Journey Into the Heart: A Tale of Pioneering Doctors and Their Race to Transform Cardiovascular Medicine

This book is a well-written and light description of the foundations of modern history of invasive and interventional cardiology, such as angioplasty, until the mid 1980s. General science readers who are particularly fascinated by the history of science and technology, the management and practices of research scientists and doctors, and the personalities behind the innovations are likely to find this book entertaining. For instance, a man literally worked on the kitchen table in his apartment for years perfecting a device that his peers scoffed at, which is now a billion dollar industry. There are also some anecdotal conclusions drawn about the differences between Germanic and Swiss driven research culture and environments versus their US counterparts, such as what happens when the rigorous, precise Germanic research approach for experimentation meets the highly competitive, economic-driven research and business culture in the US. Having worked in both US and Swiss research facilities, I personally found the basic research culture differences suggested in the book to be historically interesting, though practices seem to be changing over time.

This book presents a colorful but accurate history of the development of treatments for heart disease, featuring angioplasty in honor of Andreas Gruntzig, the first cardiologist to perform this procedure. I was fortunate to have worked in the medical device industry and actually know many of the mentioned people in the book. This is agreat read for those familiar with the technology and a good introduction for those not.

This is a well written book that very nicely details the history of interventional cardiovascular techniques. It is a good read.

I came to this book thinking it was truly a journey into the heart and its functioning. The book was actually a studied history of angioplasty, the use of catheters to clear the cardiac arteries and reduce the risk of heart attacks. Several themes stand out and make the book worthy of serious reading. The story again shows that medicine is now barely 100 years old in any modern sense as there is very little of note in the heart prior to 1900. Also, the book shows how much the review process has changed in the past fifty years, with surgical options which were untested and unproven being used with some regularity. Finally, the book profiles the leading researches and shows that medicine, like any other profession, is full of talented but unusual people.

Very well written history of treatment of the problems of the heart, including those that made the problem worse, unto these enlightened days where so much can be done due to the hard work of so many doctors. The author had to do much investigation and then compilation to make such a readable book.