Patricia V. Blake will take over as CEO of the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) next March, HRS leadership announced Oct. 26.

Higher ejection fractions (EFs) among heart failure patients are associated with an increased incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) and worse cardiovascular outcomes, according to data from a multinational European registry.

Medtronic co-founder Earl Bakken, who invented the world’s first wearable, battery-powered pacemaker, died on Oct. 21 in his Hawaii home, the company announced. He was 94.

Officials in Clark County, Indiana, are urging locals to download a new phone app that would alert CPR-certified individuals to cardiac arrests happening nearby. An accompanying app also maps out the county’s nearest automated external defibrillators.

Clinically significant arrhythmias are rare during exercise stress tests (ESTs) in pediatric heart patients, researchers reported in JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology, but those most at risk for life-threatening events can be identified from a set of predefined risk factors like cardiomyopathy and ventricular dysfunction.

Catheter ablation was associated with better arrhythmia-free survival and lower complication rates than surgical ablation in patients with paroxysmal or early-onset persistent atrial fibrillation (AFib), according to a small, randomized study published in Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology.

A team at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, announced progress on its latest cardiology wearable: a plant-based, stretchable wrist sticker that has the ability to monitor physical activity and alert users to health risks in real-time.

Harvard Medical School scientists have created a wirelessly programmed, miniaturized pacemaker which functions for weeks to months at a time, opening the door to “previously impossible investigations of arrhythmia and heart failure in the mouse.”