A cardiac electrophysiologist is a physician with special training and understanding of the electrical currents that help regulate your heartbeat. In the entire state of Louisiana, there are less than a dozen active electrophysiologists. At EJGH, Dr. James McKinnie is one of these few and even in this select company he stands out with a reputation of unsurpassed clinical ability and personal care.

Electrophysiology is the science of diagnosing, and treating the electrical activities of the heart. The term is usually used to describe studies of such phenomena by invasive (intracardiac) catheter recording of spontaneous activity as well as of cardiac responses to programmed electrical stimulation (PES). These studies are performed to assess complex arrhythmias, elucidate symptoms, evaluate abnormal electrocardiograms, assess risk of developing arrhythmias in the future, and design treatment. These procedures increasingly include therapeutic methods (typically radiofrequency ablation) in addition to diagnostic and prognostic procedures. Other therapeutic modalities employed in this field include antiarrhythmic drug therapy and implantation of pacemakers and automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (AICD).