Jason Chinitz, MD joined Northwell Health as a Cardiologist specializing in Cardiac Electrophysiology in 2015. He has been the Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology at South Shore University Hospital since 2017, and is an Associate Professor of Cardiology at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Dr. Chinitz specializes in the management of patients with heart rhythm disorders, with a focus on catheter-based interventional procedures for patients with atrial fibrillation. Before joining Northwell, he graduated medical school from the University of Pennsylvania, completed fellowships in Cardiac Electrophysiology and Cardiovascular Disease and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Mt Sinai Hospital, respectively, and Internal Medicine Residency at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He is a Fellow of the American Heart Association and Heart Rhythm Society.

Laurence M. Epstein, MD

Professor of Cardiology at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Professor, Bioelectric Medicine, Feinstein Institute of Medical Research System Director of Electrophysiology, Northwell Health, New York.

Laurence Epstein, MD is the System Director of Electrophysiology for Northwell Health, Professor of Cardiology at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and Professor, Bioelectric Medicine, Feinstein Institute of Medical Research. Prior to joining Northwell Dr. Epstein was the Chief of the Arrhythmia Service of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Epstein’s career has spanned the era of modem clinical cardiac electrophysiology and he has played a critical role in the development of many of the important advances. His research interests have included new ablative techniques, the development and use of intracardiac echocardiography, physiologic pacing, leadless pacing and new techniques for removing chronic transvenous leads. Dr. Epstein received his BA in ology from Carleton College in 1980 followed by a medical degree from the University of Chicago in 1985. This was followed by an internal medicine residency and a research fellowship in cardiac electrophysiology at University of California San Francisco Medical Center (UCSF).

He completed his Cardiology fellowship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. and then a clinical electrophysiology fellowship and at UCS. In 1992 he joined the faculty of UCSF and in 1994 moved to Boston to help Dr. Mark Josephson build an electrophysiology program at the Beth Israel Hospital. In 2000 Dr. Epstein was recruited to be the Chief of the Arrhythmia Service of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and was promoted to Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in 2014. In 2017 he joined Northwell Health as the system director of Electrophysiology. In this role he oversees heart rhythm care across a 23-hospital system with 11 EP programs.

The author of over 165 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Epstein’s clinical and research interests include pathophysiology and treatment of a variety of cardiac arrhythmias. This has included device therapy, catheter ablation, and image guided therapy. He is considered one of the world’s experts in transvenous lead management and extraction. He has been listed as one of America’s Top Doctors by Castle Connolly and named a top cardiac electrophysiologist by Boston Magazine.

Dr. Marcin Kowalski is the Director, Cardiac Electrophysiology Lab and Associate Director of the Cardiology Fellowship Program at Staten Island University Hospital in Staten Island, New York.  He received his medical degree from New York Medical College, completed his electrophysiology fellowship from the Medical College of Virginia and his Physician Executive Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee.

Dr. Andrew Locke is an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a clinical cardiac electrophysiologist in the Harvard-Thorndike Electrophysiology Institute and Arrhythmia Service.  He is the current medical director of the Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion Program at BIDMC. He has a clinical interest in the arrhythmia management of cardiac sarcoidosis patients serving as the co-founder of the Cardiac Sarcoidosis Center.  Additionally, he is a faculty member of the VT Center at BIDMC. Dr. Locke directs a variety of peer-to-peer and fellow educational courses teaching advance ablation techniques.

Dr. Osorio is a native of Brazil where he earned his medical degree. He completed training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in Cardiovascular Diseases and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology. He is board certified in Cardiovascular Disease and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology.

Dr Osorio is the director of Cardiac Electrophysiology and the Afib Clinic at HCA Florida Miami. He specializes in the treatment of heart rhythm disorders, such as atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia. He also leads Electrophysiology Research at Mercy Hospital and has served as the principal investigator in dozens of clinical trials investigating novel treatment options for atrial fibrillation.

Dr. Osorio is internationally recognized for his commitment and contribution to quality and practice improvement within the field of electrophysiology. His passion for improving patient care has been recognized by his professional organization, the Heart Rhythm Society, which designed educational programs to highlight the model built at Grandview Medical Center. Dr. Osorio has long championed the team-based approach to continuous quality improvement with a focus on safety, efficiency, and improved outcomes. Over the past 8 years, he has hosted over 500 clinicians in his lab (in-person and virtually) to help them improve their efficiency and outcomes.

