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Dutch physician and physiologist Willem Einthoven develops the first electrocardiograph machine, a simple, thin, lightweight quartz string galvanometer, suspended in a magnetic field and capable of measuring small changes in electrical potential as the heart contracts and relaxes. http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824
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Harvard medical researcher Philip Drinker, assisted by Louis Agassiz Shaw, devises the first modern practical respirator using an iron box and two vacuum cleaners. Dubbed the iron lung, his finished product. http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824
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Albert S. Hyman, a practitioner cardiologist in New York City, invents an artificial pacemaker to resuscitate patients whose hearts have stopped. Working with his brother Charles, he constructs a hand-cranked apparatus with a spring motor that turns a magnet to supply an electrical impulse. http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824
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Kouwenhoven’s research in electric shock and his study of the effects of electricity on the heart lead to the development of the closed-chest electric defibrillator and the technique of external cardiac massage today known as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR. http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824
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Kolff’s invention is the product of many years’ work, and this patient is his first long-term success after 15 failures. In the course of his work with the artificial kidney, Kolff notices that blue, oxygen-poor blood passing through the artificial kidney becomes red, or oxygen-rich, leading to later work on the membrane oxygenator. http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824
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Kevin Touhy receives a patent for a plastic contact lens designed to cover only the eye's cornea, a major change from earlier designs. Two years later George Butterfield introduces a lens that is molded to fit the cornea's contours rather than lie flat atop it. As the industry evolves, the diameter of contact lenses gradually shrinks. http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824
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English surgeon John Charnley applies engineering principles to orthopedics and develops the first artificial hip replacement procedure, or arthroplasty. He devises a low-friction, high-density polythene suitable for artificial hip joints and pioneers the use of methyl methacrylate cement for holding the metal prosthesis, or implant, to the shaft of the femur. http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824
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The first replacement valve surgeries are performed in 1960 by two surgeons who develop their ball-in-cage designs independently. In Boston, Dwight Harken develops a double-cage design in which the outer cage separates the valve struts from the aortic wall. At the University of Oregon, Albert Starr, working with electrical engineer Lowell Edwards, designs a silicone ball inside a cage made of stellite, an alloy of cobalt, molybdenum, chromium, and nickel.
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The bulky device, worn externally on the patient’s belt, plugs into an electric wall socket and stimulates the heart through two metal electrodes placed on the patient’s bare chest. Five years later doctors begin implanting electrodes into chests. http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824 http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824
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Philadelphia physician John H. Gibbon performs the first successful open-heart bypass surgery on 18-year-old Cecelia Bavolek, whose heart and lung functions are supported by a heart-lung machine developed by Gibbon. The device is the culmination of two decades of research and experimentation and heralds a new era in surgery and medicine. http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824
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A team of doctors at Boston’s Peter Bent Brigham Hospital successfully performs the first human kidney transplant. Led by Joseph E. Murray, the physicians remove a healthy kidney from the donor, Ronald Herrick, and implant it in his identical twin brother, Richard, who is dying of renal disease. http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824
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uffalo, New York, electrical engineer Wilson Greatbatch develops the first totally internal pacemaker using two commercial silicon transistors. Surgeon William Chardack implants the device into 10 fatally ill patients. The first lives for 18 months, another for 30 years. http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824
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Francis L’Esperance, of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, begins working with a ruby laser photo-coagulator to treat diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes and a leading cause of blindness in the United States. In 1965 he begins working with Bell researchers Eugene Gordon and Edward Labuda to design an argon laser for eye surgery. http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824
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Bausch & Lomb licenses Softlens, the first soft contact lens. The new product is the result of years of research by Czech scientists Otto Wichterle and Drahoslav Lim and is based on their earlier invention of a "hydrophilic" gel, a polymer material that is compatible with living tissue and therefore suitable for eye implants. Soft contacts allow more oxygen to reach the eye’s cornea than do hard plastic lenses. http://greatachievements.org/?id=3824
