Heart Rhythm - Cardiology

The Rhythm of Your Heart

Most of us never think about the fact that our heart beats in a normal fashion. But many individuals have an irregular heart beat which is known as an arrhythmia. For some, this might be just an annoyance, but for others it can lead to tragedy. The Heart Rhythm Service at the QEII Health Sciences Centre provides comprehensive arrhythmia consultation, diagnosis and management.

The Heart Rhythm Service at the Division of Cardiology at Capital Health provides the following clinical care services:

  • Tertiary and quaternary consultation services to Nova Scotia and Maritime physicians for adults and children with known or suspected heart rhythm disturbances
  • Catheter ablation procedures for a variety of cardiac rhythm disturbances 
  • Pharmacological management of a variety of heart rhythm disturbances 
  • Assessment of patients with life-threatening rhythm disturbances 
  • Implantation of implantable cardioverter/defibrillators, and biventricular pacemakers/defibrillators 
  • Follow-up of patients with pacemakers and implantable defibrillators 
  • Assessment of patients and families with familial cardiac syndromes predisposing to sudden death 

Cardiac electrophysiology is the fastest growing field in Cardiology. The Heart Rhythm Service includes five Cardiac Electrophysiologists, as well as collaboration with Cardiologist colleagues who participate in pacemaker and defibrillator follow-up, fellows undertaking subspecialty training in cardiac electrophysiology, specialist nurses, technicians, research coordinators and administrative assistants. In all, this includes nearly 30 health care professionals.

The heart rhythm team carries out a very active research program. The heart rhythm researchers at the QEII include Drs. John Sapp, Ratika Parkash, Martin Gardner, Dr Amir AbdelWahab and Chris Gray. This group is committed to the care of patients with (and at risk for) heart rhythm abnormalities, and are pushing the margins of our knowledge around these disorders and pushing the envelope of our capabilities in treatment.