HFA Cardio Talk

With Daniella Motta Da Costa Dan, Rede Meridional Hospital, Vitoria - Brazil and Linda Van Laake, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht - The Netherlands. 
This episode discusses recent progress across the entire heart transplantation journey, from candidate selection to long-term follow-up.
The conversation explores how clinicians should assess increasingly complex transplant candidates, including older or frail patients and those with several comorbidities. 
It also examines new strategies to expand the donor pool, with a special focus on donation after circulatory death, extended-criteria donors, hepatitis C-positive donors, machine perfusion and improved donor–recipient matching.
Finally, the episode discusses advances in post-transplant care, including personalized immunosuppression, biomarkers, donor-derived cell-free DNA, gene-expression profiling and non-invasive graft surveillance.
This 2026 HFA Cardio Talk podcast series is supported by Bayer in the form of unrestricted financial support. The discussion has not been influenced in any way by its sponsor.

With Cornelia Margineanu, University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila, Bucharest - Romania and Holger Thiele, Heart Center Leipzig at University of Leipzig, Leipzig - Germany.
In this episode, Cornelia Margineanu interviews Holger Thiele on the practical approach to temporary mechanical circulatory support in heart failure.
Specific examples and clinical scenarios in which temporary mechanical circulatory support (MCS) should be considered, as well as when patients should be referred to tertiary centres, are discussed. The differences between various MCS devices, including their advantages and limitations, are also explored, along with the key elements of patient monitoring.
This 2026 HFA Cardio Talk podcast series is supported by Bayer in the form of unrestricted financial support. The discussion has not been influenced in any way by its sponsor.

With Mehitabel Holler and two patients: Sheilagh and Karen.
In this episode, Mehitabel talks with Sheilagh and Karen about their experiences as patients helping to build artificial intelligence tools for heart failure. The discussion touches upon first assumptions and worries about AI (trust, transparency) and the possibility of losing the human element in care. The episode also discusses the need of clinician involvement, evidence gathering, and user-friendly design in building trust in AI-driven healthcare, emphasising that AI should complement the patient-clinician interaction.
This 2026 HFA Cardio Talk podcast AI4HF is funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe Framework under Grant Agreement No 101080430.

With Gregorio Sambataro and two patients: Caius and Ulrich.
Gregorio Sambataro of the European Heart Network chats with Caius and Ulrich about their personal experiences with heart disease and their thoughts on the expanding use of artificial intelligence in healthcare. The conversation delves into important themes such as trust in technology and patients' responsibility to actively participate in their own care. It also emphasises the importance of raising awareness among healthcare professionals and the general public, as well as the fact that AI should be utilised as a supplement rather than a replacement for human decision-making.
This 2026 HFA Cardio Talk podcast AI4HF is funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe Framework under Grant Agreement No 101080430.

With Novi Yanti Sari, Siloam Hospitals Group, Jakarta - Indonesia, Sotiria Liori, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, Athens - Greece, Sarah Birkhoelzer, University Dorset Hospital, Bournemouth - UK, Joseph Selvanayagam, Flinders University, Adelaide - Australia, Sam Straw, University of Leeds, Leeds - UK, Ida Arentz Taraldsen, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen - Denmark, Fabian Kerwagen,  University Hospital of Wurzburg, Wurzburg - Germany, Dirk Van Veldhuisen and Kevin Damman, University Medical Centre Groningen, Groningen - The Netherlands.
In this episode, we discuss the late-breaking clinical science presented at the Heart Failure Congress 2026 in Barcelona, Spain.
First, Sarah Birkhoelzer interviews Joseph Selvanayagam, who presents the results of RESOLVE-HCM, a trial evaluating perhexiline for regression of left ventricular hypertrophy in symptomatic hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Next, Sam Straw interviews Ida Arentz Taraldsen, who highlights the key findings of REDOX-AHF, a trial comparing restrictive versus liberal oxygenation targets in patients with acute heart failure and pulmonary congestion.
Finally, Fabian Kerwagen interviews Dirk Van Veldhuisen and Kevin Damman, who discuss the DECISION trial and the accompanying meta-analysis. DECISION evaluated low-dose digoxin in patients with heart failure with reduced or mildly reduced ejection fraction, while the meta-analysis assessed the efficacy and safety of digitalis glycosides across contemporary heart failure trials.
This 2026 HFA Cardio Talk podcast series is supported by Bayer in the form of unrestricted financial support. The discussion has not been influenced in any way by its sponsor.