Hamid Ghanbari, M.D., M.P.H.

Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine

Bo Schembechler Heart of a
Champion Award Recipient
Hamid Ghanbari, M.D., M.P.H., a specialist in cardiac
electrophysiology and cardiovascular disease at the
University of Michigan, is using mobile phones and
wearable sensors to evaluate and predict symptoms
in patients with atrial fibrillation. He designed and
developed a mobile application, which is available online,
as part of his mission to design novel therapies that can
be administered prior to patients developing symptoms
related to atrial fibrillation. It was the first application
to determine electrocardiographic features that
better predict symptoms and identify other targetable
features of atrial fibrillation using signal processing and
algorithms.

Dr. Ghanbari received his bachelors degree in

biochemistry from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, and his medical degree from the American University
of the Caribbean in St. Martin before moving to Michigan, where he completed his residency in internal medicine
and a cardiology fellowship at Providence Hospital. A strong passion for global health care drove him to pursue
a masters in public health at Wayne State University. In 2011, after completing a fellowship in advanced cardiac
electrophysiology at the University of Michigan, he was recruited to join the faculty in the Division of Cardiology.

Dr. Ghanbaris research interests include atrial fibrillation ablation and using advanced signal processing
and machine-learning algorithms to predict outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation. He was exposed to
computational medicine through his work with Kayvan Najarian, Ph.D., associate professor of computational
medicine and bioinformatics and of emergency medicine, on a project to suppress false alarms for five types of
life-threatening arrhythmias.

The mobile application, called miAfib, assess symptoms such as chest pain, heart palpitation, shortness of
breath, fatigue and dizziness/lightheadedness as well as positive and negative emotions. Users are prompted
to complete self-assessments four times per day. In conjunction with the app, users have the option to wear an
electrocardiogram (ECG) device that continually records heart rhythm. The ECG data is then paired with the
symptom tracker to help to determine the relationship between heart rhythm, emotions and palpitations. The
application essentially provides a virtual health care experience that does not require the provider or patient to be
present in the same place for diagnosis, treatment or disease management to occur.
Dr. Ghanbari has been published in several prominent medical journals, including Archives of Internal Medicine,
Heart Rhythm, the Journal of Interventional Cardiac Electrophysiology, Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology,
and the American Journal of Cardiology. Dr. Ghanbari is a member of the American College of Cardiology, the
Heart Rhythm Society and the American Heart Association. He received numerous awards as a resident and was
named Outstanding Researcher at Providence Hospital in 2009.

When hes not working, Dr. Ghanbari enjoys spending time with his wife, Irena, and daughters, Sofia, Zoe and
Audrey, as well as reading, writing and cooking. His wife, Irena Zmitrovic, M.D., is a hospice and palliative care
physician.