These two novels are based on real life situations, making for compelling reading. Enjoy them!

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Faculty & Staff Spotlights
Cardiologist pursues new challenge as writer of
medical thrillers
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Feb. 20, 2014
by Kevin Fryling
A pioneer in implementing pacemaker technology, Douglas P. Zipes, M.D.,
is well known around the world as a physician and researcher who led the
way in the field of cardiology.
Douglas Zipes, right, presents Israeli President Shimon Peres with his second book,
"Ripples in Opperman's Pond."
Fewer, however, know him as a novelist. The author of two medical

2. thrillers, Dr. Zipes, IUPUI Distinguished Professor Emeritus and professor
emeritus of medicine at the IU School of Medicine, quietly pursued a
passion as a writer for many years in between service as a physician,
researcher, journal editor and medical consultant before the publication of
his first book in 2011.
"I love to write, I love the written word, and many years ago, I read a best-
selling medical thriller written by a physician and I thought to myself, 'I can
do that, and I can do it better,'" Dr. Zipes said. "But, it turns out that it’s not
that easy. Although I had written and published well over 800 medical
articles and multiple textbooks, writing fiction is an entirely different
challenge. I had to totally re-learn how to write in the genre."
Dr. Zipes is the founding editor of HeartRhythm, the journal of the
HeartRhythm Society, for which he served as editor until December 2013.
His first work of fiction was inspired in part by personal experiences as a
consultant at Medtronic, a medical device company that formerly produced
a pacemaker powered by plutonium. In his first book, "The Black Widows,"
two elderly women in upstate New York who run a worldwide terrorist cell
commit a series of seemingly random killings against people with these
pacemakers in a plot to build a nuclear bomb. The final chapters of the
book are set in Jordan, Israel, a country where Dr. Zipes helped found an
annual program for Middle Eastern cardiologists, now organized by the
American College of Cardiology.
Last year, Dr. Zipes, who also established the Middle East Cardiovascular
Symposium, was invited to lecture at the 60th anniversary of the Israel
Heart Society in Jerusalem. The event took place in conjunction with
Israel's 65th year as a country. In relation to the milestone, Dr. Zipes was
among the speakers to meet Shimon Peres, the country's president.

3. President Bill Clinton, left, holds Douglas Zipes' first book, "The Black Widows," during the
2013 Heart Rhythm Society's meeting in Denver.
"I brought a copy of my book as a gift and, later, got an email from his
office saying he was pleased to receive it and that he intended to read it,"
Dr. Zipes said. "I'm hoping he puts a five-star review on Amazon."
Peres isn't the only world leader to hold a novel by Dr. Zipes. Last year, Bill
Clinton served as the keynote speaker for the Heart Rhythm Society's
annual meeting in Denver. As a past president of the group, Dr. Zipes got
the chance to meet the former U.S. president. Again, he brought a book, in
part because his inaugural novels' two elderly murderesses live in
Chappaqua, N.Y., the town where the Clintons moved before Hillary's run
for senator of the state.
"As I was headed to the photo op, the Secret Service stopped me and
said, 'No way you're bringing in your book; all packages must be left
behind,'" Dr. Zipes said. "I put down the book, got my photo, and, in talking

4. to the president, I mentioned that I was from Pleasantville, New York, two
miles from his home, and that I had written a novel set in Chappaqua.
'Where is it?' he said. 'Go get it; I want to read that book!' So the Secret
Service went and brought it in. Bill was very enthusiastic about it."
Dr. Zipes' second novel, "Ripples in Opperman's Pond," was also inspired
in part by personal experiences, including time spent as an expert in
several high-profile legal trials. In the first, he was a witness for the
defense in a suit brought against the physician of Reggie Lewis, a
basketball player for the Boston Celtics who died after a collapse on the
court. In the second, he was a medical expert in several trials against
pharmaceutical maker Merck, which was accused of ignoring evidence that
Vioxx could cause heart attack and stroke. In the novel, a cardiologist and
a drug company CEO who are brothers team up to save an Indianapolis
Pacers basketball star from injuries sustained on the court.
"The book also features scenes in Africa, where I was on safaris several
times, as well as scenes in Moscow, Russia, where I've also traveled," Dr.
Zipes said. "I had adverse interactions with the KGB back in the 1980s
when I was working to free some Jews who couldn’t get out of Russia. All
of that is part of the novel. There is no question you put a lot of your own
experiences into your writing."
Outside the realm of fiction, Dr. Zipes' career is also long and storied. His
achievements include pioneering work in the development of the
implantable cardioverter-defibrillator -- a device placed inside the body to
deliver a shock that prevents death during a cardiac arrest -- as well as the
most common pattern of "automatically delivered rapid ventricle pacing"
used to prevent and terminate heart arrhythmias.
He is also a past chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine and past
president of the Cardiac Electrophysiology Society, the Association of
University Cardiologists, the Heart Rhythm Society and the American
College of Cardiology. In 2001, he was named a "Sagamore of the
Wabash," Indiana's highest civilian honor. In 2013, he was a recipient of
the IU President's Medal of Excellence, among the highest honors an IU
president can bestow, as well as the Gold Medal from the European
Society of Cardiology.
In retirement, Dr. Zipes' passion for the novel only grows. Over the past
few years, he has taken several creative writing courses at IU, as well as
spent two summers in a row studying at the famed Iowa Writer's
Workshop, living in student dorms at the University of Iowa. He's working

5. on a third novel, inspired in part by the 1936 Olympics and the
inauspicious maiden name of Hitler's illegitimately born father's mother,
which was Schicklgruber.
"It’s a fascinating change," Dr. Zipes said. "In cardiology, my name is
literally known throughout the world. In fiction, they say, 'Who the hell are
you?' It's like being an intern again."
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