Hello, everyone, and thank you so much for joining us in this webinar to tell first-time attendees about HRS 2025, which will take place in San Diego next week. I find it hard to believe, but it's going to be from April 24th through April 27th. I am Sana Al-Khatib. I'm an electrophysiologist at Duke University, and I have had the pleasure and privilege to work with an amazing group of people on the program committee to put together a great program that I know you will enjoy. So here, I'd like to introduce members of the program committee. E.J. Lachiretti, it was the abstract or has been the abstract chair. Tom Dearing has been the team lead for the practice improvement group. Dr. Kevin Donahue, he led the basic and translational science team. Taya Glotzer has led the clinical EP team. Laurent Mackle has led the ablation team, and Lisa Ruel has led the digital health team. So thank you all for being with us today. If D.J. is here, so I actually can start. So we'd like to highlight some of the important sessions of the meeting. However, I can tell you that all sessions are excellent. I don't think you can go wrong with choosing any session you want to go to that aligns with your interests. But we're going to mention some highlights that will take place every day of the meeting. So on Thursday, we will have 13 session rooms from 1 to 5 p.m. covering different areas in EP. A very important summit will take place on women leadership in EP research. Such an important topic where we know a lot of women in EP participate in research. We want to really see that shifting also toward more leadership of clinical trials. So how do we do that? You're going to hear that during the summit. A very important session that I'm super excited about is the Global Summit on Sudden Cardiac Death Prediction and Prevention, where we're bringing experts from all over the world to talk about this very important topic and to brainstorm about ways through which we can lessen the impact of sudden cardiac death globally. Of course, business of EP sessions are always popular, and so they are coming back this year, and we're going to focus on topics that are very relevant to every practicing EP, so certainly be on the lookout for those sessions. Oral abstracts will take place between 4 and 5 p.m., then we're going to have a featured poster session at 5 p.m., and we're going to have a Hyde Park. A lot of us get so excited about Hyde Park just because of the format. It's so interesting and exciting, so I absolutely encourage you to check it out. That Hyde Park is going to be at 3.40 p.m. Thursday afternoon. Next, please. I'll turn it over to Tom. Well, welcome, everybody. Here we are right here. Again, these are the highlighted sessions that we've noted here, and I think these are all very interesting. You're not going to be able to go to everything, but I think these are really a group of sessions that really make it work well. The opening plenary is going to be a great session. It's at 8.30 in the morning on Friday, and we're fortunate enough to get Rob Califf, who was the FDA Commissioner, so he'll be able to a lot of important ideas on where we are with research and funding, which we know is poignant at this time, and a colleague of Sana's at Duke. We have 15 session rooms from 10 to 5, so there'll be a whole bunch of breakout sessions on particular topics that might be of interest, the relation of atrial fibrillation, the relation of ventricular tachycardia, oral anticoagulants, less facial appendix closure go down the list, but they're typically very topical and usually have great speakers and an opportunity for Q&A after that. I always love the late-breaking clinical trials, and we have them listed there. We hear the latest, greatest science. It often and frequently does impact clinical practice, so I think that's really good. Shark Tank is also a very interesting thing. We started it several years ago, and just like the TV show, people present their ideas on how they could carry forward an interesting and innovative electrophysiologic idea. It's energizing, it's interesting, and it's always a lot of fun, and we give an award at the end, just like they do at the others where we choose. The oral abstract, I actually find to be very fun. You hear some new science. You oftentimes get an opportunity to interact with colleagues who are senior and colleagues who are junior, so those are always, in my opinion, very, very interesting. The poster sessions, I think, are also fun because it's more informal, so you get a chance to walk around, to engage people directly, to ask them about their research, and to go forward in that direction, and then there's roundtable sessions, and you can see them here on a number of different topics where people sit around the table, and you have an opportunity to interact and engage each other. Just like Sana said, I love the Hyde Park things. They're usually debates about controversial issues. It's usually in an area where it's a little bit noisy, but you get two people who are usually friends calling each other different names and saying how their ideas are not good, but it's always on a controversial clinical, epidemiological, or payment-type issue, and then there's the skills training with cardiac mapping, as noted there. These are some of the Friday highlights. Thanks, Sana. All right. Kevin? So, Saturday includes 15 sessions and will run from 8 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., kind of like the sessions that Tom was talking about. There are late-breaking