Marti L. McCulloch, BS, MBA, RDCS, FASE

I just received an invitation to the 4 ^th Annual Pumps & Pipes conference and wanted to share with you the collaborative effort that transpires when there are no boundaries. Pumps & Pipes began in 2007 as a unique initiative between Houston’s largest industries designed to explore potential crossover ideas and technologies from the medical, energy, and academic sectors. The visionary approach was constructed by Dr. Alan Lumsden, who is responsible for bringing together the sponsoring members, including the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, ExxonMobil, and the University of Houston.

The combination may seem out of the ordinary, but oil and gas actually have a lot in common with heart and vascular and vice versa – hence the name Pumps & Pipes. In fact, there is a long history of cross pollination of technology and/or theories. The following are a few examples:

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  The reflectoscope—originally used to test the efficacy of pipes and then adapted by Edler and Hertz to evaluate the heart (specifically the mitral valve);

  
  
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  The Greenfield filter—developed with an engineering friend from the oil industry, Greenfield modified the filter to trap blood clots before they entered pulmonary circulation;

  
  
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  The technology (pump) licensed from NASA for axial continuous flow left ventricular assist device involved collaboration by DeBakey/Noon and NASA engineers. The engineers at NASA posed the question, “do humans need a pulse?” Prior pulsatile pumps were large and tended to wear out rapidly, whereas a continuous flow pump would be much smaller, with greater durability and longevity. Today, all new devices utilize continuous flow principles.

Each year, Pumps & Pipes has an overarching theme for meeting content. The first year was a pilot to see if the program would succeed; the answer was a resounding “yes.” The second year went through “The Other Guy’s Toolkit,” where each sector highlighted their technological resources. Symposia topics included robotic development, belief networks and imaging, with all three industry divisions representing their topics well. Needless to say, it was eye opening to see full field strain mapping from the oil and gas perspective; I thought strain was only used in echocardiography!

The following year focused on being “Better Together,” with sessions on pumps interacting with circuits and fluids. A couple of the cross-over topics involved distant monitoring: comparing and contrasting Halliburton and Medtronic; managing imperfect conduits from a medical perspective (Gore) with intelligent conduits discussed by British Petroleum (this was March 2009, before the spill); and a session on advanced materials from an industry and medical perspective.

This year, the theme is “No Boundaries,” and will focus on treatment/utilization of nano-technology and Maschinenmenschics (machine human). The invited presenters and audience are scientists, engineers, clinicians, researchers, and academicians with an interest in cardiovascular disease and/or oil and gas technologies. All attendees are invited to participate in the breakout sessions according to areas of interest; the breakouts are thought-provoking and produce new ideas.

The goal of Pumps & Pipes is to build positive relationships through creative engagement and to explore and develop solutions to parallel industry problems ( www.pumpsandpipes.com ). Since its inception, several of the cardiovascular applicable concepts have been entered into research and development, either through The Methodist Research Institute or the University of Houston. The program directors, Alan B. Lumsden, M.D. (Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center), William E. Kline, Ph.D. (ExxonMobil), and Ioannis A. Kakadiaris, Ph.D. (University of Houston) should be commended for their innovative dedication to the improvement of both the cardiovascular field and the oil and gas industry. We should all learn from the example of the Pumps & Pipes Conference: collaboration perpetuates shared concepts and has the overwhelming benefit of improving on a concept as opposed to reinventing the wheel. Imagine if cardiovascular imaging departments and vendors broke out of their silos (echo, nuclear, CT, MRI) and shared best practices such as quantitative analysis packages or flow model analysis. Current issues and barriers associated with each imaging modality would be minimized, and the advancement in technology could be rapidly increased. Really, what a novel concept!

Please visit the ASE Website to see this month’s Sonographer Volunteer of the month: Priscilla Peters.

Reminder! The ASE 2011 Scientific Sessions are in Montreal, Canada. Sign up early and get your passports ready!