Southampton, NY—On July 1, Stony Brook University Heart Institute will begin to offer select electrophysiology services to treat heart rhythm disorders, also known as arrhythmias, at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.
This new-to-Southampton service will allow people living on the East End who need a pacemaker, defibrillator, or loop recorder implantation to receive help regulating their heartbeats without having to travel far to do so. These services will complement those offered in Stony Brook Southampton Hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, providing residents with greater access to cardiovascular diagnosis, treatment and care, close to home.
The procedures will be administered in Stony Brook Southampton’s Audrey and Martin Gruss Heart & Stroke Center, where specialists from the Stony Brook University Heart Institute Heart Rhythm Center will have the ability to identify abnormal heartbeats and then develop a personalized and minimally invasive treatment plan for patients that can be carried out in the Heart & Stroke Center’s advanced endovascular surgical suite.
“For patients and their families living on the East End of Long Island, they no longer have to travel far to get quality heart rhythm care,” said Eric J. Rashba, MD, FACC, FHRS, Director, Stony Brook Heart Rhythm Center and Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology at Stony Brook Medicine. “They now can get the same quality of care they would get at Stony Brook, by our electrophysiology experts, right on site at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital.”
Staff at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital will work closely with Dr. Rashba and his veteran team of electrophysiologists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants—including Roger Fan, MD—who offer decades of training and experience, insight from cutting-edge research, a multidisciplinary approach to care, and a patient-focused environment. Dr. Rashba is currently implanting the world’s smallest pacemaker—the wireless 1.01-inch Micra—into patients with bradycardia.
About the Audrey and Martin Gruss Heart & Stroke Center
Opened in 2015, the Audrey and Martin Gruss Heart & Stroke Center at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital consolidates a broad spectrum of sophisticated diagnostic and treatment capabilities with existing cardiovascular programs and services. An advanced endovascular surgical suite features the latest imaging technology in a sterile operating room environment. In September 2017, Stony Brook Medicine opened a fully equipped Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory in the Center that provides emergency and elective treatments delivered by Stony Brook University Heart Institute specialists. By allowing easier, faster access to the highest standard of cardiac care, the lab provides more immediate, potentially lifesaving diagnosis and treatment for residents of the East End of Long Island.
About the Stony Brook Heart Rhythm Center
Part of Stony Brook University Heart Institute, Stony Brook's Heart Rhythm Center is a recognized leader in the diagnosis and treatment of heart arrhythmias. Led by Dr. Eric Rashba, the team includes five electrophysiologists, three nurse practitioners and five physician assistants who practice in two state-of-the-art electrophysiology laboratories. The Heart Rhythm team combines medical expertise, advanced facilities and personalized care that stresses open communication among all parties involved in a procedure. Stony Brook stays on the cutting edge of electrophysiology through its deep involvement in heart rhythm research. Much of the organization’s research is practical and focuses on improvements in treatments that are already available.