Despite the ongoing war, speakers at Biomed Israel this week reported that business and investment in Israel’s med-tech industry continues largely unchanged.
News out of the Heart Rhythm Society 2024 meeting May 16-19 highlighted the rapid disruption pulsed field ablation (PFA) devices have wrought in cardiac arrhythmia treatment, so it is little surprise to see that PFAs are among the top five technologies with transformative potential identified by Clarivate plc in its Medical Technologies to Watch in 2024 report. The impact of the other four – continuous glucose monitors (CGM) for diabetes, neurostimulation devices, surgical robotics and renal denervation – has been just as revolutionary, if longer in being realized.
The major players in electrophysiology – Boston Scientific Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic plc, Abbot Laboratories – showed up in force at the 2024 Heart Rhythm Society annual meeting in Boston May 16-19 to tout their pulsed field ablation devices and study results.
Pulsed field ablation dominated the news out of the Heart Rhythm Society meeting this week with three late-breaking studies highlighting the safety and efficacy of the technology replacing thermal ablation for treatment of atrial fibrillation and active discussion of the ‘unprecedented’ growth of these procedures. Boston Scientific Corp’s Farapulse is rapidly building dominance in the field, while results from Johnson & Johnson’s Varipulse study and Medtronic plc’s trial of the Affera system set up those companies for U.S. FDA approval later this year.
Medtronic plc said its investigational Omniasecure defibrillation lead met its primary safety and effectiveness endpoints and exceeded prespecified performance goals, in the global Lead Evaluation for Defibrillation and Reliability (LEADR) pivotal trial.
Data from Meril Life Sciences Pvt Ltd.’s Landmark trial showed that its series of Myval transcatheter heart valves were non-inferior compared with Edwards Lifesciences Corp.’s Sapien BEV and Medtronic plc’s Evolut SEV devices, with regards to safety and effectiveness in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implantation.
There should be no more excuses to the adoption of renal denervation (RDN) as a treatment for hypertension given the recent approval by the U.S. FDA of two technologies and a range of guidelines recommending the therapy, delegates heard at the EuroPCR conference in Paris. In a discussion on the technology, panelists argued that on the back of solid evidence, RDN should be offered as a treatment given that the therapy is a safe method to reduce high blood pressure.
Two-year data from Elixir Medical Corp.’s Bioadaptor randomized controlled trial showed that there is a significant clinical advantage in using its Dynamx coronary drug-eluting bioadaptor system over Medtronic plc’s Resolute Onyx drug-eluting stent in patients with coronary artery disease.
Data from the transcatheter valve and vessel trial showed that percutaneous interventions in patients with aortic stenosis and coronary disease resulted in significantly lower mortality rates than those receiving surgical treatment.
Medtronic plc teamed up with healthtech software company Modernizing Medicine Inc. (ModMed) to make colonoscopy procedures more efficient by integrating data generated from Medtronic’s GI Genius system into ModMed's gGastro EHR software to enhance endoscopic care.
