At the 2025 European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress, Prof. Frits Prinzen was invited to deliver the distinguished Paul Hugenholtz Lecture on Innovation. This honorary lecture, named after the pioneering Dutch cardiologist and former ESC president Paul Hugenholtz, is awarded each year to a leading expert whose work embodies groundbreaking innovation in cardiovascular medicine.

The lecture titled 'Innovation in pacing therapies: Where technology meets physiology' focused on how technological advances in pacemaker design, such as miniaturisation, longer battery life, and leadless pacing, combined with deeper insights into cardiac physiology are reshaping treatment options. Physiological pacing techniques, including left bundle branch area pacing, are now used worldwide and are expanding applications beyond heart failure to conditions such as atrial fibrillation.

Future directions include battery-free pacemakers powered by heart motion, wireless devices for temporary pacing, and novel algorithms to address hypertension and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. While the field is advancing rapidly, large-scale clinical trials remain essential to firmly establish these innovations in international guidelines.