Courtesy Glens Falls Hospital
Glens Falls Hospital has recruited what it says is the region’s first electrophysiologist to the hospital’s cardiology practice, bringing new diagnostic and treatment options to people with heart rhythm abnormalities across the hospital’s five-county service area.
Dr. Henry Tan, a cardiologist and electrophysiologist, has joined Adirondack Cardiology from Albany Medical Center. Electrophysiology is a cardiology sub-specialty focused on diagnosing and treating heart rhythm conditions known as arrhythmias. Dr. Tan is the only electrophysiologist between Albany and Plattsburgh, according to the hospital.
“There was a real need for an electrophysiologist in our service area and we are thrilled to have recruited Dr. Tan to our practice,” said Patti Hammond, vice president, physician practice management. “Now people with a wide variety of heart rhythm problems can be diagnosed and treated at Glens Falls Hospital rather than having to travel to Albany.”
Arrhythmias are changes in the normal sequence of electrical impulses in the heart, caused by the presence of abnormal cells. This results in the heart beating too fast, too slowly or erratically. There are many types of arrhythmia, and three primary treatment options depending on the nature of the condition: medication; implantation of a pacemaker or defibrillator; or catheter ablation, a minimally invasive procedure in which an electrode catheter is guided to the heart, and heat is precisely applied to destroy the tiny cluster of abnormal cells.
Officials said Glens Falls Hospital cardiologists have long used medication, pacemakers and defibrillators to treat some arrhythmias, but patients requiring ablation have had to travel to hospitals in the Albany area. Tan’s training in both cardiology and electrophysiology, coupled with a $500,000 investment by the hospital in ablation technology, now means that most of those patients can be treated in the hospital’s cardiac catheterization lab.
In addition, with Tan’s arrival, the hospital is able to offer cardiac electrophysiological studies. These are minimally invasive procedures in which catheters are used to test the electrical conductivity of the heart to diagnose arrhythmias.
Tan is also an expert in the implantation of subcutaneous cardiac defibrillators, a special type of defibrillator that treats arrhythmias without actually being connected to the heart.
He joined Glens Falls Hospital after 10 years at Albany Medical Center where he treated patients and served as an associate professor. He earned his medical degree from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, and served his residency at George Washington University in Washington, his cardiology fellowship at Albany Medical Center, and his electrophysiology fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.
He is board-certified in clinical cardiac electrophysiology, cardiovascular disease and internal medicine, and his research has been published extensively in medical journals.
“Glens Falls Hospital provided an outstanding opportunity for me to launch an electrophysiology program and bring critically important treatment options closer to home for so many people across the hospital’s service area,” Tan said. “The cardiologists here have great reputations, and I treated many patients in Albany who love this hospital and wished their arrhythmia could have been treated here. Now they can, and I look forward to helping them and growing this program.”
The practice is located at 6 Hearts Way in Queensbury, with some doctors also seeing patients at the Greenwich Regional Medical Center, 1134 Route 29 in Greenwich; and the Medical Center at Wilton, 135 North Road, just off Northway Exit 16.