EP 155: Making Every Procedure Safer, Every Patient Count: Bleeding Risk, Sex Differences, and the Future of Structural Heart
16 March 2026

EP 155: Making Every Procedure Safer, Every Patient Count: Bleeding Risk, Sex Differences, and the Future of Structural Heart

Parallax by Ankur Kalra

About
In this special TIO Congress edition of Parallax, Dr Ankur Kalra is joined by two of interventional cardiology's most influential voices: Professor Roxana Mehran, incoming President of the American College of Cardiology and Co-Course Director of TIO, and Professor Nicholas Van Mieghem, TIO Course Director. The conversation spans the evolution of online medical education, sex-specific differences in cardiovascular disease, and the challenge of translating clinical evidence into everyday practice.

The guests explore sex as a biological variable across valve disease, plaque formation, and left ventricular remodeling, address the underdiagnosis of microvascular dysfunction in women, and examine persistent access barriers for female and non-white patients despite advances in trials such as SMART and RHEA. Professor Van Mieghem adds insights on modern TAVI planning and lifetime valve management, while Professor Mehran shares promising data on Factor XI inhibitors and the case for simplifying antithrombotic regimens.

The episode closes on clinical inertia - with intravascular imaging uptake in the US still at just 12–15% despite a Class 1 indication, Professor Mehran outlines her ACC presidential vision: closing the gap between evidence and bedside practice, and reversing the troubling rise in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.

Questions and comments can be sent to podcast@radcliffe-group.com and may be answered by Ankur in the next episode.
Host: @AnkurKalraMD and produced by: @RadcliffeCardio
Parallax is Ranked in the Top 100 Health Science Podcasts (#48) by Million Podcasts.