clinical trial sessions in the mid-morning and mid-afternoon, oral abstracts, poster sessions. The roundtable sessions are listed on the slide. The meet-the-authors is often something that's very provocative. HRS Research Network is a personal favorite of mine. The others are listed there. Two more Hyde Park sessions on Saturday at the listed times. Skills training that is focused on ablation biophysics, and an interesting session that's the first ever called Never-Ending Conversation, a history of HRS in the field of EP, which is four hours straight of two speakers rotating every 15 minutes to share their memories of HRS, the field of EP, and their vision for the future. This will take place in the Hyde Park area of the Sales Pavilion. Okay. I'm Taya Glotzer. I'm a professor of medicine at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine and an electrophysiologist in Hackensack, New Jersey. And I'm going to tell you about Sunday. Sunday programming includes six sessions running from 8 to 2, with notable sessions including the final late-breaking clinical trials, the final oral abstracts, and the final poster session at 9 a.m. The research roundtable will be about how to become an established researcher, and the final Hyde Park in 2025, which will be moderated by Doug Packer, a senior person in our field, talking about doing ablations in ambulatory surgical centers, whether that's a good idea or a bad idea. There are two lectureship award sessions featuring four award winners. And for those either thinking about taking the boards, I'm going to be one of them. Or people who just want to learn a little more factual things about EP, there'll be three board review course sessions covering SVTs, ventricular arrhythmias, and EP pharmacology. So stick around, because Sunday may be the best day of all. Hello, I'm Laurent Marc from the Montreal Heart Institute. And talking about the best day of all, I think there's some social and networking events that are the best of them all, actually. In addition to science, HRS is an opportunity to gather together and have some fun. And these are some of the additional sessions that I think could provide some networking opportunities. So the first one is the President's Welcome Reception. This will be a taking event at the EP Center for this reception. This is on Thursday afternoon, so you have to come there. It's going to be really fun. On Friday, there's the opening plenary that Tom talked about, with Dr. Kelly, who will be presenting on the past FDA Commissioner. And after that, there's a Woman in EP Luncheon. So tickets are required for this. You can get them via your registration to the meeting. And it's very popular and more popular than all of my colleagues. And it's not only for women, by the way, it's for all the people to go there. And it's a very interesting session. On Saturday, on April the 26th, so there's the EP Luncheon. So you need tickets also to get there. This is for the allied professional. They're welcome to attend the luncheon. And also they're required to buy their tickets in advance in the registration system. And the FHRS Induction and Award Ceremony. It's a very interesting, so where people apply for being fellows of the HRS, there's a ceremony, there's a very nice place to meet with all those FHRS and those that are not FHRS, but are attending the meeting. It's also a network opportunity for people. And talking about social event, the big one is the Heart Rhythm Gala. So this will happen on Saturday evening. Tickets are currently sold out, but beware, there'll probably be other tickets that can be sold soon. So check your website, where the website of the HRS will keep informed people about additional tickets to be available. And on the Sunday, finally, you can join the President's Social Sunrise at 8 a.m. This is also in the EPI Center. And you'll hear Dr. Ellen Bogan as you will discuss what happened at HRS in the past year and answer questions from people. So see, there's not only science, but there's also a lot of fun. Hi, I'm Lisa Raleigh. I am from Washington University in St. Louis, in St. Louis Children's Hospital. I work in Pediatric Electrophysiology, and I'm a Physician Assistant. So I'm going to talk to you about the other networking opportunities, in addition to all of the fun that Laurent talked about, going diving a little bit deeper into the Roundtable sessions. So Roundtable sessions are really a great opportunity to allow attendees to have small group discussions with experts in the field. And you can ask anything from clinical questions, like what would you do, to questions about career planning and growth. And here's just a list of all of the different opportunities for specific Roundtables to touch base on your topic of choice. And then in addition to Roundtables, there's also additional networking opportunities in additional networking opportunities in our lounges. So we have a FIT Lounge, a Fellows in Training Lounge, Allied Professionals Lounge, the FHRS Lounge, and in both the FIT and AP lounges, there's going to be additional education sessions and networking events held throughout the weekend. So how do you navigate the meeting? So there are many ways to do that. Of course, the mobile app in my dictionary is a must because it's so helpful and it's easy to navigate. The search function is easy to use. So you can basically search for anyone, any session. I absolutely encourage you to download the app before you come to the meeting and start putting your schedule together. I think that would be