Dr Osorio is the President and founder of Heart Rhythm Clinical and Research Solutions, LLC and 3PH Alliance. In this role, he leads a national learning collaborative focused on improving outcomes collection and quality improvement in participating centers.

Dr. Akhrass is the associate director of cardiac electrophysiology at the Staten Island University Hospital – Northwell Health, New York. He is a dedicated clinician and educator. Dr. Akhrass’ clinical practice is focused on Arrhythmia Management, catheter ablation, and prevention of sudden cardiac death. In addition, he is involved in quality initiatives in Electrophysiology, and interventions to improve safety and reduce peri-procedural complications.

After earning his medical degree from the St. Joseph’s University in Lebanon, Dr. Akhrass completed his internal medicine residency and cardiovascular fellowship at the State University of New York – Health Sciences Center at Downstate, and his electrophysiology fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital at St. Luke’s in New York.

Bani M. Azari, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Cardiology at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the founding Medical Director of the program for Cardiac Genetics, Genomics, and Precision Medicine at Northwell Health. Her clinical practice focuses on the diagnosis and management of individuals with inherited cardiovascular conditions.

Dr. Azari completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She then pursued an MD/PhD at SUNY Downstate, where she conducted her thesis research on “The Role of the Cellular Adhesion Molecule F11R/JAM-A in Atherosclerosis.” Her thesis was completed under the guidance of advisors Anna Babinska and Jonathan D. Marmur.

After completing her medical training, Dr. Azari underwent a residency at Mount Sinai-St Luke’s. She further pursued a fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at Yale University, where she trained under the direction of Dr. Arya Mani, the director of the Yale Medicine Cardiovascular Genetics Program.

Dr. Azari’s primary research interests lie in the application of cardiac genetics in conjunction with cardiac imaging. She aims to improve access to cardiac genetic evaluation and remove barriers in this field.

Dr. Bernstein is an Attending Cardiac Electrophysiologist at Lenox Hill Hospital. He has been practicing cardiac electrophysiology for thirty years. He did his training at NYU Medical Center and came to the Northwell system in 2014.

Dr. Bernstein is the Director of Cardiac Implantable Rhythm Devices at Lenox Hill and has a special interest in device therapy for electrophysiology. This includes new treatments including conduction system pacing, cardiac contractility management, and device/lead extraction.

He has extensive experience in all aspects of electrophysiology and has published extensively. He has presented at multiple electrophysiologic meetings on the national and international scene.

Dr. Choudry is the Director of the Cardiac EP lab at Northern Westchester Hospital, which he helped to start in 2020 when he joined Northwell Health.
He received his medical degree and completed internal medicine residency at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and subsequently did a cardiology fellowship at Yale New Haven Hospital.  He returned to Mount Sinai for electrophysiology training and continued as an attending there before joining Northwell.  Dr. Choudry has authored and co-authored several publications in cardiac electrophysiology.

Arianna Freyre has 16 years’ experience as a registered nurse, graduating from the College of Staten Island in 2008. She worked in an emergency room for ten years and graduated as an Adult-Gerontology primary care nurse practitioner from the College of Staten Island in 2017. She has been working in the outpatient electrophysiology clinic since November 2020 where she primarily sees patients with cardiac devices. She has since graduated from Hofstra University with a post-master’s certificate in the Acute Care Adult Gerontology nurse practitioner program. Her goal is to become IBHRE certified as a cardiac device specialist in 2025 and to assist in starting a cardiac resynchronization therapy clinic. Her claim to fame is having been a contestant on the game show Wheel of Fortune. In her spare time, she enjoys the beach, karaoke and playing video games with her two children.

James Gabriels, MD, FACC, is an electrophysiologist at North Shore University Hospital where he serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cardiology at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.

Dr. Gabriels completed an internal medicine residency, chief residency in internal medicine and cardiology fellowship at Northwell Health. He served as a chief cardiology fellow. He then completed his electrophysiology fellowship at New York Presbyterian Weil Cornell. He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiology, echocardiography and electrophysiology.

Dr. Gabriels’ clinical expertise includes device implantation with a focus on conduction system pacing and leadless pacing. He also has a focus on catheter ablation with attention to complex atrial arrhythmias and ventricular tachycardia. His research endeavors include 56 peer-reviewed publications, including 22 as the primary author.

