Cardiac Arrhythmia Pioneer Dr. Patrick Tchou Receives Alumni Service Award

Patrick Tchou, MD (Staff’94), 2022 Alumni Association Service Award recipient, is a leader in the field of cardiac arrhythmia treatment who performed catheter ablation from its inception in the early 1980s. In 1986, he was honored with the Young Investigator’s Award by the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology. He continues exploring the challenges of treating cardiac arrhythmias, particularly those with complex origins, as well as researching sudden cardiac death and percutaneous catheter ablation of cardiac arrhythmias.

Dr. Tchou is currently a staff cardiac electrophysiologist in the Section of Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing in the Robert and Suzanne Tomsich Department of Cardiovascular Medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the Heart Rhythm Society and a reviewer for numerous scientific publications, including Circulation, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Journal of Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing and Cardiac Electrophysiology. He also has authored and co-authored hundreds of abstracts and articles about electrophysiology for scientific publications, as well as numerous textbook chapters.

After graduating from Lincoln High School on the West side of Cleveland, he attended Harvard University and graduated with a concentration in biochemistry. He earned his medical degree at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Subsequently, Dr. Tchou completed his internal medicine residency and cardiology fellowship at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital (MetroHealth) and a fellowship in cardiac electrophysiology at the University of Wisconsin’s Sinai Samaritan Medical Center in Milwaukee. From 1987 to 1990, he was Director of the Cardiac Electrophysiology Laboratory at Sinai Samaritan Medical Center, and in 1990, he became Director of the Section of Cardiac Electrophysiology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. In 1994, he returned to Cleveland to be head of the Section of Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing. He remained in that position until 2016 when he stepped down. He has continued in a clinical research and teaching function since then.

Dr. Tchou not only is an expert in his field, widely respected by other physicians, but he also is beloved by patients and their families, who have sent him numerous letters expressing gratitude for the care that they and their loved ones received.

Dr. Tchou was nominated by numerous colleagues, including Khaldoun Tarakji, MD, MPH, (IM’04, CARD’09, CARD/EP’11).

“His generosity with all the fellows and staff was unlimited and unconditional,” Dr. Tarakji says. “No procedure was hard to tackle, and no challenge was difficult to overcome because we knew Dr. Tchou would be on our side. All of us are better and more confident electrophysiologists because of him, but more important, all of us thrive to be better human beings because of him.”