Elijah R. Behr, MBBS, MD, FRCP, FESC
Consultant Cardiologist
“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.
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
- Cardiology (heart health)
- Electrophysiology
- Genetics
- Sudden death
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 Genomics England Research Network, Professor Behr co-leads the Screening and Predisposition Community. 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
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)