Our favorites from HR26
On April 23-26 the 47th Heart Rhythm conference took place in Chicago. The annual event showcases the latest developments in heart arrhythmia research and treatment, and this year did not disappoint. The 2026 event received more abstracts than any previous event, reflecting the rapidly developing science in the field. More than ten thousand medical personnel came together to experience some 2,000 sessions, posters, roundtables, and hands-on experiences, including a four hour deep dive into the topic of arrhythmias in athletes.
The conference opened with a plenary session featuring keynote speaker Dr. Will Flanary. Dr. Flanary is a Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) survivor, as well as a two-time cancer survivor. He also moonlights as the medical comedian Dr. Glaucomflecken, and hosts the podcast Knock Knock, Hi! with his wife Kristin, aka Lady Glaucomflecken.
The conference also featured a four hour Global Summit that focussed on sports electrophysiology, a field that is undergoing rapid evolution. The summit concentrated on arrhythmias in athletes, as well as the role of exercise in overall cardiovascular health. Experts discussed both the positive effects of exercise on atrial fibrillation and general wellness, as well as key issues in sports safety for people with cardiovascular disease. The session also addressed global efforts in sudden cardiac arrest prevention.
AI was, of course, another focus. In one session, the Great Wall of China Congress discussed the use of AI in diagnosing cardiac arrhythmias and general cardiac disease. Josh Mayourian, MD, PhD, talked about using AI-enabled ECG to predict the future onset of atrial arrhythmias in pediatric and congenital heart disease. Joseph Barker, Electrophysiology Fellow at Imperial College, London, discussed AI-Enhanced ECG Risk Estimation for Incident Heart Failure & Ventricular Arrhythmia in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Mihir Kelshiker, Assistant Professor in AI Implementation, also at Imperial College, talked about the deployment of AI-enabled diagnostics in the NHS. To name a few.
Exhibitor Johnson & Johnson used the event to launch their Carto 3 Version 8 heart mapping software platform, and announced their plans to launch their new CartoSound Sonata module. The Carto 3 Version 8 platform leverages AI to automatically transform intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) images into detailed maps, allowing physicians to build accurate models of multiple heart chambers. CartoSound integrates with Johnson & Johnson’s SoundStar Crystal (2D ICE) and NuVision Nav (4D ICE) ultrasound catheters, enabling treatment across a range of heart rhythm conditions.
Atraverse Medical, which was recently acquired by Johnson & Johnson, presented their HOTWIRE large-electrode RF guidewire system, which was introduced in a limited way in 2024, received FDA approval in 2025, and has recently been released in a wider range. The system has been received enthusiastically, as it’s affected a notable reduction in unintended left atrial injury events—zero such events, as opposed to >50% injury rate in procedures that used a small-electrode RF guidewire system. The demo included a simulated heart model (an earlier demo in February had included an ex-vivo porcine heart model.
Different cardiac ablation procedures were also a popular topic of discussion, with numerous scientists presenting their research findings. Several talks centred on pulse field ablation, a minimally invasive procedure that uses electrical pulses to destroy targeted heart tissue, in order to treat different arrhythmia disorders, such as atrial fibrillation and tachycardia. A talk by Shao-Wei Lo, MD, MPH, of Cleveland Clinic compared the success of pulse field ablation to that of radiofrequency ablation for scar-related ventricular tachycardia. Results from a late-breaking clinical trial were also released, showing that catheter ablation may reduce ventricular tachycardia (VT) events in patients with ischemic and nonischemic cardiomyopathy. The trial showed that patients receiving catheter ablation experienced significantly fewer incidences of recurrent VT, VT storms, and all-cause mortality than patients who received antiarrhythmic drug therapy.
Medtronic shared their own late-breaking clinical findings, which supported a variety of new technologies, including their Aurora Extravascular Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (EV-ICD) system, OmniaSecure defibrillation lead, and the Affera PFA platform. Their EV-ICD uses a lead placed under the sternum, which connects to an implantable defibrillator, and is meant to treat ventricular tachyarrhythmias, ventricular fibrillation, and bradyarrhythmias. Medtronic’s findings demonstrated excellent outcomes after twelve months. In particular, the first-of-its-kind system demonstrated high success in anti-tachycardia pacing and defibrillation, as well as a low rate of chronic, system-related medical complications.
Biotronik shared their preclinical results for their LivIQ leadless pacemaker system. The findings follow the successful implantations of LivIQ in animal models, and demonstrated safe implementation of the device with no adverse events. LivIQ also produced stable electrical performance over 12 weeks and highly reliable AV synchrony using far-field electrical p-wave sensing. It also had consistent atrial tracking across postures and rates up to 140 bpm. Earlier this year, Biotronik reported the first successful human implantation of the leadless pacemaker. The pacemaker was designed to use atrial electrical far-field sensing, which, according to Biotronic, would be the world’s first intracardiac pacemaker to do so.
Monitoring technology was also on display, as the San Francisco based company iRhythm shared the results of two of its real-world retrospective analyses for its long term continuous heart monitoring technology. The analyses focussed on pregnant and post-ablation populations. According to the company, its technology detected arrhythmias beyond 14 hours and within 14 days in a large proportion of patients across both studies. iRhythm’s technology features a prescription-only patch-based ECG monitor that captures up to 14 days of continuous, uninterrupted data. That data is analysed by the ZEUS software system, which uses an FDA-cleared AI algorithm.
Mina Chung, MD, FHRS, and president of the Heart Rhythm Society, said, "This year's meeting represents a pivotal evolution for HRS.The 47th Heart Rhythm meeting underscores our commitment to advancing scientific dialogue in meaningful ways, reflected in the notable increase in scientific abstract submissions this year. Breakthrough science drives progress, but its true impact is measured by how effectively it improves outcomes, enhances quality of life, and extends lives. By bringing innovation and real-world impact into closer alignment, we are shaping the future of care."