Elijah R. Behr, MBBS, MD, FRCP, FESC

Consultant Cardiologist

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“My personal philosophy and approach to patient care is a holistic one. I don't want to just focus on the patient and their physical ailments alone. I want to consider all aspects of their condition that may be causing them distress, particularly when I'm dealing with patients and families that have genetic heart conditions. Addressing their overall well-being and health is really critical to how I practice.”

Expertise

Professor Behr is an international expert in the field of arrhythmias, sudden death and genetic heart disease. He co-wrote international guidelines for the diagnosis and management of arrhythmia syndromes and more recently for the investigation of individuals who have suffered a sudden cardiac arrest or a sudden death, and their families.

Elijah R. Behr, MBBS, MD, FRCP, FESC, Consultant Cardiologist: My name is Elijah Behr. I am a cardiologist, which means I'm a heart specialist. And I really focus on the rhythm of the heart and genetic disorders related to the rhythm of the heart. I became a physician for a few reasons. One is because it hadn't been a tradition in my family. But my cousin had become a doctor and he was a lot older than me and I really respected him. And so I became really focused on medicine from an early stage in school. And really I think I made the right decision in the end. So my personal philosophy and approach to patient care is really a holistic one. I don't want to just focus on the patient and their physical ailments alone. I want to consider all the aspects of their condition that may be causing them distress. And particularly when I'm dealing with patients and families have genetic heart conditions. And so addressing their overall well-being and health is really critical to how I practice. When you walked through the door at Mayo Clinic London, you're going to feel like you are being treated with the utmost of care and attention. All staff are focused on giving you the best of their abilities and ensuring that you have the best experience possible. It means that you will be getting all the latest in technology that's available. The backup, knowing that our colleagues and Mayo Rochester are available for any special opinions that you need, as well as all our colleagues here in London.

Conditions treated

  • Arrhythmia
    • Atrial fibrillation
    • Atrial flutter
    • Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT)
    • Ventricular fibrillation and pulseless ventricular tachycardia (VF/VT)
  • Inherited cardiac conditions
    • Brugada syndrome
    • Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT)
    • Long QT syndrome
    • Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS)
  • Cardiomyopathy
    • Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy
    • Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
    • Dilated cardiomyopathy

Procedures

  • Ablation of arrhythmias
  • Pacemaker implantation
  • ICD implantation
  • Cardiac resynchronisation therapy

Areas of focus

Education

Professor Behr trained at St George's Hospital and University of London. He is also a graduate of St John's College, University of Cambridge.

Research activities

Within the 100,000 Genomes Project, Professor Behr co-leads the arrhythmia subdomain of the Genomics England Clinical Interpretation Partnership. He founded and chairs the national collaboration the Rare Arrhythmia Syndrome Evaluation (RASE) consortium, and co-chairs the international collaboration the Genomics of Unexplained Cardiac Arrest (GenUCA) Investigators. His research interests include:

  • Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
  • Channelopathies, including long QT and Brugada syndromes
  • Unexplained cardiac arrest
  • Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy
  • Prediction of sudden death risk
  • Drug-induced arrhythmia

See Professor Behr's published articles

Honours

Professor Behr is currently professor in Cardiovascular Medicine and an honorary consultant cardiologist specialising in electrophysiology. He is director of the Cardiology Clinical Academic Group and head of the Cardiology Research Centre in the Molecular and Clinical Sciences Research Institute, St George's, University of London. He has been a visiting professor of cardiology at the Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University, Denmark.

Professor Behr is past president of the Association for Inherited Cardiac Conditions (AICC). He founded and is the first chairperson of the European Cardiac Arrhythmia Genetics (ECGen) focus group of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA). He is a member of the EHRA Board and the nucleus of the ESC Council on Cardiovascular Genomics.

Professor Behr is an editorial board member of the journal Heart Rhythm and an advisory board member for Nature Reviews Cardiology. He is on the scientific advisory board of the SADS foundation. He currently acts as an expert adviser to the NHS England Clinical Reference Groups for genomic services and for cardiovascular services. He is national chairperson for the NHS England and for the Coronial Sudden Unexpected Death Pilot Steering Group.

Professional memberships

  • Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP)
  • Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC)
  • Member of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA)
  • Member of the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS)
  • Member of the British Heart Rhythm Society (BHRS)
  • Member and past president of the Association for Inherited Cardiac Conditions (AICC)