Joshua Swee

This is the story of an inventor who built a lead shield that hangs from overhead. It is a story of someone working with limited resources and little help, motivated by necessity, and achieving unconventional success. And it all started in the interventional suite when Dr. Chet Rees developed back pain.

When you see an image of an oil rig floating in the ocean, what do you think of? The scent of crude oil weighing heavily in the breeze, or maybe the gasoline you pump into your car? How about inferior vena cava filters? The oil industry doesn’t seem like the best place to look for an answer to how to make a better filter for thrombotic blood—believe it or not, that’s where the inspiration came from.

As with many past stories of innovation, Intravascular Lithotripsy demonstrates the limitless possibilities when you put an engineer, a physician, and a businessman in the same room. This is a story of an unrelenting determination and the creative use of an existing technology that sends shockwaves to the world of calcified arteries.