“My co-editors and I have a passion for quality of care, and doing it right. If we can disseminate information through a book, we can reach patients that way, too.” – Dr. Bruce Wilkoff
Starting with the title, the book has evolved over time because the technology has evolved. It was originally called Clinical Cardiac Pacing, then it was Clinical Cardiac Pacing and Defibrillation, and now it is Clinical Cardiac Pacing, Defibrillation and Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy. We’re always planning for the book to evolve. It’s dynamic. In our planning, we love to hear from our readers as to what’s missing or what needs to be included in the next edition. The field itself changes so rapidly. For example, when my co-editors and I went through our training, there weren’t formal fellowships. There were also no real defibrillators, and pacemakers were mostly unipolar and not very programmable. There was no ablation and no rate response. There have been so many changes. In response, we have taken things out of the book; we’ve put other things in the book. We want this to be a living document, and we’re working to continue to make that true.
The essence of Clinical Cardiac Pacing, Defibrillation and Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy is to take the best science, the best technical understanding, and the best clinical understanding and put it in context, which is not so easy to do. We did this by asking people with technical expertise to write collaboratively with clinicians. The book’s primary audience is clinicians, but it’s also for the broader community, so it had to make sense clinically and technically. The book was always about clinical cardiac pacing: taking care of the patient while incorporating technology at the bedside.
We can only care for so many patients, so as a clinician, you want to spend your time well, to care for them as best you can. My co-editors and I have a passion for quality of care, and doing it right. If we can disseminate information through a book, we can reach patients that way, too. It is same reason we teach, the same reason we write manuscripts, the same reason we do research. It’s my passion that people can use this information in a way that they can incorporate it into their care of their patients. That’s the only reason to do this. I’m indeed busy, but this is probably more important than any of the other things I do.
Biography
Bruce Wilkoff, MD is the director of Cardiac Pacing and Tachyarrhythmia Devices, associate section head of the Pacing and Electrophysiology Section, medical information officer of the Heart and Vascular Institute, and a staff cardiologist in the Robert and Suzanne Tomsich Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Section of Cardiac Pacemakers and Electrophysiology at the Cleveland Clinic. He is also a professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. He has published prolifically, has seven US patents on pacemaker and ICD technology and is co-author of more than 250 articles in scientific journals and editor of the fourth edition of Clinical Cardiac Pacing, Defibrillation and Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy.
Dr. Wilkoff earned his medical degree at Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus, and went on to become board-certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease. Today, he is recognized as an expert in design of pacemaker and defibrillator technology. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Heart Rhythm Society and of the American Heart Association, and has served as president and a member of the board of trustees and executive committees of the Heart Rhythm Society.
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