The United States has an active pharmaceutical industry that has brought huge benefits to the U.S. public. Most Americans, who benefit from these advances, have little understanding of how difficult it is to create an important new medical therapy and make it available to improve public health.

I knew that my father was going to die of heart disease, and I was trying to make a heart for him.

As a medical doctor who chose a career in artificial heart technology rather than clinical practice, I decided not to take an internship, which is required for licensing. Instead, I work with invention, manufacturing, regulatory affairs, and clinical application of artificial hearts.

Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them.

This idea that clumsy, stumbling people are real bright is ridiculous, because intelligence is related to neurologic function, and really intelligent people are very well-coordinated.

There is a clear matter that I am not a practicing physician; I have never been a practitioner; everybody has known for decades.

I am a medical scientist, not a practical physician.