Winchester Medical Center Leads National Effort to Advance Atrial Fibrillation Care in Underrepresented Populations

Valley Health Winchester Medical Center has reached a significant milestone in advancing cardiovascular care, enrolling and treating the first patients in a new national multicenter registry focused on improving outcomes for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF).

A registry is medical research that collects standardized information from a large group of patients who share a common condition, procedure, or exposure. Unlike a clinical trial, no one in a registry study receives an experimental treatment or a placebo.

The study, titled the REPRESENT-PFRegistry, is a prospective, multicenter observational effort evaluating the safety and effectiveness of pulsed field ablation (using the FARAPULSE™ PFA platform) in underrepresented racial and ethnic minority populations. The registry plans to enroll up to 275 patients across as many as 25 sites nationwide.

Pulsed field ablation (PFA) is an innovative, minimally invasive technology used to treat atrial fibrillation, the most common heart rhythm disorder. By selectively targeting the heart tissue responsible for abnormal electrical signals, PFA offers a promising approach with strong safety and effectiveness.

Winchester Medical Center is serving as the first enrolling site for the study and is home to the study’s national principal investigator, Emmanuel Ekanem, MD , Chair of Cardiac Electrophysiology. Daniel Alexander, DO , serves as site principal investigator at Winchester Medical Center. The registry is conducted in collaboration with Vivek Reddy, MD, of Mount Sinai Hospital, who serves as sponsor-investigator.

The REPRESENT-PF registry addresses gaps in AF research, where minority populations remain underrepresented despite higher rates of complications and limited access to advanced care.

“As a regional center of excellence, Valley Health continues to invest in leading-edge treatments and research that improve lives,” said Julie Miksit, Valley Health Vice President, Operations and Heart & Vascular Service Line . “We are proud to help lead this important national effort and to ensure that innovation in care reflects the needs of the diverse communities we serve.”

As both the first enrolling site and the home of the national principal investigator, Winchester Medical Center is helping lead a collaborative effort that will generate meaningful real-world data to improve care and expand access to advanced treatments for atrial fibrillation.