The evolution of the coronary care unit

We can now see that the development of the coronary care unit, which Braunwald [1] has called ‘the single most important advance in the treatment of AMI’, was inevitable. But this was not obvious to most cardiologists of the day because so few of them considered the management of myocardial infarction to be a primary concern. They saw the diagnosis and treatment of congenital and rheumatic heart disease to be their main function. In 1956, when I...