Wed., 13.05.2026

Effectiveness and Safety of Early Rhythm Control in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation and Chronic Kidney Disease

The manuscript “Effectiveness and Safety of Early Rhythm Control in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation and Chronic Kidney Disease” has been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).

The study is examining the efficacy and safety of early rhythm control in patients with atrial fibrillation and chronic kidney disease. The findings make an important contribution to the clinical care of this particularly vulnerable group of patients.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to all authors and project partners for their dedicated collaboration and valuable contributions.

You can find the full publication here: JACC

Mo, 20.04.2026

3rd AFNET DGK Young Investigator Award – Atrial Fibrillation 2026

Once again, four young scientists were honored with the AFNET-sponsored “DGK AFNET Young Investigator Award” for their current research on atrial fibrillation. AFNET Board Member and this year’s DGK Conference President Prof. Dr. Stephan Willems congratulated the award recipients during the award ceremony on April 10, 2026 at the DGK Annual Congress.

DGK-AFNET Young Investigator Award – Atrial Fibrillation

From left to right: Prof. Dr. Stephan Willems, 2nd place winner Felicitas Lemmer, Prof. Dr. Larissa Fabritz, 1st place winner Vivien Weisheit, 2nd place winner Christian Gold, Prof. Dr. Stefan Blankenberg (not in the picture: 2nd place winner Julian Segolsson) (©DGK/Thomas Hauss)

Read more

Mo, 20.04.2026

3rd AFNET Lecture Award 2026

As part of the “23 Years of AFNET” session, Prof. Steinbeck presented the AFNET Lecture titled „EP studies revisited” For his long-standing commitment, he received this year’s DGK-AFNET Lecture Award, which was presented for the third time. Prof. Sinner presented the results of the 10th AFNET-EHRA Consensus Conference.

DGK-AFNET Lecture on Arrhythmias Award

From left to right: Prof. Dr. Renate Schnabel, Prof. Dr. Reza Wakili, award recipient Prof. Dr. Gerhard Steinbeck, Dr. Ines Gröner, Prof. Dr. Paulus Kirchhof (©DGK/Thomas Hauss) (©DGK/Thomas Hauss)

The entire session “23 Years of AFNET: Current AF Therapy – Rhythm Control and Prevention of Thromboembolism” was recorded.

Laudatory by Prof. Ravens and Prof. Steinbeck, followed by his presentation“AFNET Lecture: EP studies revisited”

Prof. Moritz Sinner with his presentation “Outcomes of the 10th AFNET EHRA Consensus Paper”

Prof. Ingo Eitel with his presentation “Interventional stroke prevention in AF”

Fr, 17.04.2026

AFNET at the DGK Annual Conference 2026

Once again AFNET was present at the 2026 DGK Annual Meeting with a wide range of presentations and events.

The annual general meeting provided a comprehensive overview of the office’s current activities and developments. In addition to reports on ongoing projects and strategic priorities, the focus was on the regular election of the steering committee. We warmly welcome the newly elected members for the 2026–2030 term:

• Prof. Constanze Schmidt (Göttingen, DE)
• PD Dr. Verena Tscholl (Berlin, DE)
• Prof. Antonia Zapf (Hamburg, DE)

AFNET study meetings as well as other meetings in which AFNET served as a partner were held. Together with the DZHK, AFNET had a joint booth, providing a central hub for professional exchange and networking on site.

Tu., 14. April 2026

EHRA Congress 2026

At the EHRA 2026 Congress in Paris on 13 April 2026, Prof. Dr. Andreas Götte presented the results of “Kidney disease increases the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with device-detected atrial fibrillation: NOAH-AFNET 6.”

The manuscript is available here:
https://academic.oup.com/europace/advance-article/doi/10.1093/europace/euag083/8652924

For more information, please read the AFNET press release:
https://www.af-net.eu/nierenerkrankungen-erhoehen-das-risiko-fuer-kardiovaskulaere-ereignisse-bei-device-detektiertem-vorhofflimmern/

Di, 10.06.2025

Manuscript accepted for publication in JAMA Cardiology

We are pleased to share a new publication from the EAST-AFNET4 project: The manuscript titled “Impact of Diabetes Mellitus and Obesity on Treatment Effect of Early Rhythm Control: EAST-AFNET4” has been accepted for publication in JAMA Cardiology.

For the publication, data were analysed to show whether diabetes and obesity have an influence on the effect of early rhythm control.

We extend our sincere thanks to all contributing authors and co-authors for their valuable work on this important research.

Fr., 23.05.2025

MAESTRIA-AFNET 10: 5^th Investigator Meeting at the ESC Congress in Madrid

Meet us @ESC:

The entire MAESTRIA – AFNET 10 team is looking forward to welcoming study sites in Madrid on 30th of August.

Location : ESC Meeting Room 5 (IFEMA MADRID Centro de Conventiones Sur – Level 1, IFEMA Madrid, Avenida del Partenón, Madrid, Spain) 

Time: 04:30pm – 06:00 pm

Fri, 16.05.2025

AFNET Lecture Award – Lecture by Prof John Camm – DGK Annual Conference 2025

Prof Camm was honoured with the AFNET Lecture Award at the AFNET general meeting during the DGK 2025 annual conference in Mannheim. In this document you can see his lecture at the award ceremony.

German Cardiac Society 2025 Mannheim Camm FinalHerunterladen

Fri. 16.05.2025

MAESTRIA Consortium Meeting, Paris: 8th and 9th May 2025

The MAESTRIA Consortium, which consists of 18 partners from different European countries, met for the 3rd time on 8 and 9 May to discuss the progress of the EU-funded MAESTRIA project (H2020, Grand 965286). This year’s meeting took place at the Sorbonne University in Paris. The leaders of the different work packages (WP1-WP8) presented their results from the respective sub-projects and defined further milestones. In addition to the work on AI analyses (WP5) under the leadership of Prof. Stéphane Hatem, Prof. Andreas Götte (WP4 leader) presented the successful implementation of the MAESTRIA-AFNET 10 cohort. AFNET is thus making an important contribution to the success of the MAESTRIA project.

Tue., 14.01.2025

EAST-STROKE Videointerview

Prof. Dr. med. Götz Thomalla (UKE) and Dr. med. Märit Jensen (UKE) have recorded a video on the new EAST-STROKE trial in layman’s terms.

The EAST-STROKE (‘Early treatment of Atrial fibrillation for Stroke prevention Trial in acute STROKE’) trial is led by scientist from the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and investigates whether early rhythm-control treatment can effectively and safely prevent strokes. The project is funded by the EU as part of ‘Horizon Europe’. AFNET is partner for dissemination and exploitation.

You can watch the video here.