Footnotes

• Contributors RM, DHL and PS were involved in generating the focus of the manuscript. RM drafted the manuscript. All authors reviewed and agreed to the manuscript as written.

• Competing interests The University of Adelaide received fees for PS's services on the advisory board of Biosense-Webster, Medtronic, St Jude Medical, Sanofi-Aventis and Merck, Sharpe and Dohme. The University of Adelaide received fees for lectures provided by PS for Biosense-Webster, Medtronic, St Jude Medical, Boston Scientific, Merck, Sharpe and Dohme, Biotronik and Sanofi-Aventis. The University of Adelaide has received research funding from Medtronic, St Jude Medical, Boston Scientific, Biotronik and Sorin to support PS's research. RM is supported by the Leo J Mahar Lectureship from the University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia. DHL is supported by a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. PS is supported by a Practitioner Fellowship from the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and by the National Heart Foundation of Australia.

• Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.