Thoughts on the Role of the Healing Professions and the Events of September 11, 2001

On October 5 and 6, 2001, less than a month after the terrorist attacks on the United States, a conference on the Pathophysiology, Detection, and Treatment of Vulnerable Plaque was held in Boston, Mass. Nineteen scientists from around the world came together, despite the uncertainty of air travel, to continue the work against this important cause of cardiovascular disease. After the faculty dinner, Dr James Muller, Co-Director of the Vulnerable Plaque Program of the Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT) and Director of Clinical Research in Cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, offered the following thoughts on cardiovascular research and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Dr Muller was one of the co-founders of International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War, the organization awarded the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. The terrible violence of September 11, a day of mass murder of innocent civilians, had many consequences, some of which directly affected our collective effort to prevent death from vulnerable plaque. Specifically, I refer to the irony that September 11 started as a day to celebrate progress for the vulnerable plaque research community. Over 10 000 individuals congregated at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Conference in Washington, DC. The program included a town meeting on vulnerable plaque, one of those wonderful occasions when the scientists working in isolation come together to share progress and ideas. The event was a rare moment when one could actually feel a massive human problem slowly giving way to organized, dedicated human effort. At 8:00 AM, I gave the opening lecture, which included an overview of the topic of vulnerable and invulnerable plaques. At 8:45, while Dr Peter Fitzgerald described the use of ultrasound and OCT for the diagnosis and treatment …