Rakesh Gopinathannair MD, MA, FAHA, FHRS
Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology Laboratories, Kansas City Heart Rhythm Institute, Overland Park, Kansas; Professor of Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri; Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, KentuckyDr. Rakesh Gopinathannair, MD, MA, FAHA, FHRS, is currently Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology Laboratories at the Kansas City Heart Rhythm Institute, Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. Dr. Gopinathannair currently serves as Chairman of American Heart Association (AHA) Electrocardiography and Arrhythmias Committee and Heart Rhythm Society Communications Committee. He is also a member of the AHA Clinical Cardiology Council Leadership Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, AHA Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Science Advisory Group, and served as EP Program Chair for Committee for Scientific Sessions Programming (CSSP) for AHA 2021. He is also a member of the American College of Cardiology EP Section Leadership Council.
Following graduation from University of Kerala, India, he completed a Master of Arts in Exercise Physiology from the University of Maryland, Internal Medicine Residency from the Hahnemann University Hospital/Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, and Cardiology and Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowships from the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He then served as Assistant Professor (2010-2015), Associate Professor (2015-2018) and Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology (2013-2018) at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Louisville, Kentucky.
He serves as Associate Editor for Heart Rhythm Case Reports and as section Editor for Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology. Dr. Gopinathannair has served as a writing group member and peer-reviewer for AHA/ACC/HRS and AHRQ guidelines and writing committee Chair for AHA Scientific Statements. He has published >350 peer-reviewed articles and abstract presentations, along with several book chapters, and have been an invited speaker at numerous national and international meetings. His research interests mainly focus on Arrhythmia Induced Cardiomyopathies, Atrial fibrillation and Heart Failure, COVID-19 and cardiac arrhythmias, and implantable device therapy and complex arrhythmias in patients with advanced heart failure and Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVAD).