AtriCure has announced David B DeLurgio as the US principal investigator for the CONVERGE IDE clinical trial.
DeLurgio is a cardiac electrophysiologist at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, USA. He is director of Electrophysiology at the Emory Heart and Vascular Center at Emory St Joseph’s Hospital, a role he has served in since 2014. DeLurgio earned his medical degree from the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine, and completed a fellowship in Cardiac Electrophysiology at Emory University School of Medicine. He originally joined Emory Healthcare in 1996 and served as director of the Arrhythmia Center and Electrophysiology Lab at Emory University Hospital Midtown.
“I am honoured and humbled to be given this opportunity to serve as the national principal investigator for the CONVERGE trial,” says DeLurgio. “This landmark study is critically important research in the field of cardiac electrophysiology. At Emory, we have adopted the Convergent approach and have experienced first-hand the results of this therapy. Now, I am looking forward to taking a leadership role and partnering with other trial sites to quickly enrol patients and complete the trial.”
The CONVERGE IDE trial is a landmark prospective, randomised trial comparing the Convergent approach to endocardial catheter ablation for patients with persistent or long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation. The Convergent approach is a multidisciplinary therapy in which a closed-chest epicardial ablation is performed by a surgeon, and then complemented by an endocardial catheter ablation performed by an electrophysiologist. In addition to the ongoing IDE trial, individual centre results have been published in numerous peer reviewed papers.
“We are very excited about having Dr. DeLurgio serve in this role,” says Mike Carrel, AtriCure’s president and chief executive officer. “Momentum in the CONVERGE trial continues to build as we add new sites and launch various patient recruitment initiatives. We are looking forward to building on this momentum with the leadership of Dr DeLurgio.”
