Dr. Shivkumar received his medical degree from the University of Madras, India in 1991 and his PhD from UCLA in 2000. He completed his cardiology fellowship training at the University of California, Los Angeles, and upon completion of his training joined the faculty at University of Iowa, where he also served as the Associate Director of Cardiac Electrophysiology.

In 2002, he was recruited back to UCLA to direct the newly created UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His field of specialization is interventional cardiac electrophysiology and he heads a group at UCLA that is involved in developing innovative techniques for the non-pharmacological management of cardiac arrhythmias.

He is currently Professor of Medicine and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Radiology at UCLA.

Dr. Shivkumar is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in the subspecialties of Cardiovascular Disease and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology.

He holds memberships in several professional organizations, including the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology and the Heart Rhythm Society.