Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is a common irregular heartbeat that increases stroke risk and is projected to affect more than 12 million Americans by 2030. Treatments are advancing, but keeping AFib from recurring is the next frontier.
At Sutter's CPMC, Dr. Christopher Woods, a cardiac electrophysiology specialist, chief of cardiac electrophysiology for Sutter Health, and chair of Heart and Vascular services for Sutter West Bay Medical Group is working to unlock why AFib returns and how that understanding could lead to more personalized, lasting treatment for the illness.
Q: What sparked your interest in heart rhythm disorders, and what keeps you motivated?
A: My path to electrophysiology began with my mother, who lived with a severe muscle disease. That led me to pursue advanced studies in muscle biology, where I learned to see muscle as an electrical system.
One of my thesis advisors, Dr. Jim Weiss, then chief of cardiology at UCLA, encouraged me to pursue electrophysiology, the study of the heart's electrical system. I'm grateful he did. It's a puzzle-solving field where we can often diagnose a problem and fix it in the same procedure. What keeps me going is that AFib and other complex heart rhythm disorders are still only partly understood. AFib isn't one disease, and we have much to learn about treating each patient's version of it.
Q: How does caring for patients shape your research?
A: Very directly. For years, technology and our understanding of the disease held us back. Procedures were long, and outcomes were modest.
Progress has been remarkably fast, making ablation, a procedure to treat abnormal heart rhythms, faster and safer. But the limits of our understanding have become the bottleneck: why AFib persists and where to treat it when standard approaches fail. Every patient whose AFib returns reminds us of that.
Q: What clinical trials at Sutter or emerging treatments excite you most?
A: Pulsed field ablation, which uses electrical pulses to treat abnormal heart rhythms, has transformed the safety and speed of AFib treatment. Our program helped build that evidence through the ADVENT and PULSAR studies.
I’m excited about what comes next. We're one of approximately 30 sites worldwide participating in a major trial studying ablation in patients with heart failure, designed to determine whether treatment can reduce mortality.
Locally, we're studying why certain treatments fail and developing better ways to map the heart's electrical activity.
Q: What research breakthroughs have been especially meaningful to your team?
A: Our team described two approaches to mapping the heart's electrical activity that have become the gold standard for their conditions: one for Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome and another for atypical atrial flutter.
Our research on why certain ablation procedures fail has also been incorporated into clinical guidelines now used in practice across Sutter’s Heart & Vascular Service Line.
These contributions are a real source of pride. But I think our most meaningful result is our contribution to esophageal cooling research, which has helped protect patients against one of ablation's most feared and potentially fatal complications.
Q: How do you hope your research will improve care for patients and families?
A: I want AFib care to move from a single standard procedure to treatment matched to each patient's anatomy, disease and personal story. I think AI will have a tremendous impact on this progress.
I want ablation to become so safe, on par with a colonoscopy, that waiting simply isn't worth it. That would mean fewer repeat procedures, more lasting results and potentially lower risks of stroke and death.
Looking ahead, I want to build an AFib Center of Excellence where each patient's condition is fully understood before treatment. I'm excited to work with Dr. Richard Milani, chief clinical innovation officer at Sutter Health, and the Sutter Innovation Center to explore how prevention, risk factor management and digital health can help sustain these advances.
Q: What career accomplishments or experiences have been especially meaningful?
A: Above all, simply being a physician. Despite the pressures in healthcare today, we still get to sit with patients during their hardest moments. That's a privilege most people never have. As I've grown older and faced challenges in my own life and family, I feel that privilege more deeply.
Professionally, I'm proud to have helped build two successful heart rhythm programs and to lead remarkable people as chair of Heart and Vascular for Sutter West Bay Medical Group.
Being named the first Jim and Carol White Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular Research and Sutter's first Academic Leader of the Year in 2025 has humbled me and meant a great deal.
