A sleepless work ethic is less about the location than about the people in it, but for the record, Drs. Gretel Monreal and Steven Koenig work in Louisville, where they are highly respected at the eponymous university. Because, in addition to a trainload of cardiac device research and development, grant applications, papers, and assorted other scientific demands on a researcher’s time, they also operate Heartwheels! STEM Mobile Outreach.

Heartwheels! deserves its name. It is a mobile education and exploration opportunity designed to inspire youth interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). In practicality, this means Drs. Koenig and Monreal travel to schools with a load of equipment, then let kids do everything from measuring flow on mock circulatory loops (in which they use Transonic’s probes and meters!), to handling a pig heart. Children are beings of pure potential, but often, circumstances prevent them from realizing its fullness until something like Heartwheels! rolls up to their school. As goes the old Native American adage: “Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I will understand.”

Statistically, Kentucky doesn’t fare well in population health and financial average. Yes, those stats are frequent bedfellows across the US, but in rural Appalachia, they can become abysmal. (The author says this with understanding, as he lives across the border in WV.) Kentucky’s poverty rate is 44% higher than the US average, and their heart disease death rate is 25% higher. Some might see this as failure, but Drs. Monreal and Koenig see it as an opportunity to help underserved and underrepresented children.

Some of their many accomplishments were recently recognized in Advances in Physiology Education. What kind of success are we talking about? How about a current total of over 11,000 attendees, with 94.5% self-reporting that it was a fun, educational experience.

We highly recommend the original article here.

As always, we congratulate Drs. Koenig and Monreal on their continued success in changing young lives for the better.

Thanks for reading,

               Transonic Systems, Inc

                              The Measure of Better Results