Dr. Bruce G. Goldner is a clinician in the field of electrophysiology who has remained at the cutting edge of technology performing complex ablations of arrhythmias, left atrial appendage closures, leadless pacemakers, biventricular devices, and left bundle area pacing. Long Island Jewish Medical Center was one of the first institutions in the world to perform most ablations without the use of fluoroscopy. At the time he started to perform epicardial ablation, LIJMC was the first institution on Long Island to perform this procedure. Despite the time necessary to learn, perform, and improve upon these procedures, he has had an opportunity to teach and, in the process, received 2 teaching awards. His team has published manuscripts in multiple major journals over the years. They have also participated in major multicenter trials.
In the early 1990s, Dr. Goldner helped develop the cardiology and electrophysiology curriculum at North Shore University and in 2000 at Long Island Jewish Medical Center for the cardiology fellows. Moreover, he helped to develop the electrophysiology curriculum for Hofstra Medical Students and participated in ECG teaching sessions at Hofstra. He has also taught medical students, interns, residents, and fellows and mentored junior-level electrophysiology attending physicians who have gone on to attain major positions at other institutions.
Dr. Goldner has participated in major multicenter trials which have led to major changes in guidelines and the development of new products. Long Island Jewish Medical Center led the way in enrollment in the Navigate Study which tested a new quadripolar lead for biventricular pacing. Northwell Health was the 3rd highest enrolling center in the world for this trial. As a clinician in electrophysiology, satisfaction is derived from the notion that we are helping patients to live longer, healthier lives.

Dr. Haisam Ismail’s passion in Medicine has always been to learn and to educate. He has always tried to simplify complex topics so that he can be an effective learner and teacher. Dr. Ismail has been fortunate to work under the tutelage of remarkable mentors to carry this passion.

During his residency training, Dr. Ismail remembered when he won the Resident of the Year. He was called to a meeting on the telemetry floor with his program director and co-residents and received the award as a surprise. It was a great feeling to be appreciated by my colleagues. He soon became Chief resident and continued through to become Chief fellow during Cardiology training.

Dr. Ismail’s first time outside of the Northwell system was during his Electrophysiology fellowship in Boston. Mark Josephson, Alfred Buxton, and Peter Zimetbaum were great mentors in the field. He came back home to Northwell two years later and taught the Cardiology fellows what he learned. Dr. Ismail won the Teacher of the Year during his first year as attending. He also got involved with teaching at the medical school small group EKG sessions.

Dr. Ismail soon started to focus on his clinical work and established great relationships with cardiology attendings in the community. He quickly became a high-volume operator in EP procedures. During this time, Dr. Ismail was also working closely with the Cardiology fellows and IM residents in research. They currently present abstracts and posters at multiple meetings yearly. The group has also published numerous manuscripts and continues to do so. Dr. Ismail also published a book chapter with our Pulmonary colleagues on atrial fibrillation and sleep apnea.

As he became more comfortable with his clinical work and research has started to focus on ways to improve the EP lab with regard to efficiency. Dr. Ismail thought if they could finish procedures in a timely manner, they would have more time to teach and do research. He was appointed Director of the EP lab last year and has continued to help grow the volume and improve efficiency.

Director of Electrophysiology at Peconic Bay Medical Center.

Previously Served as Director of Electrophysiology at North Shore Manhasset from 1995 to 2017. Completed Electrophysiology training at Philadelphia Heart Institute and Cardiology fellowship at St Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital. Diplomate ABIM in Internal medicine, Cardiology and Electrophysiology. Completed medical school at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University.

Dr. Paul Maccaro is a Cardiac Electrophysiologist who joined Northwell Physician Partners (then North Shore Health System) in 1997. He currently serves as Vice-Chairman of Cardiology and Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology for Huntington Hospital. Dr. Maccaro performs a variety of Electrophysiology procedures for the treatment of patients with Arrhythmia including device implantation and catheter ablation. He is an active Investigator on numerous clinical trials.

Dr. Maccaro is Assistant Professor of Cardiology, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, a Fellow of the American College of Physician, and a Fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society. He is past president of the Medical Staff of Huntington Hospital. Dr. Maccaro has a strong interested in clinical research and has participated as principal investigator in multiple national and international studies. Dr. Maccaro serves as Chairman of the Northwell Health IRB committee D.

