I told my teenagers  that I  joined the Society of Automotive Engineers while driving home from school. In other words, Dad was not  just a cardiologist but a CAR-diologist. After the predictable eye rolls and plugging in of ear buds, I expounded that hearts and carts share a few things in common, and by carts, I refer to the internal combustion engine of cars.

Both…

– require an electrical discharge, oxygen, and carbon based fuel so that a chamber can pressurize.

-emit carbon dioxide as a byproduct of this mechanical activity.

-have valves and associated inflow and outflow lines.

-have cyclical pressure cycles that alternate between filling and emptying.

-have pressure priming before a much greater force is triggered.

-transmit energy to connected and remote components.

-have standstill when repetitive mechanical cycling stops.

True, there are differences. The internal combustion engine depends on explosions while a heart chamber depends on biochemical processes that contract its muscular wall.

Then I became concerned that my kids, immersed in their devices, might not appreciate all this as much as their Dad, the science nerd. Who would think that biological beings would create machines that, in some ways, would emulate their biology?

Cardiology and cars are not so unrelated.  Both are in the midst of a technology revolution (stay tuned). The American College of Cardiology, American Society of Echocardiography and Society of Automotive Engineers – I glad to be part of it all!

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