(Vienna, 16 December 2025) Hebe Al Asadi, assistant physician at the Department of Cardiac and Thoracic Aortic Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna, was presented with the Helmut Reul Young Investigator Award at the conference of the International Society of Mechanical Circulatory Support (ISMCS).
Hebe Al Asadi received the award for her work entitled "Cold Atmospheric Plasma Treatment in LVAD-Associated Driveline Infections: A New Frontier in Care" (co-authors: C. Marko, M. Socha, D.V. Cioffi, R. Moayedifar, J. Riebandt, D. Zimpfer and T. Schlöglhofer).
Patients with mechanical circulatory support systems often suffer from infections at the driveline exit site. This paper demonstrated that the additional use of cold atmospheric plasma therapy to standard therapy for driveline infections leads to a significantly higher wound healing rate and a significant reduction in driveline-infection-related hospital readmissions.
The Helmut Reul Young Investigator Award is presented annually by the International Society of Mechanical Circulatory Support (ISMCS) in memory of Helmut Reul, a pioneer in the field of mechanical circulatory support and cardiovascular prostheses who died in 2004.
The ISMCS Annual Meeting is one of the leading scientific conferences in the field of mechanical circulatory support and provides an annual platform for international experts from research and clinical practice.
About
Hebe Al Asadi is currently a resident at the Department of Cardiac and Thoracic Aortic Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna. She completed her medical studies at the Medical University of Vienna in July 2025. During medical school, she was already working as a researcher in the mechanical circulatory support team at the Department of Cardiac and Thoracic Aortic Surgery.
Alongside her clinical work, Hebe Al Asadi is continuing her academic career by starting a doctoral programme in Applied Medical Science at the Medical University of Vienna. The aim of her research is to identify treatment-relevant factors that impact the outcomes of patients with mechanical circulatory support.