Raman L. Mitra MD, PhD is the Director of the Electrophysiology Laboratory at Northshore University Hospital. He received both his MD and PhD from the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Medicine. He was the previous Director of Electrophysiology, Arrhythmia, and Pacemaker Services at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago where he held faculty appointments in both Medicine and Biophysics. In 2008 he founded the Memorial Advanced Cardiovascular Institute, in South Bend, IN. Until 2019, he served as its Medical Director and Chief of Cardiovascular Services and grew the program to 12 cardiologists and 2 cardiovascular surgeons. It was named a Top 50 Cardiovascular Program by IBM-Watson Health in 2018. He has published extensively in both basic and clinical electrophysiology. He is among the world’s first group of electrophysiologists to have expertise in completely non-fluoroscopic ablation of complex atrial and ventricular dysrhythmias. His research interests include cardiac electromechanical coupling, cardiac imaging including coronary CTA with FFR, and mechanisms of cardiac ion channel selectivity and conduction. He also has a special interest in developing software for cardiac diagnostic decision-making. He has trained physicians around the world on newer techniques of ablation and has been regularly invited to speak on advances in cardiology and electrophysiology.

Dr. Stavros Mountantonakis graduated summa cum laude from the University of Thessaly in Greece. After serving as a Medical Officer in the Greek Airforce he migrated to the US to pursue his career in Cardiology. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency at the Cleveland Clinic, his Cardiology Fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center, and his Cardiac Electrophysiology training at the University of Pennsylvania. He went on to earn his Masters of Business Administration from Hofstra University in 2017.

He is currently the Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. In 2017 he founded the Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship Program for Northwell Health and serves as the System Program Director. He created the Northwell Electrophysiology Didactic Lecture Series which features experts from around the country to foster discussion, sharing of knowledge, and continuing education for all members of the interdisciplinary team across a large Health System. In his capacity as a Professor of Cardiology at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, he serves as a mentor to a wide array of students, residents, fellows, and allied health professionals.

He serves as the System Director of Electrophysiology Research and was selected as Principal Investigator of the Year for Northwell in 2020. He is recognized nationally for his clinical expertise in complex ablation procedures for ventricular arrhythmias and particularly for PVC ablation, PVC cardiomyopathy, malignant PVCs. Through his research and expertise in the use of non-invasive electroanatomical mapping, he became a national proctor for the use of the technology. He is an active principal investigator on over 20 sponsored and federally funded clinical trials, as well as grant-funded physician-initiated trials. He serves on the advisory board for numerous IDE ablation clinical trials with Biosense Webster, Medtronic and Biotronik. He serves on the editorial board for multiple high Impact peer-reviewed journals. He serves on the American College of Cardiology Electrophysiology Section Leadership Council, as well as the Heart Rhythm Society CCEP Program Directors Council.

Dr. Pagan completed his medical school training at SUNY – Downstate Medical Center after which he went on to complete his internal medicine training at Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center and his cardiovascular and clinical cardiac electrophysiology training at Northwell. Eric’s has a particular interest and expertise in managing the arrhythmic needs of our patient populations. His particular interest is in the management of patients with atrial fibrillation. Dr. Pagan is no stranger to the East End of Long Island and is eager to share his expertise with the local community.  On a personal note, Dr. Pagan enjoys hiking, cycling, and traveling with his wife.

Bruce J. Rutkin, MD is a Structural Interventional Cardiologist at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, NY.  He is the System Director of Structural Heart Disease at Northwell Health, an Associate Professor of Cardiology & Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, and one of the Co-Directors of the Center for Valvular Disease at Northwell’s Cardiovascular Institute. He is active in numerous clinical trials for the treatment of patients with aortic, mitral, and tricuspid valve disease utilizing transcatheter therapies.

Moussa Saleh, MD, is a clinical and interventional cardiac electrophysiologist at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Cardiology at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.

Dr. Saleh attended Loma Linda University School of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine training at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He completed his cardiovascular disease fellowship at University of California, San Francisco-Fresno and his advanced training in electrophysiology at Lenox Hill Hospital and North Shore University Hospital. Dr. Saleh is board certified in internal medicine, cardiology, and clinical electrophysiology. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology as well as Heart Rhythm Society.

