Building Out the Next Generation of Electrophysiologists: Interview With Rod Passman, MD, MSCE

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Interview by Jodie Elrod

EP Lab Digest talks with Rod Passman, MD, MSCE, about the Session 7 roundtable entitled "Building Out the Next Generation of Electrophysiologists" at the 2026 Western Atrial Fibrillation Symposium.

You participated in the “Building Out the Next Generation of EPs” roundtable. What were the key themes or takeaways from the discussion? Were there any points of consensus—or debate—that stood out to you?

At the Western AFib meeting, I was happy to participate in this roundtable talking about building out the next generation of electrophysiologists. It was a really robust discussion. I think what was interesting was that we all recognize that this is an incredible opportunity to train in electrophysiology. There's so much more to do for our patients, but with that comes a lot of burden. We do more in a day than we would in a week, certainly when I was training, and the expectations of what a fellow was going to be learning in that short period of time has really become monumental, and in some ways, overwhelming. We talked about some of those challenges. From my perspective, it's important that you get some exposure to research, whether you're going to be a researcher or not. Our field really depends on everyone contributing in some way. We're a relatively small group, and whether you're a clinician or academic researcher, there are still very important perspectives and data that you can contribute. So, during your training, it's critical that you have that exposure and understand how to do research. Many of us have lamented the fact that that is sort of being lost as the clinical pressures grow.

In an era of rapidly advancing AF ablation technologies, how should EP training evolve to keep pace with innovation—particularly given real-world constraints such as case availability, lab time, and faculty bandwidth? 

One of the issues that came up was that our fellows today are so inundated with the lab work that often the decision-making, which is a critical part of our field, may get lost. So, it's critical that our fellows spend time in clinic and round on the inpatient service, not just on the receiving end of who comes to the lab, but understanding that thought process of who doesn't come to the lab and what the other options are in terms of medical therapy or in some cases, nothing. 

What also emerged was that with this enhanced focus on laboratory procedures given the increased volumes, that it's really important to remember the holistic care of the patient. It is very important to see patients in clinic to understand their journey of how they got there, see patients from the inpatient service so that we understand the decision making that goes into who gets a procedure, not just sort of waiting for the procedures to be sent to you in the lab. Because the reality is when you're in practice, that's a lot of what you're going to be doing is communicating with people, guiding them along the way and seeing them before and after your procedure.

Based on your own training or mentorship experience, what practical strategies can programs implement to ensure fellows develop both technical proficiency and sound clinical judgment?

I think from the program perspective, we have some very serious responsibilities. It's very easy these days for 80% to 90% of your cases to be AFib ablations. The reality is that those are good, but it's very important to have a broad-based education to make sure that we have good distribution of the bread-and-butter SVT cases, the CRT cases, those things that have gotten short-shrifted as the volume of AFib ablation has increased. Therefore, we need to be cognizant that our trainees see those cases and be sure that they're getting equal exposure if there is more than one fellow in a program. 

I also think one of the keys is to emphasize mentorship. It’s very important to become a mentor. It may not be one person, it may be one person for academic pursuits, one person for work-life balance, and another person for work in the EP lab. It's critical that the programs tend to that aspect, because I think all of us who have gone through a successful academic career have had the benefit of a good mentor along the way.

As the field continues to evolve, what additional skills beyond procedural proficiency—such as clinical judgment, patient selection, multidisciplinary collaboration, or leadership—do you believe are critical for the next generation of EPs to develop?

This is an incredible time. There are so many technological advances. There is so much more that we could do for our patients. But what we don't want to do is train people who are going to blast away in the atrium and call it a day. Everything that I have seen at Western AFib and every slide that has been produced has come from the hard work of people who have asked important questions. We all have the ability to contribute to this data and to the ability to answer these questions, whether you're in private practice or in an academic center. So, it's important for us to form these collaborations to make sure it's inclusive and that the experiences that one has in an academic center—particularly with a procedure—can be mirrored and extrapolated to the world. We should all feel some sense of responsibility of contributing to this. I think that begins during our training.

The transcripts were edited for clarity and length.