Pacemakers

“Thoracis surgeons devised the standard implantable procedure and held a near-monopoly on the implantation for many years. The dominance of surgeons was inevitable given the design of the pacemaker, a device that required the surgical opening of both the abdomen and the chest.” Even after cardiologists began implanting pacemakers in catheterization labs, “surgeons remained their dominant position until the 1980s.”