Larry A. Chinitz, MD

I was born in Brooklyn, so New York is in my blood. I love its excitement and the diverse people at NYU Langone. Given all the talented doctors and the latest technology available in New York City, you have to be the best. Every day I ask myself how I can do a better job of providing high-quality patient care and outcomes.

It’s important to me to know my patients and their families. I take the time to understand the nuances of a person’s heart rhythm disorder, explain treatment options, and assure them that they’re in the right place for optimal therapy. At the Heart Rhythm Center, we follow their progress from the first screenings for arrhythmias to any procedures that need to be performed—and sometimes for years after that.

When I started my training in the 1980s at NYU Langone, I chose to specialize first in interventional cardiology, and then cardiac electrophysiology. For the last 30 years, I’m proud to have built a highly trained cardiac electrophysiology team that cares for our patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We’ve been at the forefront of technical advancements and have contributed to major breakthroughs in treatment for decades. 

At NYU Langone, I’ve had the opportunity to research nonsurgical ablation catheters, through which we deliver energy directly to the heart via the tip of a catheter to prevent common as well as life-threatening arrhythmias. Recent advances in catheter design allow ablation to be performed more safely and with higher success rates. Technological cardiac device advancements include sophisticated MRI-compatible pacemakers and implantable defibrillators that can be monitored remotely, regulate irregular heartbeats, or deliver an internal shock to the heart to stop potentially life-threatening arrhythmias.

In February 2014, I was fortunate to lead a team of NYU Langone specialists in implanting—for the first time in the United States—the bullet-sized Micra™ Transcatheter Pacing System, the world’s smallest leadless cardiac pacemaker.