Jonathan P Piccini Editor

Peter R. Kowey, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology at Jefferson Medical College. He is also Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases at the Lankenau Hospital Main Line Health System and President of the Main Line Health Heart Center and is the William Wikoff Smith Chair in Cardiovascular Research.After Dr Kowey’s training at Penn State University and Harvard University School of Public Health he joined the faculty at the Medical College of Pennsylvania as Director of the CCU and Arrhythmia Program, where he rose to the rank of full Professor. Dr Kowey is a Fellow of several professional organizations including the Clinical Council of the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Physicians, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the American College of Chest Physicians, and the American College of Clinical Pharmacology. He spent 9 years as a member of the Cardiorenal Drug Advisory Committee, 4 years on the Cardiovascular Devices Committee of the Food and Drug Administration, and was on the Expert Advisory Panel of the US Pharmacopeial convention. Dr Kowey’s principal area of interest has been cardiac rhythm disturbances.
Jonathan P. Piccini, MD, MHS is a clinical cardiac electrophysiologist and Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center and the Duke Clinical Research Institute. His research interests include the conduct of clinical trials and the assessment of cardiovascular therapeutics for the care of patients with heart rhythm disorders. At present, he is the Director of the EP Clinical Trials Program and Arrhythmia Core Laboratory at Duke University. He also serves on the Clinical Working Group of the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines – Atrial fibrillation (GWTG-Afib) registry program. He is an associate editor for the American Heart Journal and serves on the editorial board of Heart Rhythm, the European Heart Journal, and the Journal of Cardiac Electrophysiology. Dr Piccini is the Principal Investigator of the data and coordinating center for ORBIT AF, a 25,000 patient registry focused on quality of care and improving outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation. He is also the PI of the GENETIC AF clinical trial, the first clinical trial to study genotype-directed rhythm control therapy for atrial fibrillation. Dr. Piccini has more than 175 publications in the field of heart rhythm medicine. Clinically, his focus is on the care of patients with atrial fibrillation and complex arrhythmias, with particular emphasis on catheter ablation and lead extraction.
Gerald V Naccarelli, MD, is the Bernard Trabin Chair in Cardiology, Professor of Medicine, and Chief of the Division of Cardiology at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine/Milton S Hershey Medical Center. He has chaired and been a member of numerous committees for the American Heart Association (AHA), the American College of Cardiology (ACC), and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology/Heart Rhythm Society (NASPE/HRS). He is the author of three books and the author/co-author of over 400 papers, chapters, articles, and abstracts. Professor Naccarelli received a post-doctoral fellowship in cardiac electrophysiology from the Indiana University School of Medicine and received a fellowship in cardiology from, and was Chief Resident in Medicine at, the Penn State University College of Medicine. He received internal medicine residency training at the North Carolina Baptist Hospital/Bowman Gray School of Medicine, and was awarded his MD by the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine.
James A Reiffel, MD, is Professor of Clinical Medicine, Colombia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, a position he has held since 1988. He currently also serves as Director, Electrocardiography Laboratory Columbia University Medical Center and as Attending Physician New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr Reiffel graduated from Duke University in 1965, and completed his MD at Columbia University. He is a member of numerous committees and societies, including the American College of Physicians, New York Heart Association, where he has previously served on the Council on Professional Education, and the American College of Cardiology.