Arctic Front Cryoballoon Service Optimisation in the COVID Era

Ross Hunter is a consultant and prof of cardiology practicing at St Bartholomew's Hospital and at The London Bridge Hospital privately. His main focus is heart rhythm management. He performs catheter ablation procedures for AF and other cardiac arrhythmias including SVT, atrial tachycardia and VT.

Annemiek Janssen is a nurse and Dr Jonas De Jong is an electrophysiologist at OLVG Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Dr De Jong and Annemiek have a particularly very efficient Cryoballoon ablation workflow, with limited staff support, and consistently short lab occupancy times. The team is also rigorous with outcome data collection and recently began implementing cryoballoon ablation day case. Annemiek has over 30 years of experience as a nurse and Dr De Jong has performed >400 Cryoballoon procedures and is the founder of ECGpedia and the Cardionetworks Foundation.

Annemiek Janssen is a nurse and Dr Jonas De Jong is an electrophysiologist at OLVG Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Dr De Jong and Annemiek have a particularly very efficient Cryoballoon ablation workflow, with limited staff support, and consistently short lab occupancy times. The team is also rigorous with outcome data collection and recently began implementing cryoballoon ablation day case. Annemiek has over 30 years of experience as a nurse and Dr De Jong has performed >400 Cryoballoon procedures and is the founder of ECGpedia and the Cardionetworks Foundation.

Dr Joachim R Ehrlich, MD is Head of Cardiology and Electrophysiology at St Josefs-Hospital, Wiesbaden, Germany. 

Dr Ehrlich completed his internship and residency training in medicine in 2001 at Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany and gained a fellowship in basic cardiac electrophysiology at the Montreal Heart Institute, Montreal, Canada. Following a fellowship in cardiology at Goethe-University, Dr Ehrlich gained German Cardiac Society certifications in interventional cardiology and electrophysiology in 2014. 

Dr Ehrlich has specific scientific expertise in basic cardiac electrophysiology, with a focus on atrial fibrillation research. He is also highly experienced in pharmacological management of cardiac arrhythmias, oral anticoagulation, cardiac resynchronisation therapy, genetically determined cardiac arrhythmia syndromes and risk stratification for sudden cardiac death.

Dr Alexandre Ouss is an electrophysiologist at Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven, NL. Dr Ouss played an instrumental role in identifying and implementing efforts to optimise the Cryoballoon ablation workflow and to support the adoption of a day case approach at Catharina Hospital.

Today, the Catharina Hospital team has consistently short lab occupancy times per Cryoballoon procedure and a very collaborative team dynamic. Dr Ouss and the rest of the EP team are very diligent about outcome data collection for each AF ablation procedure as well. The decision to implement day case was only made after thoroughly reviewing their complication data.

Click here to watch the Catharina Hospital EP team explain how and why they improved the efficiency of their Cryoballoon procedures. You will also find the AFPO flyer for Catharina Hospital below.

Dr Aaisha Opel is a Consultant Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust. Dr Opel is the primary author for the Cryoballoon day case study. You can click here to learn about findings from the study.

Dr Patrick Heck is a Consultant Cardiologist and Electrophysiologist and Clinical Lead for Cardiac Rhythm Management at the Royal Papworth Hospital. Dr Heck has extensive experience with cryoballoon ablation day case and was involved in a recently published AF ablation day case study.