Hugh Grosvenor Calkins

HUGH GROSVENOR CALKINS, MD, is Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he serves as Director of the Arrhythmia Service, the Electrophysiology (EP) Laboratory, and the Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC) Program. Under Dr. Calkins’ leadership, the Arrhythmia Service has become one of the premier programs of its kind in the world.

Dr. Calkins is known throughout the world as one of the foremost authorities on atrial fibrillation (AF) and ARVC, a type of rare inherited cardiomyopathy that when left undiagnosed, can result in sudden cardiac death. Dr. Calkins played a pioneering role in the development of catheter ablation for treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. His current research and teaching focuses on improving outcomes of catheter ablation and also on identifying better approaches to diagnose and management patients with ARVC. He is currently engaged in a collaboration with colleagues in biomedical engineering called ADVANCE, which seeks to apply innovative precision medicine techniques like cardiac MRI and computer simulations to development new approaches for catheter ablation to treat AF patients. Dr. Calkins founded the Johns Hopkins ARVC Program 20 years ago. The Johns Hopkins ARVC Program has grown to become the largest and most comprehensive clinical and research program focused on ARVC in the world. Much of the research focus of this program is on developing optimal approaches for diagnosing and treating patients with ARVC. He is leading several active research studies in ARVC, which include the investigation of the role of exercise in its development and progression, an international collaboration to precisely predict sudden death risk and define the relationship between specific genetic mutations and clinical features of the disease.

In addition to his research, clinical, teaching and administrative roles, Dr. Calkins is an Associate Editor of the European Heart Journal and also serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious publications including: The Journal of the American College of Cardiology; HeartRhythm, and Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology. Additionally, he is past President of the Heart Rhythm Society. Dr. Calkins has written more than 75 book chapters and has published more than 600 articles in publications including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, and the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Dr. Calkins attended Williams College. He received his medical degree from Harvard University and completed his Medicine internship and residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He received his cardiology fellowship training at Johns Hopkins.