Four medical schools are partnering on a $31 million study evaluating a new method for pacing the heart in people with heart failure and conduction system disease, according to an Oct. 11 article on Virginia Commonwealth University's website.
Researchers will assess a new method for pacing the heart called conduction system pacing. This strategy sends electrical pulses from a pacemaker to the heart's conductive cells, which are responsible for carrying electrical signals.
The study will be led by Kenneth Ellenbogen, MD, director of clinical cardiac electrophysiology and pacing at the VCU Pauley Heart Center and the Martha M. and Harold W. Kimmerling chair of cardiology at the VCU School of Medicine, both based in Richmond; Dr. Mihail Chelu, PhD, an associate professor at Houston-based Baylor College of Medicine; and Richard Holubkov, PhD, a professor and biostatistician at Salt Lake City-based University of Utah School of Medicine.
"We think [this system] has the potential to revolutionize how we treat patients who are struggling with abnormal heartbeats," Dr. Ellenbogen said in the release. "Once the study begins, it will likely be one of the largest heart pacing clinical trials happening in the world over the next few years."