Event category: Concurrent Session

EP Collaboratory to share efforts between industry and early stage companies to promote EFS within the US to increase patient access to new technologies and to support device innovation.

By the time of HRX 2025, pulsed field ablation will have been clinically available in the US for more than a year and a half. While first-gen systems have brought notable changes to EP, these first-generation systems only represent the very beginning of PFA. This session will focus on discussion of the key developments and advances for next generation PFA technologies, including advances in pulse sequences, catheter design, integration with electroanatomic mapping, and patient- and anatomic-specific custom lesion formation.

Catheter ablation has become the dominant form of therapeutic intervention for cardiac arrhythmias. However, preclinical development of new antiarrhythmic drugs is very robust. These new molecular entities are not limited to antagonism of membrane active ion channels, but target additional mechanisms of arrhythmogenesis. These drugs, their targets, and their potential ability to improve and disrupt current care paradigms will be reviewed in this session.

Self-driving cars, remote control of drones, and self-navigating planes are all current realities. However, mapping and ablation of cardiac arrhythmias is a completely human and labor-intensive endeavor, despite many advances over the years. This session will discuss the key barriers and potential solutions that may enable remote control of mapping and ablation as well as semi-autonomous systems for mapping and ablation.

Not all innovation is successful. Many potential innovations fail in the pre-clinical or early testing phases – often for common reasons. This session will discuss the potential pitfalls in device development and how innovators can navigate these challenges with greater confidence by avoiding mistakes and missteps. The panel will discuss their “dream” innovations that didn’t come to fruition – and what they learned.

In this session, we will delve into the evolving landscape of remote monitoring, addressing the increasing challenges associated with managing vast amounts of data collected from wearables, implantables, and external monitoring devices. We will explore the complexities of integrating data across diverse platforms, with a particular focus on overcoming interoperability barriers.

This session will detail the possibilities, potential technologies, and likely pathways for permanent pacing in the future. Specifically, this session will explore next generation pacing technologies, including but not limited to advances in leadless pacing, micro-devices, new epicardial pacing interventions, pacing for HFpE, and physiologic atrial pacing.

The autonomic nervous system is known to play a critical role in the initiation and/or triggering of many arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation. Autonomic therapies have moved well-beyond isolated ablation of cardiac ganglionated plexi. This session will review the innovations that have expanded autonomic therapies, including tragus stimulation, renal sympathetic denervation, and future innovations for additional interventions.

There is an unprecedented surge in innovation surrounding intracardiac ultrasound and its integration into electrophysiologic care. Future iterations of 4-D intracardiac ultrasound, next-generation integration into mapping systems, and the use of ultrasound for therapeutic purposes all have the potential to significantly change practice. This session will review these key innovations and how they may improve care in the EP laboratory.

Digital twins offer the promise to develop, test, and validate potential personalized solutions for heart rhythm care that are unique to a given individual and their myocardial substrate. Early studies have been promising. However, there are significant challenges from several different areas including operational, computational, and efficacy. This session will engage in discussing whether digital twins will become a foundational core of EP care or remain a fantasy.