Robert H. Helm, MD

Biography

Robert Helm, MD, FHRS received his BS in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins and his MD at Loyola University Chicago. He completed fellowships in cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology at Johns Hopkins. He is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Radiology at Boston University and a clinical cardiac electrophysiologist at Boston Medical Center. He has expertise in atrial fibrillation (AF) and other arrhythmia disorders and has a large clinical practice performing hundreds of ablation procedures annually. He has gained distinction within his field being recognized locally, regionally, and nationally for his clinical expertise in arrhythmia disorders including AF and cardiac resynchronization therapy. He has been identified as one of Boston’s Top Doctors in cardiac electrophysiology for ten consecutive years. He is the Director of the Cardiac Device clinic and oversees perioperative cardiac device management and MR imaging in patients with cardiac devices. As a Fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society, he have contributed to national educational and guideline efforts as a member of the American College of Cardiology Self-Assessment Program writing group for physician board recertification and as a writing group member for the 2017 HRS/EHRA/ECAS/SOLAECE expert consensus statement on catheter and surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation and the 2016 EHRA/HRS/APHRS/SOLAECE expert consensus on atrial cardiomyopathies. He has authored 34 peer-review manuscripts and several invited reviews on AF, including publications in Circulation Research, and JAMA.

His research has recently focused on the impact of AF treatment strategy (rate versus rhythm control) on clinical outcomes; patterns of adoption and outcomes of left atrial appendage occlusion for stroke prevention; and the use of mobile health technology to improve clinical outcomes in AF. He has served as local principal investigator at Boston Medical Center for over 7 multicenter clinical trials including the current on-going Systematic Assessment of Geriatric Elements in Atrial Fibrillation (SAGE-AF) and The Rhythm Evaluation for Anticoagulation with Continuous Monitoring of Atrial Fibrillation Trial (REACT-AF).