URMC receives $27 million to study implantable defibrillators

The University of Rochester Medical Center has received a research funding award that will help fund a study it says could change care around the world.

URMC was awarded $27 million to support a six-year study on implantable cardioverter defibrillators and the health outcomes of heart failure patients with and without the device. The health system says the funding is one of the largest grants it has received in the last decade.

According to URMC, the goal of the study is to discover whether advances in medical therapy may reduce the use of these devices for many people living with heart failure.

“Our current analysis suggests that at least 50% of the patients who receive an ICD today do not derive a survival benefit from it,” said Dr. Ilan Goldenberg, director of the Clinical Cardiovascular Research Center and lead investigator of the study. “I believe the whole paradigm of heart failure treatment will change.”

Goldenberg hopes the study will result in a change in practice guidelines.

More than 3,000 patients will be enrolled in the study at 115 sites across the U.S. and Canada.