Know anyone who™s headed into the allied health professionals field? Recently I™ve had two acquaintances tell me they begin schooling in the fall. One is to be a neo-natal nurse; the other is as-yet undecided. I (of course) tried to properly steer this undecided person into the most exciting and rewarding medical field there is, that of invasive cardiology. Her curiousity and lack of familiarity with just what a cath lab was made me wonder just how many people are aware of what CCL professionals do every day. Many of you have said that it was actually a family member™s heart disease that first led you into this field, rather than a general awareness of it as a career option. Then I happened to read a comment by Dr. William O™ Neill in this issue™s International Andreas Gruentzig Society proceedings. He notes a looming manpower crisis in interventional cardiology. Heart disease is the number one killer in this country, but cath lab professionals still labor on in what the general public would consider the shadows.

If you feel passionately about your work, share what you do with others, particularly students of all ages. If you are comfortable speaking publicly, volunteer to visit your son or daughter™s (or niece or nephew™s) high schools on career day. Imagine telling a new acquaintance at a dinner party, I work in a cardiac cath lab, and the excited wow! that results because this person already has an idea of what that means. Yet the work you do each day is worthy of more than a wow. An increase in the numbers of invasive cardiology professionals should be fed by an awareness on the part of the general public, not only grateful patients and their families.

I™ll step off my soapbox for now, and let this month™s issue speak for itself. Cath Lab Digest has some excellent topics in the August issue, from a single-center study on the use of bivalirudin to a report on the ARRIVE registry, to the on the horizon cath lab procedure of lumbar spinal fusion. Dr. Nicolas Shammas also shares his experience in creating a new patient education reference book, Learn About Your Heart... Made Simple. CLD is also very pleased to bring you an international spotlighted cath lab, from our southern neighbor, Trinidad.

Enjoy!
Rebecca Kapur, Managing Editor
rKapur@hmpcommunications.com

An inquiring, analytical mind; an unquenchable thirst for new knowledge; and a heartfelt compassion for the ailing these are prominent traits among the committed clinicians who have preserved the passion for medicine. Lois DeBakery, PhD