Dr. Braunwald visits
Dr. Eugene Braunwald was our honorary speaker for this year's annual David P. Earle Memorial Lecture at Medical Grand Rounds. The named lectureship, in honor of former Irving S. Cutter Professor of Medicine and Department Chair David P. Earle, pays tribute to Dr. Earle's longstanding contributions to the growth of our department during his tenure, overseeing expansive growth of Northwestern's research enterprise as well as establishing ten subspecialty divisions within the Department of Medicine.
Our honorary speaker, Dr. Eugene Braunwald, has been a major force in the dramatic advances in modern cardiology over the past half century, having the distinction of being the single most highly cited cardiologist with an individual H index of 177. Dr. Braunwald received his medical training at New York University and completed his Medical Residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He served as the first Chief of the Cardiology Branch and as Clinical Director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, as well as the founding Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. From 1972 to 1996 he was Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. During this time, Dr. Braunwald built upon his earlier advances in myocardial ischemia pathophysiology and in neurohumoral mechanisms of heart failure, founding the TIMI Study Group, serving as chairman and pioneering the "open artery hypothesis" in the treatment of coronary artery disease. In addition to pioneering revascularization therapy, the TIMI study group, under the leadership of Dr. Braunwald, has changed the practice of clinical cardiology with such novel advances as ACE inhibitor therapy to prevent ventricular remodeling in infarcted myocardium and more aggressive LDL reduction in high risk coronary artery disease patients.
