All of his work in this domain was done primarily in an effort to explain why certain changes appear in electrocardiograms under particular circumstances, and never was he satisfied with the purely descriptive approach that had been used so often in electrocardiographic research.

His long familiarity with bio-electric phenomena, his keen and inquiring mind and his ability to use mathematics enabled him to devise the central terminal arrangement and one of the most ingenious and basic conceptions in the field of electrocardiography, the ventricular gradient.

Much of Dr. Wilson's time in the last years of his active service was devoted to informal teaching of electrocardiography to doctors who came from all over the world to study in Ann Arbor under him.

Many of the physicians who studied at the Heart Station would go on to occupy teaching posts in this country or abroad, and all of them regarded Dr. Wilson with a respect that is close to reverence.

His work was extremely influential in the ongoing research of Dr. Robert H. Bayley at the University of Oklahoma towards the understanding of the biophysical principles of electrocardiology.