On Tuesday, March 2^nd, 2026, the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI) elected Stavros Stavrakis, MD, PhD, to their historic ranks. Dr. Stavrakis was one of the earliest graduates of the Master of Science in Clinical Translational Science program offered by the University of Oklahoma Health Campus’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (OCTSI). ASCI last elected a clinician from Oklahoma in 2003, marking this inclusion as a truly significant moment in the history of Oklahoman healthcare.

Dr. Stavrakis is a clinical cardiac electrophysiologist and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Oklahoma. He is also the Director of Electrophysiology at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Stavrakis’ research has focused on autonomic modulation for the treatment of arrhythmias and other cardiovascular diseases, both in animal models and in humans. 

Taking a bench-to-bedside approach, Dr. Stavrakis conducted the first-in-human study which showed suppression of atrial fibrillation and decrease in serum inflammatory cytokines with short-term (one hour) noninvasive autonomic modulation consisting of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation (tVNS). These results support the use of tVNS as a novel non-pharmacological treatment modality for atrial fibrillation and other cardiovascular conditions.  He also conducted a first-in-human randomized clinical trial, examining the effect of chronic tVNS in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, which demonstrated a significant decrease in atrial fibrillation burden compared to sham stimulation over 6 months. In another randomized, sham-controlled clinal trial, he demonstrated that tVNS over 3 months resulted in a significant improvement in cardiac function, inflammatory cytokines, and quality of life in patients with HFpEF. Taking a bedside-to-bench approach, he demonstrated that chronic tVNS significantly improved diastolic function and attenuated left ventricular inflammation and fibrosis in an animal model of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) through its anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects on cardiac resident macrophages. His current, NIH-funded work includes optimization of patient selection and stimulation parameters for autonomic modulation techniques based on novel ECG and blood biomarkers.

The University of Oklahoma Health Campus is proud of Dr. Stavrakis’s accomplishment and hard work and celebrates his induction to the ASCI.