Adrian Baranchuk, MD, FACC, FRCPC, FCCS, FSIAC

Professor of Medicine Queen’s University
Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Electrocardiology
Vice President, International Society of Electrocardiology (ISHNE)
President Elect, Interamerican Society of Cardiology (SIAC)
Kingston, Ontario, Canada

All you need to know about Lyme carditis…and more!

Dr. Adrian Baranchuk, a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, obtained his MD from the University of Buenos Aires in 1990. After qualifying in Internal Medicine and Cardiology (1995), he completed a Clinical Fellowship in Cardiac Electrophysiology (1997). In 2002 he immigrated to Spain for a Research Fellow.

Dr. Baranchuk was appointed as a Clinical Fellow in Electrophysiology at McMaster University in September 2003. Dr. Baranchuk was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Queen’s University (2006), promoted to Associate Professor in 2010 and to Full Professor in 2016 (with Tenure). He has founded the EP Training Program in 2007. He is a member of numerous editorial boards (Europace, Annals of Noninvasive Electrocardiology, etc) and reviewer of several journals. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Electrocardiology and Deputy Editor for JACC in Spanish.

The recipient of several teaching awards (Outstanding Contribution in the Core Internal Medicine Program 2009) and in 2014 with the prestigious “Faculty of Health Sciences Education Award”. Dr Baranchuk was awarded with the “Golden Caliper Award” from the SOLAECE (Latin American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology) for his outstanding contributions to science in 2014 and with the “ISHNE Junior Investigator Award” in April 2015. In 2016 he was distinguished with the “10 Most Influential Hispanic-Canadian Award” from the Hispanic business.ca and TD Bank. He was awarded with the “David Ginsburg Mentorship Award” in December 2017 and the “Faculty of Health Sciences Recognition Award” in 2018. He was recently awarded with the “Employment Equity Award” in recognition to his contributions to Gender Equity in Cardiology. In 2019 he also received the prestigious “2019 Ron Wigle Mentorship Award” by the Faculty of Health Sciences at Queen’s University and the “Consulting Service Teacher of the Year Award”, from the Department of Emergency Medicine at Queen’s University. He has received the “2020 Magdy Basta Award” from the Canadian Heart Rhythm Society in recognition to help advancing research of fellows and colleagues from all around the country.

His first book, Atlas of Advanced ECG Interpretation (REMEDICA, UK) represents a big collaboration effort from well-recognized electrophysiologists of all around the world. His second book Left Septal Fascicular Block was released by SPRINGER in 2016 and his iBook “Electrocardiogrpahy in Pracitice: What to do?” has been number 1 in iTunes for several weeks and downloaded more than 1100 times in about 6 months (2016). The following book was “Interatrial Block and Supraventricular Arrhythmias: Clinical Implications of Bayes’ Syndrome” was released in January 2017 by CARDIOTEXT. “Clinical Arrhythmology 2nd Edition” was released in July 2017 by Willey. His next book, “Brugada Phenocopy: The Art of Recognizing the Brugada ECG Pattern” was released by ELSEVIER in April 2018. In 2019 he released “Texto de Cardiología” the first ever book completely written by Spanish speakers covering all aspects of Cardiology (DISTRIBUNA) and his first fiction book titled “Charlas de Hospital” (“Hospital chit chat”).

He has published more than 725 articles in well-recognized international journals (623 in Pubmed), 54 book chapters and presented more than 255 abstracts. He was the President of the International Society of Electrocardiology (ISE) for the period 2017-2019. He also served as Canadian Vice President of the Interamerican Society of Cardiology (IASC) (2017-2019) and now is serving as IASC Secretary (2019-2021). He was elected Vice President of the International Society of Holter and Non-invasive Electrocardiology (ISHNE) for the period 2019-2021

He has mentored more than 110 students and residents and his publications usually include a Med Student or resident as first author. He has served as Member of the Electrophysiology Section Leadership Council of the American College of Cardiology (2017-2020). He is Co-Director of ECG University, a free website to learn ECG interpretation with more than 67K followers around the world.

He is in charge of organizing the ECG module for the trainee day and the ECG Workshops during the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress and the “A day for ECG lovers” for the World Heart Federation. He chaired the Annual Cardiovascular Symposium at Queen’s University and he chaired “Therapeutics 2020” at Queen’s University. He lives in Kingston, Ontario, Canada with his wife Barbara and his daughter, Gala.  

Conference Lecture Summary

Lyme disease (LD) is a tick-born bacterial infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi. It is the most reported vector-born disease in North America, and its incidence has risen dramatically in recent years. In up to 10% of cases, bacterial dissemination of LD may lead to cardiac tissue inflammation and early disseminated Lyme carditis. The most common clinical presentation of LC is high-degree atrioventricular block (AVB) which can progress rapidly over minutes, hours, or days. Most AVB in LC resolve with appropriate antibiotic treatment without requirement of a permanent pacemaker. We will discuss the most recent findings on patients treated for early disseminated Lyme carditis without implant of a pacemaker and their clinical long-term follow-up.