The inaugural meeting of the Africa Heart Rhythm Association (AFHRA)

Cardiorhythm Africa, the inaugural conference of AFHRA, was conceived during the biennial PASCAR congress held in Johannesburg in November 2019, with the ambition to be the largest ever pan-African conference focused purely on arrhythmia. Significant aims were to (1) bring together arrhythmia specialists from across Africa and from the diaspora; and (2) announce the newly formed African Heart Rhythm Association (AFHRA), an affiliate organisation of PASCAR formed from the amalgamation of the Cardiac Pacing and Arrhythmias taskforces. The meeting held in Nairobi (29-31 January 2020) was organised to provide a focus on resource-constrained arrhythmia management within the African context and novel/advanced and potentially home-grown solutions. There was full representation from all five PASCAR regions (North, East, West, Central and Southern Africa). This report summarises the scope and perspective of the first Cardiorhythm Africa meeting and presents the future directions for this annual meeting.