

Doctorate

A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...

.

In 1960 he became Head of Development at Elema-Schönander. Siemens-Elema's pacemaker operations were sold to the American company Pacesetter Systems

Pacesetter Systems

Pacesetter Systems Inc. was a biotechnology company founded by Alfred E. Mann in 1965. The company manufactured various implantable medical devices invented by Robert Fischell and the rest of the team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory...

 in 1994, which was subsequently sold to St Jude Medical.