Society has high expectations of physicians. No other group is expected to assume such a tremendous risk for the lives of others. As a result, medicine is known to be a rather demanding mistress. It is a calling that frequently infuses itself into every aspect of a practitioner's daily life. But Dr. Plumb has made "conscious decisions" to apportion his time and efforts in the interest of his family. One telling example: no matter how busy he is (barring the rare occurrence of a horrible emergency), he comes home every night for dinner. "Ever since I got married and started having kids, dinner has been an immutable time where we all sit down together," he said.

This type of decision does not reflect a lack of devotion to his field, but rather stems from the same brand of selfless altruism that called him to medicine to begin with. "There are lots of people who work 13-hour days. But if you are going to do that, have a family, and go to church, you have to make choices," he said. "Too many people make life decisions by default," Dr. Plumb said, and he feels these types of decisions are often at the expense of family. In addition to technical knowledge, managing the personal demands of medicine is something Dr. Plumb tries to teach his students.

Dr. Plumb's ability to balance his personal and professional life resonates with his holistic approach to medicine. "This field is a unique intersection of humanity and science," he said. Maximizing the quality of a patient's life requires a lot more than just scientific knowledge. A good doctor must attend to the whole person-physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. "People don't come in and tell you their medical history. They come in and tell you stories," he said. "You have to be able to communicate with people and feel empathy." Being a doctor requires one to be "part private detective, part minister, and part scientist." But within this liberal arts approach to medicine, the role of scientist is certainly an important part of the equation. Cardiovascular medicine has experienced enormous technical advances since Dr. Plumb's entrance into the field nearly three decades ago. And this ability to do more and more beneficial things has kept his job exciting. Dr. Plumb's sub-specialty within the field is heart-rhythm disorders. When he started out in the 1970s, his work in this area was primarily diagnostic. After several major advances (some of which he took part in), he can now cure many forms of arrhythmia.

Dr. Vance Plumb '70 in his office at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital.

A heartbeat is an electrical event, Dr. Plumb explained. Electricity travels in well-organized pathways throughout the heart. A heart-rhythm disorder, the result of either a physical development or a pre-existing condition, occurs when the electricity of the heart basically short-circuits itself. Within the field of electrophysiology (the study of electrical currents in patients who have arrhythmia), Dr. Plumb cites one particular advancement that has allowed him to cure patients: radio frequency ablation. The technique involves threading wires through vessels in the inner chamber of the heart. The wires record the electrical pathways and allow doctors to send an impulsive current of radio frequency to burn away an errant circuit. Dr. Plumb performs several of these procedures a week, yet he is constantly in awe of this capability. "It is a real moment of accomplishment; you put wires in a person's heart, find an invisible circuit, and burn it away," he said. "With just a few seconds of actual application of this current, you have cured something a person may have had their entire life. It's a miracle every time."

In his position at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, one of the leading centers in the world for electrophysiological study, and for cardiovascular medicine in general, Dr. Plumb considers himself fortunate to be at the nucleus of a growing field. And he anticipates being part of this evolution for at least another decade. "What I am doing now bears little resemblance to what I was doing in 1991," he said. "And what I will be doing in 2011 will bear just as little resemblance to what I'm doing now. That is exciting to me." Plumb looks forward to doing more things no one else in his field has done. But if you ask what thrills him most about the possibilities of the future, his answer will likely be grandchildren.