1. How to Advance Your Career in Interventional Cardiology: Why Andreas Gruentzig was so successful Spencer B. King, III, MD President St Joseph’s Heart and Vascular Institute Professor Emeritus Emory University Atlanta

2. DISCLOSURES
Spencer B. King, III, MD
No conflicts

3. What can you learn from Gruentzig’s successes and failures?

4. Gruentzig’s Path

5. Is non-traditional education an option for you?

8. The first coronary angioplasties in Zurich
Figure Stiff wire with a C-shaped tip introduced through a plastic catheter (arrow) into the leg artery of a dog. The insert shows the wire in rotation (for which a regular household drill was connected to the outside end), performing in 1971 what was later to be known as percutaneous atherectomy. Courtesy: Maria Schlumpf.
Stiff wire with a C-shaped tip introduced through a plastic catheter (arrow) into the leg artery of a dog

9. Keep it simple

10. The first coronary angioplasties in Zurich
Figure Gruentzig’s famous kitchen table, where the first balloon catheters were fabricated. Note the legendary glass of wine that the innovators enjoyed during and between their endeavours. Courtesy: Maria Schlumpf.
Gruentzig’s famous kitchen table, where the first balloon catheters were
fabricated

12. Know it when you see it

14. Establishing Collaborations

15. Martin Kaltenbach
Figure 13.7

19. The first coronary angioplasties in Zurich
Figure Initial site of Schneider Medintag in the late 1970s, at the time the only producer of coronary angioplasty balloons. The teller, through which the balloons could be purchased by paying cash in Swiss francs, is circled.
Initial site of Schneider Medintag in the late 1970s, at the time the only producer of coronary angioplasty balloons

21. Sharing Credit

22. The first coronary angioplasties in Zurich
Figure Courtesy: Wilhelm Rutishauser
Photograph of the cases jotted down on the blackboard by Gruentzig during the last live course in Zurich, Switzerland, in August 1980 with a superimposed summary

24. Mentoring

27. Being innovative

29. Delegating Authority

31. Being a physician

32. Andreas Gruentzig in Atlanta
Figure 11.6

33. Failures

36. Willingness to Relinquish Control

38. “If I have an enemy, I will teach him angioplasty.”
Andreas R. Gruentzig, MD

39. For patients, safety came first. For himself, not necessarily.

40. Andreas Gruentzig in Atlanta
Figure 11.9

42. Conclusion: How to succeed like Andreas Gruentzig? It’s simple.
Have a brilliant, organized mind
Be driven
Identify unmet needs
Invent a transforming technology
Be charismatic

43. Or, find your own path.