The Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai has selected Michael M. Shehata, MD, as director of the Division of Cardiac Electrophysiology, a program that provides care to people with abnormal heart rhythms.
Shehata is a cardiac electrophysiologist, a doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating problems with the heart’s electrical system. He has experience with a broad spectrum of heart rhythm disorders and also cares for people with heart failure and survivors of cardiac arrest.
“Over the past two decades, Dr. Shehata has emerged as a nationally recognized cardiac electrophysiologist and academic leader,” said Susan Cheng, MD, MMSc, MPH, chair of the Department of Cardiology in the Smidt Heart Institute. “His leadership will mean continued progress in this important field.”
As a researcher, Shehata has led groundbreaking clinical trials for new types of pacemakers and other technologies for treating heart rhythm disorders. He also studies ways that AI can be used to personalize care.
Shehata’s most recent research includes a trial of a new treatment for atrial fibrillation, which occurs when the upper chambers of the heart beat out of sync with the lower chambers of the heart. The treatment, pulsed field ablation, targets heart cells involved in an abnormal heart rhythm. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved several pulsed field ablation systems, including one studied by Shehata and other researchers, in 2024.
Shehata and colleagues have also studied leadless pacemakers, miniature devices that attach to the heart muscle and that, unlike traditional pacemakers, don’t require a battery and wires.
As division director, Michael Shehata will oversee a program that provides research-backed care and trains new heart rhythm specialists. The program offers a two-year fellowship to medical school graduates seeking advanced knowledge and skills in electrophysiology.
“Through his leadership of the Interventional Electrophysiology Laboratory and the Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellowship Program, Dr. Shehata has expanded access to advanced therapies and enhanced the training of future electrophysiologists,” said Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, executive director of the Smidt Heart Institute and the Mark S. Siegel Family Foundation Distinguished Professor.
Shehata earned his medical degree from the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. He completed internal medicine residency training at UCLA and his cardiology fellowship training at Cedars-Sinai, where he was chief fellow. He also completed advanced fellowship training in cardiac electrophysiology at Cedars-Sinai. He served as faculty at UCLA before being recruited to join the cardiology faculty at Cedars-Sinai, where he is a professor of Cardiology.