Robert M. Anderson



Robert M. Anderson, M.D., is Emeritus Associate Professor of Surgery and retired Associate Dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, Arizona.

Address: 4625 E. San Carlos Place, Tucson, AZ 85712

Telephone: (520) 323-6599

e-mail: [mailto:doug.anderson@yahoo.com| ]

Dr Anderson is a Fellow of both the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Surgeons, and a Diplomate of the American Board of Surgeons.

Dr. Anderson has devoted most of his academic career to cardiovascular research and teaching.

Dr Anderson was a pioneer in heart surgery and an inventor of cardiopulmonary bypass equipment. He is the author of more than fifty scientific papers. His mechanical heart patent (U.S. Patent no. 3,518,033, applied for Nov. 28, 1966) entitled Extracorporeal Heart, is based on physiologic factors that his research delineated as essential for mechanical heart replacement. The model presented herein incorporates those factors. The model has proved to be such an effective teaching tool that it is hoped others will reproduce it to introduce their students to cardiovascular physiology.

Originally published in 1993, the printed version of The Gross Physiology of the Cardiovascular System (ISBN 0-9617528-1-5) is currently available at medical school libraries throughout the United States. Although the book appears to be long out-of-print and hard to find, most of the text can be found in his website. The text in this book is a far more powerful explanation of the determinants of cardiac output than the 'stroke rate times stroke volume' equation we all learned in introductory physiology (indeed, it reveals why that particular equation is not particularly helpful in advancing an understanding of how, in fact, the cardiovascular system works; for example, in most normal physiologic states, increasing the stroke rate leads to a reduction in stroke volume, rather than an increase in output).

Dr. Anderson's account is also revelatory about what accounts for the maintenance of blood volume equilibrium between the pulmonary and systemic circuits (rather than being some complicated homeostatic feedback mechanism, it's basically due to the unique characteristics of the heart as a non-sucking pump).

A video of the model, entitled The Determinants of Cardiac Output, is also available on his website, and is available in the library of the University of Arizona College of Medicine (library call number WG 106 VT 2 1980).

Additional Resources

 * The Gross Physiology of the Cardiovascular System
 * US Patent Explanation for Innovation of Extracorporeal Heart