The 25th Annual AF Symposium: Summary of the Session on Early Stage and Emerging New Technologies and Drugs

The 25th Annual International Atrial Fibrillation (AF) Symposium was held in Washington, DC from January 23-25, 2020. There were many highlights, including live cases and expert presentations by leaders in our field. There was also so much buzz related to the topic of pulsed field ablation, that the meeting was described by some as the official “launch party” for irreversible electroporation as the final solution for catheter-based ablation. The meeting was once again a reminder that electrophysiologists rely heavily on sophisticated mapping and ablation technologies as well as the companies that are investing in these newer and better tools, techniques, and energy sources.

During the first day of the AF Symposium, the organizers repeated a relatively new format by again holding a spotlight session focused on early stage and emerging new technologies and drugs related to AF. Each presenter was given only five minutes to provide a brief introduction and overview of an early stage and emerging technology or drug. Most were still under development by a startup company. Aneesh Deoras, BS, MSE from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration then finished the session with a presentation on the regulatory approaches to facilitate early stage device innovation. Continuing medical education credit was not given during this session. Table 1 lists the companies, presenters, and a brief synopsis of each presentation. The companies were presented in alphabetical order, but are grouped here by similar concepts.

The technologies and drugs discussed in this session on early stage and emerging new technologies and drugs are certainly not an exhaustive list of relevant companies, and do not include many of the technologies and companies discussed during other sessions, including those developing pulsed field ablation. However, the rapid-fire session gave us a better understanding of the breadth of developments in our field and what the organizers of the meeting felt were promising. 

Disclosure: Dr. Knight reports that he is a consultant, speaker, investigator, and offers fellowship support for Abbott, Baylis Medical, Biosense Webster, Inc., BIOTRONIK, Boston Scientific, Medtronic, and SentreHEART.

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