Interesting video, thanks.
A couple of points I'm wondering about. Like, why do you need the wriststraps? Pacemakers measure internal ECGs (or IEGM), and they'd have much better signal fidelity than what you'd get from the wrist straps. Granted, they'd also measure along a different axis (the axis matters a lot with ECGs) but I would expect the leads with their measurement points to be positioned in such a way as to deliver the signal relevant for that specific patient?
Measuring an ECG with wrist straps has some drawbacks, for example, you'll pick up any activity of your chest and arm muscles, it'll show up as noise on the ECG which can easily be an order of magnitude or two larger than the signal you're trying to measure. In my experience, something as simple as speaking makes the ECG signal unusable. I would expect that even just holding the coil in place would also not work, therefore I expect the patient to use the device while lying down, or maybe way back in a chair, so the coil rests in place on its own, and the patient trying to relax his chest and arms as best he can. I imagine the doctor will also tell them to shut up for a couple of seconds while the ECG is being recorded
I imagine that this might also be the reason why they put some effort into the speaker and microphone, so that it's usuable with the patient lying a meter next to it, as opposed to speaking directly into it.
Those same kind of coils are used to actually program the pacemaker. I wonder whether they do remote programming with that device. I suspect that while they technically can, they don't do it; the ramifications if anything goes wrong are potentially dire, noone wants to take responsibility for that.
I also wonder what kind of data rate you can actually get with an inductive coupling setup like that. Maybe the reason for the wrist straps is that it's too slow to transmit a live IEGM directly from the pacemaker. It will probably transmit recordings of "interesting events" though. Another reason for the wrist straps I can think of is that it's actually the back channel for the implant. They do transmit signals that way as markers, i.e. very short pulses that don't have any effect on the heart, but show up as vertical lines in an ECG. This remains from the days when implants didn't send out any data wirelessly. Thinking a bit more about it, this might be it, because then this system becomes compatible with a whole load of legacy pacemakers.
As for those two unopened pacemakers: I would totally expect the battery to still be live, those last a long time. I haven't checked the model numbers, so please, Dave, make sure that the one with the 4 screws isn't actually an ICD. If it is, be very careful; those things charge up to 800V and deliver around 40J, and while it shouldn't do that once explanted and without any signals being fed into it, you never know. It won't be dangerous I think, unless you've got some heart condition, but it'll probably hurt a lot in any case. Oh and the devices I've seen so far weren't potted on the inside, one reason would be that the battery might change slightly in size over time, and potting might crack or put undue stress on some other component. Besides, the welded titanium case provides a hermetic seal. If you have the right equipment to measure it, you might find that the gas inside isn't air. Don't expect too much from opening it though: it'll most likely just be folded flex boards with chunky passives, a naked custom die or two, the battery and (if it's an ICD) a large capacitor stack.
The other device with the 16 contacts probably isn't a cardiac device actually. It looks more like a nerve stimulator used for chronic pain therapy. With those, the leads have pads with many (4, 8, 16, 32, thereabout) contacts on them, and they're inserted into your spine, resting next to your spinal nerves. Sending out a high frequency AC signal will stop the nerves carrying pain signals from working properly, the pain wil be replaced by a soft buzzing feeling. The many contacts are used to lessen the requirements of exact positioning (or account for after-implantation shifts); you'll typically only have 2 electrodes activated, but you can change which 2 on the pad to maximize the effect and minimize unwanted side effects.