Optimism at HRX Live 2026 Three Takeaways from Heart Rhythm Society’s Innovation Conference: HRX Live 2026
By Beth Friedman, FACHDM, Sr. Partner, FINN Partners
LinkedIn: Beth Friedman
LinkedIn: FINN Partners
Host of FINN Voices
I recently attended my second HRX Live conference. Once again, the conversations and educational sessions did not disappoint.
Spending three days with hundreds of electrophysiologists (EPs), cardiac clinic leaders, and allied health professionals reinforced three facts health IT leaders should know about cardiac device management and ambulatory heart failure monitoring:
- Haystacks abound. Cardiac clinics spend their days looking for arrhythmia needles in haystacks of disconnected heart rhythm data for two populations: device monitoring patients and heart failure patients.
- Disconnected systems are the norm. Disparate data feeds and gaps in EHR interoperability require EPs to review multiple systems and screens.
- Manual steps are common in cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) clinic workflows. Administrative burden is high in this sector. Manual interventions are often required to ensure devices remain connected, device-checks are properly submitted, and alerts are escalated.
Amid the backdrop of these ongoing data management challenges, attendees, speakers, and vendors at HRX Live 2026 remained enthusiastic and optimistic. The Heart Rhythm Society’s (HRS) annual innovation event brought forward exciting new advances in interoperability and the use of AI to further automate heart rhythm and ambulatory monitoring. And now is the time!
The Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) predicts more than 12 million Americans will have atrial fibrillation (the most common heart arrhythmia) by 2030, and another 8.7 million will have heart failure. A tsunami of heart disease is ahead.
Healthcare provider organizations must work together with their cardiac device clinic leaders to prepare. Here are three valuable insights from HRX Live 2026 to inform your journey.
Takeaway #1: Electrophysiologists Are Ready to Innovate and Good Data Is Key.
HRX Live isn’t just an event, it is a movement to innovate. The directive for innovation was woven through every keynote, panel session, shark tank, and pitch competition. The opening session featured Murali Aravamundan, Co-Founder & CEO of nference, an agentic AI platform for clinical research. Aravamundan stressed the value of historical data trapped in legacy systems and shared how AI taps into this data to learn from our historical medical records. “Data is like oil, when you dig it up it is messy.”
The longitudinal patient journey contained within every medical record will benefit from AI tools to improve the data and ultimately make it self-cleaning. Good data is essential and systems will improve data through better interoperability and the use of AI. This includes data from ECGs and EKGs.
For example, cardiac clinics have had centralized, remote monitoring of devices for years. One presenter mentioned that 80% of her clinics’ patients actively transmit their data. However, readings are received in PDF formats and interoperability with EHRs is behind other clinical specialties and ambulatory service lines. Stronger EHR interoperability and cleaner data will improve this situation—an industry-wide aspiration I also covered in my HRX Live 2025 event wrap-up article.
Certainly, new opportunities abound for the use of AI tools with cardiac device data to improve data quality and separate valid information from device noise. Several vendors at HRX Live discussed new AI solutions to address these challenges, including upcoming announcements from cardiac device monitoring companies like PaceMate and Murj.
HRX Live attendees’ AI-related conversations echo those I hear at health IT conferences. Concerns such as data quality, reliability, unbiased LLMs, EHR integration, privacy, security, governance, and technology guardrails were all shared. However, these conference attendees are squarely focused on use cases that:
- Support better cardiac outcomes
- Slow down arrythmias
- Prevent hospitalizations
- Ensure stronger patient safety
- Deliver trusted data at the point of care
Takeaway #2: Patient Education Is Essential in Cardiac Clinics.
There is a lot of noise generated by cardiac devices and wearables. Clinicians understand data nuances and know the difference between irrelevant and urgent signals. Patients, however, may still become concerned.
Pediatric patients and their families represent unique educational challenges. According to Dr. Nick Von Bergen, a pediatric cardio EP at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “There is uniqueness and variation in everything we do.”
Several speakers mentioned the need for stronger patient (or family) education as soon as a pacemaker or other CIED is inserted, or even during pre-operative consultations. The same is true for wearable cardiac monitoring devices. Better patient education up front reduces post-surgery patient calls, the need for patient callbacks, and unnecessary clinic visits when questions arise.
Clinicians must still lead the charge as patients and their families become better informed about their cardiac devices. However, the EP-patient relationship will shift as more data is produced and becomes available for clinical interpretation.
Information delivery also matters to both patient and clinician. It must be presented in a concise way without false positives, nonsense, and noise.
Takeaway #3: Disconnected Devices Create New Administrative Burden.
Perhaps the most surprising comment I heard at HRX Live 2026 was that cardiac devices can become disconnected. Problems occur despite ubiquitous internet and cellular data access. The causes are many and the downstream impacts are real.
Andrew Winburn, MS, RN, Product Manager, Murj, presented study results alongside Upstate Cardiology Clinic, a specialized cardiac care clinic in Greenville, South Carolina and part of Bon Secours Mercy Health. Approximately 10% of each cardiac device vendor’s monitor transmissions were disconnected at the clinic. Another presenter stated that up to 20% of monitors could be disconnected at her clinic, and at any given time.
Transmissions are required at least every 90 days for billing and reimbursement. Monitoring and managing transmissions is another administrative burden facing cardiac clinics today. Device nurses are required to log in to each device manufacturer’s website to see who is disconnected and remind patients to connect.
To solve the challenge, Murj created a Patient Disconnection Dashboard (PDD) through an API-driven integration with BIOTRONIK, a device manufacturer. The clinic now receives a daily list of disconnected monitors for action and resolution with the patient.
“Most clinics would love someone dedicated to this every day, but that’s not reality,” said Cara Schaaf, RN, at Upstate Cardiology. “It’s all about saving time and avoiding burnout for our device nurses, and the PDD really helps.”
Cardiac Device Monitoring Makes Real Progress at HRX Live 2026
Humans make mistakes and we forgive them, but national headlines appear when AI technology makes errors. Attendees at HRX Live 2026 understand this reality and inherent challenge. The EPs and clinic teams I spoke with are excited to pursue real progress over cardiac clinic workflow perfection.
Doctors and clinicians in the world of cardiac arrhythmia monitoring and heart failure will become better informed through integrated and reliable data served up with nascent AI solutions. Arrhythmia and heart failure care will become preventive versus reactive to support the full cardiac patient care journey.
According to Camille G. Frazier-Mills, MD, MHS, FACC, FAHA, Clinical Vice Chief in Cardiology at Duke University Health System, the AI tools she has used so far are a welcome support to EP and cardiac clinic workflows. The challenge, she says, is how to continue to verify validity and accuracy while never losing site of the human component, which ultimately gives AI its meaning as we relate to patients and each other to ensure human flourishing.