Second Colloquium of the institute at the Johns Hopkins University, the Department of Biomedical Engineering

Controversies surrounding the definition of myocardical contractility

A) Agenda

1.1. Discuss the feasibility of a SIMON type study for the discovery and development of the ESPVR Relationship (see notes by Kenneth Schaffner on Scientific discovery, Artificial Intelligence and Theoretical Cardiology [June 4, 1988] and the paper by D. Kulkarni, H. A. Simon, The processes of Scientific Discovery: The strategy of Experimentation. Cognitive Science 12, 139-175 [1988]).

1.2. Development of a research proposal on the development of cardiac mechanics consisting of the following components (in continuation of the outlines given by Dan Burkhoff at the first Colloquium of the IIfTC on February 17, 1987):

1.2.1. A historical account about the context of German Cardiology 1880-1950; principal investigator: Priv.-Doz. Dr. Brigitte Lohff, Department of History of Medicine, University of Kiel.

1.2.2. An examination of the structure of theories in this field using methods from Artificial Intelligence Research; principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Ken Schaffner, M.D., Ph.D., Dept. of Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh.

1.2.3. An examination of the relationship between changes in theory and new experimental evidence from 1950-1988; principal investigator: Reidar K. Lie, M.D., Ph.D., Dept. of Medical Humanities, East Carolina University, Greenville, N.C.

1.2.4. An investigation of the notion of time in the development of this field; principal investigator: Priv.-Doz. Dr. Wolfgang Deppert, Philosophisches Seminar, University of Kiel.

2.0. We should write up a proposal for each one of the components.

3.0. Funding

B) Additional points of the agenda

1.0. Completion of an article on invitation by A.M. Katz in response to his editorial in the J. Moll. Cell. Card. 20, 355-366 (1988): Molecular Biology in Cardiology. A Paradigmatic Shift. Our paper should incorporate parts of the lecture given in Halifax, November 8, 1988 on: Paradigma shifts in Cardiology: A re-examination of Otto Frank's contribution to cardiac mechanics.

2.0. Completion of an attempt to assess the meeting on "Bowditch Revisited" from a philosophy point of view as the concluding chapter of the planned book: "Bowditch Revisited: The Force-Interval Relationship of the Heart" (to be published by Cambridge University Press, England).

Participants

Dr. Kiichi Sagawa, The Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Ken Schaffner, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Reidar K. Lie, East Carolina University
Dr. Wolfgang Deppert, University of Kiel, FRG
Dr. Dan Burkhoff, The Johns Hopkins Medical School
Dr. David Yue, The Johns Hopkins Medical School
Dr. Jochen Schaefer, IIfTC, Bad Orb, FRG
Mrs. Brigitte Schaefer, IIfTC, Bad Orb, FRG