Getting to the Heart of the Matter
I have always held Mark Josephson in the highest of regard. He was a true giant in the field. As an electrophysiology fellow I read his famous text book on electrophysiology from cover to cover. I first met Mark when I was a junior faculty member at the University of Michigan. I was assigned the high honour of picking him up at the airport. He showed enormous interest in me and in the research projects I was working on. Ever since then I have looked forward to reading his articles and catching up with him at medical meetings. A particularly memorable meeting was at the South African Heart Association meeting. Mark and Joan had just returned from a highend game park and were in tremendous spirits. Beth and I shared a wonderful bus ride with them to the conference. One of Mark’s most important qualities was that he always said exactly what he thought about a given topic. Whether it was the indiscriminate use of ICDs or the less than perfect results of AF ablation you could count on Mark to get to the heart of the matter. He was also an outstanding speaker.
I am sorry that my fellowship predated his ECG meetings. I am sure I would have learned a lot if I had been lucky enough to attend one of these courses.