Prof Peter Kistler
Professor Peter Kistler is a clinician cardiologist and electrophysiologist and an international leader in the treatment of heart rhythm disorders.
Professor Kistler is an international leader in heart rhythm management including catheter ablation and research.
He is the Head of Clinical Electrophysiology Research at the Baker Heart Institute and Head of Electrophysiology at The Alfred. He has joint appointments as Professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne and Monash University.
Peter was the senior author of landmark randomised studies defining the role of alcohol in atrial fibrillation (New England Journal 2020) and the CAPLA study (JAMA 2023). Peter’s research has drawn international attention being featured in print and electronic news media across the world in defining the role of alcohol and coffee in heart rhythm disorders as well as ablation in improving heart function.
He completed a PhD (Uni Melb 2005) and postdoctoral research at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. He has received more than $10 million in grant funding from the NHMRC, MRFF and National Heart Foundation and currently holds an Investigatorship thru the NHMRC and is CIA for the national AF ablation registry. He is an invited speaker at the major international cardiac meetings including American Heart Association, European Society of Cardiology, Heart Rhythm Society USA. He was part of the National Heart Foundation and CSANZ writing committee for the national heart failure guidelines for 2017 and Chair of the inaugural AF ablation guidelines (2024). Peter is a member of the scientific committee and program committees for the Cardiac Society of Australasia (CSANZ) and Heart Rhythm Society (USA) and on guidelines committees for the European Society of Cardiology. Professor Kistler was the recipient of the prestigious CSANZ RT Hall prize in 2020.
Peter has more than 270 publications in many in the world's leading medical and cardiology journals and supervised 25 PhD students. His PhD fellows have been recipients/finalists at major national (Ralph Reader CSANZ) and international (Asia Pacific Heart Rhythm Society) and clinical research prize at HRS (USA) young investigator awards. He is the current author for the "Up to Date" chapter on Focal Atrial Tachycardia. He is on the international editorial boards for Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Electrophysiology, Heart Rhythm, Journal of Cardiovascular Electrophysiology (JCE), Heart Rhythm O2, International Cardiology Journal.