An On-the-Ground Report From 2025 ISHLT Annual Meeting

For 45 years, the ISHLT Annual Meeting has highlighted the latest peer-reviewed research and innovation in the care of patients with advanced heart and lung disease. Boston hosted the most recent edition of the event in April 2025.

Subscribe to the latest updates from Cardiovascular Advances in Motion

Error: Please enter a valid email address.

Email Address Submit

reCAPTCHA helps prevent automated form spam.

The submit button will be disabled until you complete the CAPTCHA.

Cardiologist Erin E. Coglianese, MD, medical director of the Mechanical Cardiac Support Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, has been attending ISHLT Annual Meetings for over a decade. She appreciates the opportunity to congregate with other members of the transplant and ventricular assist device (VAD) community each year.

"This is a complex field where we don't have the benefit of 10,000-person clinical trials to guide us with absolute certainty," she says. "ISHLT allows people from around the world to get together to discuss their research, talk through complicated cases, and work toward state-of-the-art consensus documents."

A Look at Exciting Advancements in the Field

Among the major points of focus for ISHLT2025, Dr. Coglianese reported, were ongoing advancements in the development of tools for:

• Detecting cardiac transplant rejection
• Enhancing temporary cardiac support
• Better supporting patients with newer durable VADs

Outside of the formal presentations, Dr. Coglianese found many "sidebar" conversations concerned optimizing the care of patients in cardiogenic shock by using devices and by improving team dynamics to ensure timely care delivery. Another hot topic was the potential use of newer blood thinners like direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) rather than warfarin to manage clotting risk in patients with left VADs (LVADs).

"DOACs versus warfarin is something we'll continue to talk about because there's no definitive answer at this point," she says. "But based on a paper presented at one of the plenary sessions, the early data seems to indicate that the use of DOACs is safe. That would make it easier for patients to manage these devices going forward because they wouldn't have to go for the INR (international normalized ratio) checks."

Launching a Multidisciplinary LVAD Clinic Model

Dr. Coglianese's research team, which focuses largely on outcomes in patients with durable LVADs, had four posters at ISHLT2025. One poster session featured a pilot study exploring the feasibility and effectiveness of an outpatient multidisciplinary LVAD clinic model that incorporates physical therapy, occupational therapy, and palliative care. Oksana Chubrikova, a mentee of Dr. Coglianese and medical student at the University of California San Diego, was the presenter.

"This model is something we've been able to launch at Mass General," Dr. Coglianese says. "Our goal is to improve access to these other important disciplines to improve the quality of life and functional capacity of our VAD patients."

Another poster session from Dr. Coglianese's team presented a retrospective analysis of outcomes in patients age 70 and older who have a heart transplant

versus those who receive a VAD. Citing the similarities in survival between the two groups, the investigators concluded that VAD is "a strong option for those aged 70 and older."

• Dr. Coglianese also called out the following Mass General investigators:
• Postdoctoral research fellow Isabela Landsteiner, MD, a mentee of cardiologist Gregory Lewis, MD, received the 2025 Phillip K. Caves Award for her research involving the characterization of exercise hemodynamic profiles. The award honors original research conducted by residents, fellows, trainees, and graduate students.
• Cardiologist Van-Khue Ton, MD, PhD, presented on "Global Survey of Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) Wean Protocols," a paper on which she was lead author.
• Internal medicine resident Ashvita Ramesh, MD, a mentee of Dr. Coglianese, presented on "Association of Zip Code and Adverse Events in Patients with Left Ventricular Assist Devices," a paper on which she was lead author.

Multidisciplinary Presence Speaks Volumes

Noting that conferences like ISHLT are typically physician- and researcher-dominated, Dr. Coglianese is proud of Mass General's multidisciplinary presence in recent years.

"Our occupational therapists, transplant pharmacists, and physical therapists have all had multiple presentations at ISHLT," she says. "It shows how at Mass General, we're attacking the problem of heart failure and issues that transplant and VAD patients face from all angles."

Learn about the Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Program

Refer to Mass General Brigham Heart