very helpful. Of course, there's the HRS 2025 online planner. As we mentioned, the Epicenter has a ton of resources for people as well. We have great customer service. We actually have wonderful HRS staff who are very dedicated to supporting you at the meeting. All of them greet you with a smile and they're always willing to help guide you if you have any questions. So please feel free to ask any of them questions, certainly any of us. If you see me at the meeting, I'd love for you to say hello. And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate. And certainly, use the ribbons. Those will be provided at the meeting. And so these are ribbons to kind of indicate some of the roles that you've had with the society, such as an allied professional, if you're a first-time attendee, so on and so forth. I absolutely encourage you to download the app, as I said, ahead of time and start looking at sessions. New this year are these light gray vests that our HRS staff will be wearing at the meeting so that you can easily recognize them. So please feel free to reach out to any of us if you have any questions. So with regard to registration and badge pickup, you absolutely are encouraged to register before the meeting. I think that makes things easier. However, you can also register on site. And definitely, you can pick up your badge on site in Hall D. And you'll see here the dates and the times that you can do so. So a lot of opportunity for you to pick up your badge. Next, please. And here's the layout of the convention center. Tom? Yes, thanks, Sana. And, you know, the San Diego Convention Center is a place where we've had meetings in the past. And I've always found it rather easy to get around. It's good to know where the individual meetings are. You know, the bigger sessions tend to be in the bigger sessions tend to be in one spot and the smaller sessions tend to be in another. But it's very easy to negotiate. And I would actually encourage you, if you get there and you know you're going to be busy kind of running from one session to another, just do a quick pass through and you'll see it's very organized. It's very numerically, you know, archived. So I would say, you know, it's pretty easy to get around, fortunately. Indeed. So there are 11 different educational tracks that are listed here on the left. These are basically just the categories for the different types of sessions. Each of these was put together by a subcommittee of the program committee that have expertise in the listed areas. And so I would say that the categories can help you narrow down your selection of sessions. But it's important to look at the actual sessions, look at the titles and the descriptions of what's being presented. And you'll often find that even though something is in a session that maybe is not what you originally considered yourself to be, that it's something that's interesting and useful to you. And so don't be deterred by it being in a track that's a little different than who you generally think you are and go for it. There are 13 different session types that are listed on the right. And these are the types of the individual sessions. So they're somewhat descriptive there. These are detailed even further in heartrhythm.com. So you can find out which each of these is there. Many of these are slide based, but the hands-on Hyde Park panel discussions, posters and round tables are slide free. Okay. The exhibit hall is located on the ground floor of the convention center. Over 110 exhibitors will be there displaying their latest products and services. And they usually have coffee and very thick carpets to make your feet be comfortable to draw you in and visit their products. In addition, the exhibit hall will have the abstract pavilion where the seven poster sessions will occur. One Thursday, the featured poster, three on Friday, three on Saturday, and the final one on Sunday morning. Also, there are two rhythm theaters, which will include industry led presentations throughout the weekend that have how-to sessions such as, you know, how to do left bundle area pacing. And the industry really makes a big effort to put on these educational sessions. The round table area features several tables intended for small group discussions with key opinion leaders on a variety of topics. And as you already heard, the mobile app contains the schedule. So visit the exhibit hall for espresso service, happy hour, comfy carpets, and maybe running into your friends and colleagues. Another area where you can get expresso and happy hour places is the EPI center. This is important because this is the hub for HRS members. And it's very important for first attendees to know where this is. So this isn't a sale pavilion. And this is where you can get HRS staff to answer any of the questions you may have as a first attendee to the meeting. You can get at this place, you have coffee, happy hour, as I said, and you have some meetups that are scheduled to, you can find that in the app as well. But the most important thing is if you have any questions, there are going to be some HRS staff being able to help you at that site. Yes. And in addition to exhibit hall and oasis, EPI center oasis, which will serve the espresso drinks in the morning and beer in the afternoons, there's additional options for snacks and drinks throughout the convention center. There is the exhibit hall attendee brunch, which is first come first serve on Friday and Saturday mornings. And the women in EPI luncheon on Friday and the allied professional luncheon