Restoring Rhythms in the North Country

Since 2017, patients at Glens Falls Hospital have had direct access to electrophysiology (EP) to repair and diagnose some heart ailments.

While EP is a large practice at Albany Medical Center, this area of practice is not always available at community hospitals.

This specialty is about the “electrical” components of the heart. Interventional cardiologists focus on the narrowing or blockages, the plumbing of the heart, whereas electrophysiology focuses on the electrical pathways of the heart and each patient’s unique heart rhythm.

Electrophysiologist Henry Tan, MD, who joined Glens Falls Hospital from Albany Medical Center’s EP Lab, performs procedures such as implantation of pacemakers, cardiac defibrillators, and cardiac monitors. He also conducts electrophysiology mapping, which helps to determine the pathway of the cardiac impulse and if it is normal or abnormal.

Dr. Tan also performs cardiac ablation for patients with arrhythmia. In this procedure, the abnormal pathway of the dysrhythmia can be “burned” and rerouted to a normal heart rhythm.

Albany Medical Center houses an EP Lab with a team of cardiac electrophysiologists who use the latest innovative technology and testing to measure electrical activity in the heart. Conditions they treat include atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, bradycardia, ventricular fibrillation, and supraventricular arrhythmia. Pacemaker and defibrillator insertion is available as well as traditional ablation and minimally invasive catheter ablation and other high-level procedures.

Although some Glens Falls Hospital patients must be seen in the EP Lab at Albany Medical Center, many electrophysiology cases can be performed in Glens Falls, resulting in treatment closer to home.