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(Circulation. 2004;109:2256-2262.)
© 2004 American Heart Association, Inc.

Special Report

Clinical Research

Whose Agenda Is It?

Jay N. Cohn, MD

From the Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minn.

Correspondence to Jay N. Cohn, MD, Cardiovascular Division, Mayo Mail Code 508, University of Minnesota Medical School, 420 Delaware St SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455. E-mail cohnx001@umn.edu

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 
I would like to begin by expressing my deep appreciation to the Clinical Council for honoring me this year with the annual James B. Herrick Award. As a longstanding maverick cardiovascular investigator, I recognize the unfortunate fate of many mavericks who more often face sanction than accolades, and I am therefore particularly grateful that the Council has seen fit to honor me for a lifetime of effort that has often challenged traditional thinking.

My maverick attitudes surfaced early in my training, when I began a cardiovascular research fellowship at Georgetown University after completing a tour of duty in the public health service. Having initiated my research career in clinical and animal hemodynamic studies under the tutelage of Dr Edward Freis, I became focused on physiological mechanisms. During clinical rounds with Dr Proctor Harvey, a group of us young fellows surrounded the bed of a man with heart failure and watched as Dr Harvey carefully palpated the radial pulse and announced the presence of pulsus alternans. Each fellow in turn took the patient’s wrist and nodded agreement with the finding. I frankly was unable to detect an alteration in the strength of the pulsation, and my protestation was met by the comment that I needed to educate my fingers. Unwilling to accept this simple explanation for my perceived deficiency, I went to my laboratory, brought a transducer and recorder to the bedside, and proceeded to puncture the radial artery to record the arterial pressure. The long recording revealed no alteration in . . . [Full Text of this Article]