on Saturday are both ticketed events. And then Thursday through Sunday, there's additional concessions at Starbucks and Lobby E, Cafe Espresso in sales pavilion and Auntie Ann's and Mrs. Fields, which are located in Lobby F, Lobby 20 and Lobby 6. There's also going to be additional concessions available in the exhibit hall. So it's important to keep in mind that a lot of great and new and innovative science will be presented at the meeting. And so we have to abide by embargo dates and times that are shown here, especially if you're presenting that type of science, please make sure that you know about these embargo dates and times, which means that no one should know about these results and they won't be published, whatever, until an hour before the presentation at the late break in clinical trials, as well as the general abstracts. All right, so there are additional things to see and to do at the meeting. If you love to have your picture taken, make sure to check out the Headshot Lounge in the sales pavilion. These headshots are complimentary. You can have as many taken as you want, and they can be actually emailed to you. If you love puppies, make sure to check out our puppies here. We've been doing this now for a couple of years. You can take a moment, spend some time with them, play with them. This is such a nice way to relax in the middle of all the content and the action that's going on that can be at times overwhelming. As I said, there are photo opportunities located throughout the event. Be sure to use HRS 2025 or ePEEPS when posting to social media when you have those pictures taken. Of course, if you want to take a short break, don't take long breaks, because you'll miss out. But if you want to take short breaks, you can certainly explore San Diego, which is always wonderful to do. After the meeting, important to keep in mind that all registered attendees will have access to the online meeting platform through December 31st, 2025. And most sessions, with the exception of in-person only sessions, will be available on demand within 24 hours or even less after the end of the meeting. You can certainly claim credit for the sessions that you attend. Please be sure to do so. And this will be available beginning at 2 p.m. on Thursday, April 24th, and will go through December 31st, 2025. And very importantly, please take a few minutes to send us feedback on the meeting. Within HRS, we are super responsive to the feedback that we get. Anything you love, let us know so that we can continue doing those things. Anything that you think we can improve on, also please let us know. We want to continue to improve this experience for you year after year. So with this, I'll stop. And I'd love to open a panel discussion here and invite questions from the audience. And as we wait for questions, and I'm not seeing any questions in the chat, but as we wait for questions, perhaps I can ask my colleagues to maybe just give an advice that you have found to be helpful in prior years, things that you've enjoyed doing that you want to encourage first-time attendees to do. I can start. I think one of the clues I can get is to look at the app and to plan your meeting ahead, looking at where are the sessions. Otherwise, sometimes you're missing a session, you didn't know it was there. So you look at every day. It's divided by day, by speakers, by whatever you want. You can go and see and encourage your peers, but also you can plan your meetings and put that in your calendar because it synchronizes with your own calendar and it's really practical. And I guess one piece of advice I would give is, you know, step out of your comfort zone. You know, go to something that you find interesting, but maybe you don't do it every day. But this is an opportunity to learn something and meet people in an area that you might not do. And it might, you know, change your focus. Well said. And I would recommend that since you're first-time attendees, be broad-based in what you do. You know, there's, I break it into three components. You know, attend the academic sessions that would be interesting for you, whatever topic they're on, you know, or specific sessions that are dealing with an individual topic, abstract presentations, debates, which raise controversial things, either some of the formal debates or the looser Hyde Park ones, I would say, you know, on the academic side, do that. The second thing I would say is network. This is a great opportunity to network. Your first attendees, connect with colleagues. You know, at the end of a session, walk up to faculty and try to build a relationship with them. Connect with another person that you might run into in the halls or at a round table. And industry oftentimes is very helpful and very interested in getting to collaborate with people on clinical trials or program and process improvements. So when you go to the exhibit hall, interact with them. And then the third thing I would say is look at the things that aren't purely scientific all the time. But, you know, the president's reception, the Sunday morning sunrise, where you'll hear what HRS is doing. And we need your input to make our society better. So we'd like you to come and to ask questions. The plenary sessions, you know, are another thing. And then I guess along those same lines, some of the summits, like the EP, you know, business of EP summit is, you know, not an academic one, but it's an important one. Whether you're in a pure academic practice or you're in an institutional practice or you're in private