One of Few Female Electrophysiologists Hones in On Heart Rhythm Disorders in Women

Urmc.rochester.edu: May 10, 2012

RMC’s Tompkins Presents Data at Major Cardiology Meetings

Christine Tompkins, M.D., is a member of an exclusive group: Female physicians that study and treat the electrical disturbances of the heart. Of the more than 1,500 heart rhythm specialists in the country, only seven percent are women, according to the Heart Rhythm Society. An assistant professor in the Department of Cardiology, she is just the second female electrophysiologist to practice at theUniversity of Rochester Medical Center.

Not only is Tompkins one of the few women in the field, but her research focuses on arrhythmias, or irregular heartbeats, in women. She wants to uncover what makes women different from men when it comes to fast, slow or otherwise abnormal heart rhythms that can lead to fainting, cardiac arrest and, in the worst cases, death. Though some research does exist, it isn’t a well studied area.

At the Heart Rhythm Society’s annual scientific sessions in Boston this week, Tompkins presented new data on the influence of gender on potentially life-threatening arrhythmias that originate in the lower chambers of the heart, or the ventricles. Such events, known as ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, usually occur after an individual’s suffered a heart attack. Read more