Dr. Rakesh Gopinathannair, MD, MA, MBA, FHRS, is currently Cardiac EP Lab and EP Fellowship Director at the Kansas City Heart Rhythm Institute and Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He serves on the Board of Trustees for Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) and is Chair of the HRS SCA/CPR/AED Task Force. Dr. Gopinathannair is immediate past Chair of the HRS Communications Committee and the American Heart Association (AHA) national Electrocardiography and Arrhythmias Committee. He has also served on HRS Program Committee. He is also the current Governor of the Kansas Chapter of the ACC. He has served as a writing group member and peer-reviewer for AHA/ACC/HRS (2017 Syncope Guidelines, 2023 AF Guidelines, 2026 Leadless Pacing Guidelines) and AHRQ guidelines and writing committee Chair for HRS and AHA Scientific Statements. He has made significant contributions to cardiac EP literature, having published over 450 peer-reviewed articles and abstract presentations, along with several book chapters, and has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international meetings. His research interests mainly focus on Arrhythmia Induced Cardiomyopathies, COVID-19 and cardiac arrhythmias, cardioneuroablation, use of intracardiac echo for left atrial appendage closure, and implantable device therapy and complex arrhythmias in patients with advanced heart failure and left ventricular assist devices (LVAD).
He served as Associate Editor for Heart Rhythm Case Reports and as section Editor for Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology. He peer-reviews for leading cardiovascular journals such as Circulation, JACC, European Heart Journal, Heart Rhythm, JACC EP, Circulation Research, Circ: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, among others. Dr. Gopinathannair served as Chair of the National Electrophysiology Clinical Standards Committee for Catholic Health Initiatives from 2013-2016, a large national healthcare organization with 97 hospitals across the country and have been instrumental in developing EP clinical standards and quality metrics across this large healthcare network.