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For many years now, the names “Dr. Page” and “Dr. Campbell” have been synonymous with cardiac care in Middle Tennessee.

After all, they were among the first practitioners in the medical specialty to see patients in Nashville. The two helped pioneer numerous procedures in the region during their long affiliation with Saint Thomas Hospital. Ultimately, they helped found the renowned Page-Campbell Heart Institute that linked Saint Thomas and Vanderbilt University Medical Center together. And today, although the partnership between the two hospitals is no longer in place, the interventional cardiologists behind the impetus are still very much a part of the region’s cardiac landscape.

Both Dr. Harry L. Page and Dr. W. Barton Campbell, who are now solely affiliated with Vanderbilt, continue to teach and train young cardiologists. Now in their eighth decade, the two marvel at the advances that have occurred in their profession since they completed fellowships at the University of Colorado in the 1960s.

Page referred to that time as the “cowboy days” of cardiology when the field was in many ways a blank canvas.

“There have been tremendous changes,” Campbell reflected of the past four decades. “The thing to keep in mind is the availability of the technology now requires the wisdom to know when its use is appropriate, and that is a real challenge for our young cardiologists.”

Page, who is partially retired and no longer engages in clinical work, grew up just down the road in Gainesboro, Tennessee. He said that from the time he was six, he knew he would be a doctor.

In his book, One Heart at a Time, Page recalled that when asked by the family physician what he wanted to be when he grew up, without hesitation he replied, “’I want to be a doctor just like you.’ Like a mule with blinders on –– to use an old colloquialism –– I pursued this idea with no consideration of an alternative.”

His single-minded quest led him to complete undergraduate and medical school studies at Vanderbilt University, where he became fascinated by electrocardiography. A two-year stint in the Navy helped solidify his desire to specialize in cardiology.

By 1964, Dr. Jack Vogel, who Page had met as a senior medical student at Vanderbilt, had taken a position at the University of Colorado in cardiology and helped arrange for Page to come to Denver for a fellowship in the field.

A visit home one winter provided a new opportunity.

“At a Christmas party, Dr. Bill Stoney, who was the first cardiac surgeon at Saint Thomas, asked my interest in developing a heart program,” Page recalled.
“I got the opportunity to develop a cath lab at Saint Thomas. I had to go back many times to Denver because when I came home I never had the idea that I was going to be in charge of setting up a cath lab. Suddenly I had the responsibility to develop one out of an empty room.”

The Saint Thomas program grew to the extent that it became necessary to add another physician in 1970. Once again, Page looked to Colorado where Vogel provided the name of another young cardiologist just completing his fellowship … Dr. Bart Campbell.

Campbell, a native Nebraskan, finished medical school at the University of Rochester, an internship in Colorado followed by two years as part of the U.S. Public Health Service and then a return to Denver for a medicine residency and cardiology fellowship

Prior to accepting the position at Saint Thomas, he had only flown through Tennessee once in 1967 on his way back from working at the Schweitzer Hospital in Haiti.

“The plane stopped here, and I looked out and thought it was a beautiful area. I knew it was a big city, but you could hardly see houses … it was mostly just trees,” he said, not dreaming that Nashville would soon become home.

“It was the advent of the coronary artery bypass grafts that really led to the development of the Saint Thomas program,” Campbell continued. “Fortunately Saint Thomas at the time had a visionary administrator –– her name was Sister Irene Krauss … it was her thought that this likely would succeed.”

When asked, he simply couldn’t resist Sister Krauss’ invitation to help develop a groundbreaking cardiology program.

“We were fortunate that we were there at a time when everything was changing because coronary artery disease is so prevalent in our society, and we were just in the process of finding ways to deal with it,” Campbell said of the exciting breakthroughs of the 70s.

By 1974, the partners’ practice had taken off, and they formed Cardiology Consultants PC … the precursor to Page-Campbell. Their desire to build the Saint Thomas program and strengthen the clinical offerings in the area led both physicians to seek out the advice and expertise of some of cardiology’s most recognizable names … Sones, Gensini, Barnard, Damato and Gruentzig, among others … and bring innovative new techniques back to Nashville.

Watching Andreas Greuntzig perform the first angioplasty in Switzerland, Page knew this was a procedure with enormous potential.

“I happened to get to Zürich way ahead of most people, and I ordered equipment” Page said. Ultimately, he shared his experiences in Switzerland with his friend and colleague Dr. Goffredo Gensini in Syracuse. He added with a chuckle that he ended up “seeing one, doing one, teaching one and came back to Nashville as an ‘expert.’”

Campbell also laughingly recalled hearing his partner’s plans to learn more about balloon angioplasty. “I said, ‘Harry, that’s crazy.’”

For his part, though, Campbell, too, was breaking ground in Middle Tennessee by conducting the region’s first His Bundle study. He traveled to Staten Island to meet with Dr. Antonio Damato, who was the only one performing such studies in 1971.

“I learned how to put an electrode catheter in and find where this electrical depolarization was happening … and this was long before electrophysiology.”
Ultimately Campbell decided the studies wouldn’t be of use … at least not until a decade later when corrective techniques were developed to address the information gleaned by such studies.

When asked about highlights of his long career, Page said the three items that first come to mind are “founding the cath lab at Saint Thomas Hospital, doing the first coronary angioplasty in this area of the country and helping unite our group with Vanderbilt.”

He’s also very proud and passionate about his work as a founding board member of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, which now numbers 3,700 members.

For Campbell, his work with His Bundle studies, sinus node recovery times and teaching make the list. For many years a strong proponent of the Saint Thomas – Vanderbilt teaching alliance, Campbell still loves the training aspect of his work at Vanderbilt.

“Teaching is really learning … when you’re given the opportunity to teach, it means you share ideas –– and I have lots of ideas because I’ve been around for a long time –– but it means also you’re in a position where you can get new ideas,” he said.

While both said leaving Saint Thomas was difficult, a sea change in the professional culture led them to embrace new clinical opportunities emerging at Vanderbilt.

Page will celebrate his 40th anniversary with wife Shelley in September. The Pages met at Vanderbilt and have two grown children and two grandchildren. The pair also enjoys traveling whenever they can. When on home turf, Dr. Page likes playing the guitar and piano and is interested in cosmology.

Together, they endowed the Harry and Shelley Page Chair in Interventional Cardiology in 2005, which is currently held by Dr. David Zhao, a cardiac surgeon and interventional cardiologist. The goal is to expand the specialty and provide a continued funding source for teaching.

Campbell and his wife, Audrey, will be married 49 years this June. Audrey, who has a master’s in nursing and served as a nurse educator for many years, now enjoys participating in the fine arts and particularly enjoys acting. The couple’s three children each have children of their own. Campbell, who still works 50-60 hours a week in both clinical practice and in a teaching role, loves to spend time with his six grandchildren when he has down time. In addition to skiing and reading, his other off-the-clock passion is singing.

“I sing with a great group of guys in the Music City Chorus,” he noted.
Whether hitting high notes in their personal life or setting the tone for the next generation of physicians, Page and Campbell have left an indelible mark on the region’s cardiac care.



February 2008

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