My professional career can be divided into two parts: 10 years as an Exercise Physiologist; 25 years as an Anesthesiologist. Paul Thompson, MD served as a leader who allowed initiative and flexibility for success. Paul and Peter Herbert, MD were fantastic thinkers who guided me during my time in Providence, RI.
This switch came at a time when professional advancement seem to be limited and with much encouragement and support from my mother-in-law, who stated during a car drive from Providence, RI to Springfield, MA, “Your father-in-law went to Medical School when he was 38 years old.” After an unsettling night of sleep, I decided, “OK., Let’s do it!”
Exercise Physiology
Exercise Physiology seem to be a natural choice for me since I was too little (“Mini” nickname) to play many sports but really enjoyed physical activity. Moreover, I did not enjoy my colleagues in Chemistry (1st year Chemistry major at UMass) and I was academic, i.e., non-jock. Benjamin Ricci, PhD introduced me to Exercise Science as an alternative to the usual Physical Education. Most of my academic training in Exercise Science occurred under the guidance of Victor Katch at the University of Michigan. The whole process of research from formulation of ideas, design of experiments, data collection, statistical analyses and publication was emphasized. And I loved it! However, a PhD had some limitations especially with regard to investigating human subjects and obtaining grants.
Anesthesiology
This decision to change to Medicine I do not regret. My narrow focus and with the support of my wife and family, led to an MD degree from the University of Michigan, an Internal Medicine Internship at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI and an Anesthesiology Residency/Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA.
Transesophageal Echocardiography (TEE)
My fascination with Cardiac Surgery and the introduction of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) as a tool to monitor and diagnosed cardiac issues led to my specialization of Cardiac Anesthesiology.
Data Analyses
Projects
Statistics has been one of my interests for a long time. My statistical courses at UMass and Michigan enabled me to analyze the data from most of our published studies. Familiarity with many software programs such as BMDP, SPSS, SAS, EXCEL and most recently, JMP, has allowed me to complete these tasks.
Listed below are some of my personal data analyses completely recently. I do this to keep my mind sharp as I age. I still find intra- and inter-variability (individual differences) of some common measures fascinating.
Projects
1 My body weight variability within and between days.
2. Resting blood pressure and HR variability within and between days:
3. Comparison of TEE and CT values of aortic valve variables in preparation for TAVR.
4. Others