Andrzej Szczepanek finished his undergraduate degree in Biology at SUNY Stony Brook and after graduating in 2005 attended  PA school at LIU Brooklyn graduating in July of 2008. He began is career in medicine in Cardiology  at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn where he fell in love with the field of Cardiac Electrophysiology. Under the mentorship of Dr. Yisachar Greenberg and Dr. Felix Yang he gained further knowledge and experience within his field and participated in the shared experience of the EP lab assisting in complex procedures, system extractions, ablations, and device implantations. He also assisted the EP labs at NY Methodist Hospital on a part time basis. In 2016 he joined Dr. Jason Chinitz at the now South Shore University Hospital as the EP lab started to expand its capabilities and complexity of its procedures. During his time at South Shore, he has witnessed the hospital grow and reach University status. During his time the EP program now offers a full complement of complex EP procedures to the community and the surrounding regions and affiliated hospitals. He was recently promoted and in November 2023 became the ACP Supervisor of the EP program at South Shore University Hospital.

Born and bred in Hudson County NJ, I always knew I wanted to be a doctor. I was fortunate enough to find amazing mentors at a young age to help me become the first physician in my family. I graduated from medical school from Rutgers UMDNJ in Newark and went on to train at Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia for internal medicine, followed by Cooper University Hospital in Camden for cardiology and finally NY Presbyterian -Columbia University Hospital for electrophysiology.

As the only female electrophysiologist in the Northwell system, I perform all EP procedures including complex ablations, left atrial appendage occlusion, leadless device and subcutaneous device implants.

Dr. Nicholas T. Skipitaris is a practicing clinical cardiac electrophysiologist. He is presently the Western Regional Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology for Northwell Health and practices at the Heart Rhythm Center at Lenox Hill Heart and Lung in New York City. He is assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra University / Northwell Health. Previously, he was the Medical Director of Electrophysiology Operations and assistant professor of medicine and cardiology at Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He graduated from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Religion and received his M.D. degree from the Dartmouth-Brown Program in Medicine. More recently, he received an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Bellevue Hospital Center / NYU Medical Center and completed fellowships in cardiology and electrophysiology at the NYU Medical Center. He is a Fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society and the American College of Cardiology and a member of the Hellenic Medical Society of New York.

Dr. Skipitaris has expertise in ablative and device therapy for the treatment of cardiac rhythm disturbances and is actively involved in research in those areas. He is currently involved in researching new strategies to treat atrial fibrillation and the use of non-invasive mapping of complex arrhythmias. He also has a particular interest in the prevention of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and believes that increasing community awareness, making AEDs more accessible and teaching CPR/AED use to the public is particularly important to make an impact in this area. He has organized numerous SCA awareness programs, large scale CPR/AED training events and has been involved in the education and SCA screening of thousands of people in the New York area. He is a recipient of the American Heart Association’s Lifesaver Award, and the 2014 Dominic A. Murray 21 Memorial Foundation HeartSaver 2014 award, recognizing his work in this area. He has been named “Top Doctor” in his field since 2018.

Dr. Sofi did his medical school in India. Subsequently, he was a resident in Internal Medicine at the University of Florida, which was followed by cardiology fellowship training at the University of South Florida. He did his Cardiac Electrophysiology fellowship training at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City where he joined subsequently as an Assistant Professor and was employed there until 2021. He joined SouthShore University Hospital in 2021 and is currently employed there as a Cardiac Electrophysiologist. He has expertise in all ablation and device procedures with a particular interest in complex ablations including ventricular arrhythmias. He has published several articles in prestigious journals and is actively pursuing clinical research in addition to his clinical responsibilities.

Jonathan Willner, MD is a cardiac electrophysiologist at North Shore University Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Cardiology at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra.

Dr. Willner completed his medical school and residency training at New York University, where he also served as Chief Resident. He worked as an NIH Clinical Research Scholar and then completed clinical fellowships in cardiovascular disease and clinical electrophysiology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center. He is board certified in cardiovascular disease and electrophysiology.

Dr. Willner’s clinical expertise is in the medical and procedural management of complex arrhythmia, including cardiac device implantation, catheter ablation of simple and complex atrial and ventricular arrhythmia, and left atrial appendage occlusion device implantation. He has authored or co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed journal articles in cardiology and electrophysiology and has been a panelist and moderator and local, regional, and national electrophysiology conferences.