practice. So I would say look out at all the, you know, academic things, be broad based there. Look at the networking opportunities and look at those things that allow for career development. And if you feel overwhelmed, I would encourage you to go to the EP center, to the EP center, because I found that when I when I first went, there was so much to see and to do and people to meet that I found myself wandering back to where there were people that were just more familiar to me, I think. And then I ended up seeing all these other people and then I was networking more than I would have had I just sat in a room or sat by myself in a chair. So if you're feeling overwhelmed, I would encourage you to go to the center because I think you're going to make those connections that you might not have otherwise made. It's also important to pace yourself. I saw that there was a question about what do you do if there are two sessions going on at the same time? And I think all of us, when we were newer to the field, it's like you're a kid in the candy shop. And, you know, you want to be in five places at once and you end up running all over the place. And by day three, your feet are swollen and you can barely move and you're burnt out. And it's much better now because a lot of the stuff is available online afterwards. And so keep that in mind and take your time when you're at the meeting. Take your time to walk in the hall, see people you haven't seen in a while. Don't be shy to come up to people who publish things or taught you in the past or that you've even just heard of. Introduce yourself. It's a great way to make friends and connections. And that requires time. And so if you're so burnt out because you're trying to fit in five talks and five different sessions at the same time, you're not going to make it. I think one theme that you have heard from a lot of people is networking. There's so much value in that. And in planning the program, we absolutely prioritize that. So you will see at the meeting that there are so many opportunities and many platforms for you to connect with your colleagues and friends. And absolutely do not shy away from introducing yourself to people, talking to them. People love to do that. So please do so, especially as a first time attendee. Like people would want to absolutely embrace you and show you the way. So I encourage you to do that. There was a question in the chat about the dress code. I'm not sure that there's a dress code. I would say maybe like smart casual is what I see a lot of people wearing. But make sure that you wear something comfortable, especially shoes, because you're going to walk a lot at the meeting. And having like an extra sweater with you or something that because some of the rooms may actually turn pretty cold. So just kind of be prepared for these different types of scenarios. I would say I do want to highlight if it is the late breaking clinical trial sessions are like some of the most popular sessions at the meeting. So I encourage you to try to attend those as many of them as you can anyway. And new this year, we have a session Saturday afternoon where attendees will have the opportunity to interact with trialists. It's called Meet the Trialists. And we have picked, I believe, six trials that are being presented at late breaking clinical trial sessions. As you know, during those sessions, you don't have the opportunity to connect with those people and ask questions. This is your opportunity to do so and ask questions. So I absolutely encourage you to join us for that session if you can. Go ahead, Taya. Yeah, I was just going to say on top of what Kevin said, often if there's something that you're interested in that is at the same time as something else, the next day there may be a session on that topic. So some topics are repeated, you know, different aspects of topics. So I think what Laurent said, planning ahead of time, you know, where you're going to go and what you're going to see. But don't feel like there's only one session on AF ablation. There's probably 20. So you'll get there. And regarding the late breaking, the other tip I would give is get there early if you want to see it, because there are very popular sessions. So sometimes if you get there like just at the start of it, sometimes it's better to be there like 10 or 15 minutes before, even five minutes before it's better to find a seat. Otherwise, you'll be standing unless you like it. But that's OK as well. Well, that's on us. We should make bigger rooms for them. It also are really popular, especially those on ablation. Although we actually do have a debate on the primary prevention ICDs in patients with chronic systolic heart failure that I'll be participating in. So I would love for you to be there. So any other questions or comments from anyone? Well, I do want to thank all my colleagues for being here with us and thank you, the attendees, for planning to come and join us at the meeting. I promise you this meeting will be fantastic for you. And I would love to see you at the meeting. But also, we all would love to get your feedback after the meeting. So please let us know about your experience. Let us know about how things went for you after the meeting. And we're here for you if you need anything. Thank you very much.

HRS 2025 conference

electrophysiology

networking

San Diego

women leadership

sudden cardiac death

interactive platforms

networking events

mobile app

online access

HRS 2025

interactive sessions

on-demand content

innovation

cardiac issues