In Memoriam: Dr. Mark Wholey
The Journal of the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (JSCAI) published this article on May 13, 2025. More information is available here.
I met Mark in 1988 when visiting the Department of Radiology at Shadyside Hospital (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). As a fellow in vascular medicine at Cleveland Clinic, I had been exposed to endovascular procedures and was responsible for angiography conferences; however, I was not trained to do angiography or interventions. I would schedule a visit to watch Mark work all day doing vascular work; at the end of the day we would sit in front of his reader board and look at all of the cases from that day. Looking at different cases and discussing catheters, interventional solutions, guide wires, injection rates, quality, quantity, PSI, linear rise, contrast volume, and renal function were on the discussion table, as well as new devices and conventional surgical vs medical therapy. It was an incredible experience working one-on-one with him.
After my third full-day visit, Mark asked why I was so interested in his work. I told him that I wanted to learn angiography and that I wanted him to teach me. His first reaction was “No way!” He couldn’t possibly train another doctor who was not a radiologist to do these procedures unless it was part of a 4-year program in radiology. At that time, he was only beginning to formulate the Pittsburgh Vascular Institute, and he wanted to make it a strong, comprehensive program involving preoperative and postoperative vascular care for patients as well as an academic endeavor.
I scheduled a follow-up a month later with the intention of convincing him to hire me as a research fellow. My plea was to help make Pittsburgh Vascular Institute a more complete entity since it would incorporate a board-certified vascular medicine physician as well as interventional radiologists. He still had a passion for vascular radiology as a separate entity from radiology. “You don’t need to be doing barium enemas in the morning and dabble in vascular cases in the afternoon,” he told me.
Mark agreed that the future of vascular intervention was likely in the hands of cardiologists since they were the ones who “owned all the patients.” Mark said that he needed to discuss a position for me with his partners in the department at their next staff meeting.
I returned 1 month later and watched his cases for the day. At the end of the day, we went into his office, and he closed the door.
“I brought up the idea with my partners,” he said. “They told me if I agreed to train you, they would all resign.”
My heart sank. I replied, “Mark, you know it’s the right thing to do.”
He looked at me and said, “You can start July 1st, but I don’t have a budget to support you, and you will need to bring a research grant to the hospital.” (I got a $125,000 grant from Abbott Laboratories to study urokinase in acute coronary syndrome.) “Above all. You must keep a low profile.”
I was ecstatic beyond belief. I rented an apartment where I stayed Monday through Friday, and I learned from every case that he worked on. Eventually, he began to let me perform the cases but not until I had thorough knowledge of the catheters—their names, shapes, French sizes, and usable lengths. Early on, I cleaned all our disposables and familiarized myself with these devices. We discussed wire stiffness, tortuosity of the iliac arteries, and other facets of vascular disease. We began to work on prototypes of polytetrafluoroethylene-covered bypass grafts. I had worked with a superb group of colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic and some legendary doctors in the fields of vascular surgery, vascular medicine, and vascular radiology as well as the hypertension division in nephrology for treatment of renal artery stenosis. Not one of these incredibly dedicated world-class physicians could outshine Mark Wholey.
Because Mark was such a sought-after speaker, publisher, and consultant, he began to get some pushback from other high-profile radiologists from all over the country at vascular meetings because they knew he was training me, a nonradiologist. They were not happy. Finally, after 6 months and a lot of outside pressure, Mark informed me that I had enough training and needed to move on.
Over the ensuing 2 decades, Mark became a major draw in the lecture circuit. Mark had now fully endorsed vascular intervention among cardiologists as well as vascular radiologists. He almost single-handedly convinced industry to recruit cardiologists, radiologists, and cardiovascular and vascular surgeons. Simultaneously, he became more involved in neurovascular interventions and worked on a carotid protection system, which he ultimately patented.
His passion for guide wires was equally strong. We worked with metallurgical engineers at Medrad and Carnegie Mellon University. They would visit us and take back his ideas, only to return with prototype guide wires, which we then evaluated. His Wholey wire was a shapeable, steerable guide wire with 1-to-1 torqueability that became very popular over the next 2 decades. It is still used today.
His true passion besides golf at Oakmont Country Club was his family and then patient care. Mark Wholey will be sorely missed by those who knew him. His impact on the field of cardiovascular and endovascular intervention is legendary.
James A.M. Smith, DO, is board certified by the American Board of Vascular Medicine and the American College of Osteopathic Internists. He practices cardiovascular medicine and intervention at Kansas Vascular Medicine.
