Clinical Professor of Medicine,
David Geffen School of Medicine UCLA
Electrophysiology and Pacemakers

Dr. Swerdlow received his bachelor’s degree in physics from Stanford University and his medical degree from the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology. He completed his internship and residency at Los Angeles County-UCLA Harbor General Hospital and his cardiology fellowship at Stanford University Medical Center. Before moving to Los Angeles, he served as Director of the Clinical Electrophysiology Laboratory and Director of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Study Unit at Stanford University. Presently, he is an attending physician at Cedars Sinai and UCLA Medical Centers and holds a Research Scientist appointment at Cedars Sinai.

His practice emphasizes care of patients with cardiac arrhythmias: consultations, ongoing care, and two types of related procedures:

(1) Radiofrequency catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation, supraventricular

(2) Implanted cardiac electronic devices including implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), cardiac pacemakers, cardiac resynchronization (bi-ventricular) devices, and implanted electronic monitoring devices for heart failure.

His research focuses on the interface between basic science-engineering principles and clinical application to implantable cardiac electronic devices. Examples of his previous work include design and testing of algorithms used by ICDs to detect and differentiate arrhythmias; (2) use of mathematical modeling to optimize electrical pulses delivered by ICDs; and (3) development and validation of a safe and effective clinical method to determine the minimum shock strength that defibrillates the heart.

Dr. Swerdlow lives with his wife Linda and two sons, Mark and Michael. For recreation, he does yoga, hikes in the Santa Monica Mountains, swims, builds models with his sons, and listens to alternative rock and vintage Grateful Dead.