A well reputed Indian-American Sikh cardiologist has won the American College of Cardiology's prestigious Simon Dack Award for Outstanding Scholarship as an acknowledgement of his contributions to its peer-reviewed medical journals.

Sumeet Chugh who is an associate director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute will be felicitated in front of 40,000 plus audiences at medical society's 63rd Annual Scientific Session in Washington. He is a leading expert on heart rhythm disorders such as sudden cardiac arrest and arterial fibrillation.

"Dr. Chugh is leading the quest to unlock the mysteries of how to prevent sudden cardiac arrest, which is 99 percent fatal," said Shlomo Melmed, senior vice-president of Academic Affairs and dean of the Cedars-Sinai medical faculty.

"Chugh, the Pauline and Harold Price Chair in Cardiac Electrophysiology, is an expert in the performance of radio frequency ablation procedures as well as the use of pacemakers, defibrillators and biventricular devices to correct heart rhythm problems," according to the Los Angeles-based Heart Institute.

Chugh has written more than 250 articles and abstracts in professional journals. He has also initiated and directs the study known as the Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study which is “a large, comprehensive assessment of sudden cardiac arrest in a community of one million residents”.

Chugh leads the World Health Organisation panel which is tasked with compiling information of heart rhythm disorders for the Global Burden of Disease Study.

Chugh earned his medical degree from Government Medical College, Patiala, India. He then spent the first year of his internal medicine residency at Tufts Newton Wellesley Hospital in Boston and the next two years at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.

He then finished his fellowship in cardiology at the University of Minnesota and a fellowship in clinical cardiac electrophysiology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.