David Lederman | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | David Mordechai Lederman May 26, 1944 Bogota, Colombia |
| Died | August 15, 2012 (aged 68) |
| Alma mater | Cornell University |
| Occupation(s) | Scientist, researcher, entrepreneur |
David M. Lederman was an American aerospace engineer, entrepreneur, author, and humanitarian. He is noted for founding Abiomed, the company that developed AbioCor, the first fully implantable artificial heart.
Lederman was born in Bogota, Colombia [1] to Israel Joseph Lederman and Rifka Lederman on May 26, 1944. His parents were immigrants who escaped the Nazis in Poland. [2] He went to Colegio Americano and Universidad de Los Andes before his family moved to the United States in 1964. [2] He completed his bachelor’s degree in engineering at Cornell University, where he also obtained his Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and Doctoral degree in Laser Physics and Aerospace Engineering. [1]
After graduation, Lederman went back to Colombia to work as an associate professor and director of the Universidad de Los Andes’ biomedical research department. [2] In 1974, he relocated to the U.S. and worked for Avco Everett Research Laboratory. [2] In this company, he was a senior research scientist working on cardiac assist technology. In 1979, he was appointed the chair of the company’s Medical Research Committee. [2]
Lederman led a team that worked on biotechnology that extended the lives of patients awaiting heart transplants. [3] This produced a ventricular assist device (VAD) described as a sac-type assist machine called the AVCO LVAD. [4] This would later become the ABIOMED BVS 5000. [4] In 1981, he founded Applied Biomedical Corp. with the aim of developing the first artificial heart. The company went public in 1987. Lederman headed it as CEO until 2004, when he was replaced by Michael Minogue. [5]
During the early 2000s, Pedersen headed the research team that developed AbioCor, a completely implantable pump. [6] Although pulsatile, the device had no air compressor and was capable of recharging itself wirelessly and sending messages through the skin. [6] Prior to this development, its predecessor - the Jarvik-7 - was only partially implantable and required connections to external devices. [7] The US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of AbioCor in 2009. [8] Outside of medical experiments, this was the first time regulators allowed the mechanical replacement of hearts for human patients. [8]
In 2005, after 24 years as CEO of Abiomed, Lederman retired as president and chairman of the board. He published his research and gave lectures around the world. [1] He was also known for his humanitarian activities. He funded, for instance, an initiative that supported Israeli children from Sderot while the town sustained a missile attack coming from the Gaza Strip. [1]
On August 15, 2012, he died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Marblehead, Massachusetts. His death is said to have played a role in AbioMed’s decision to abandon the production and further development of AbioCor. [9]
Biomedical engineering (BME) or medical engineering is the application of engineering principles and design concepts to medicine and biology for healthcare purposes. BME is also traditionally logical sciences to advance health care treatment, including diagnosis, monitoring, and therapy. Also included under the scope of a biomedical engineer is the management of current medical equipment in hospitals while adhering to relevant industry standards. This involves procurement, routine testing, preventive maintenance, and making equipment recommendations, a role also known as a Biomedical Equipment Technician (BMET) or as clinical engineering.
An artificial cardiac pacemaker is a medical device, nowadays always implanted, that generates electrical pulses delivered by electrodes to one or more of the chambers of the heart, the upper atria or lower ventricles. Each pulse causes the targeted chamber(s) to contract and pump blood, thus regulating the function of the electrical conduction system of the heart.
An artificial heart is an artificial organ device that replaces the heart. Artificial hearts are typically used to bridge the time to complete heart transplantation surgery, but research is ongoing to develop a device that could permanently replace the heart in the case that a heart transplant is unavailable or not viable. As of December 2023, there are two commercially available full artificial heart devices; in both cases, they are for temporary use, of less than a year, for total heart failure patients awaiting a human heart to be transplanted into their bodies.
AbioCor was a total artificial heart (TAH) developed by the Massachusetts-based company AbioMed. It was fully implantable within a patient, due to a combination of advances in miniaturization, biosensors, plastics and energy transfer. The AbioCor ran on a rechargeable source of power. The internal battery was charged by a transcutaneous energy transmission (TET) system, meaning that no wires or tubes penetrated the skin, reducing the risk of infection. However, because of its size, this heart was only compatible with men who had a large frame. It had a product life expectancy of 18 months.
Robert L. Tools was the world's first recipient of a fully self-contained artificial heart, called AbioCor. The operation took place on July 2, 2001. He survived for 151 days without a living heart. Dr. Joseph Fredi at Saint Thomas Hospital suggested the experimental procedure based on his knowledge of a research project by Abiomed. While recovering from surgery, Robert had the chance to enjoy some of his favorite past time hobbies, fishing and dining out. While at Jewish Hospital, Robert became renowned and received press throughout the world on shows like Cooking Network, Dateline, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and CNN. As a result of Robert's press, he received visits from Lt. Governors, The Oak Ridge Boys, and Muhammad Ali. While meeting with Ali, Tools earned the name "#1 Champ" because of his fight to survive.
Articles related specifically to biomedical engineering include:
Robert Fischell is a physicist, prolific inventor, and holder of more than 200 U.S. and foreign medical patents. His inventions have led to the creation of several biotechnology companies. He worked at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory full-time for 25 years and part-time for an additional 13 years. He contributed to APL's satellite navigation work; he later developed a rechargeable implantable pacemaker that could be programmed with radiowaves,. He and his team at Hopkins also helped miniaturize the implantable cardiac defibrillator. Mr. Fischell went on to invent the implantable insulin pump, numerous coronary stents used to open clogged arteries, and two feedback systems that provide early warning of epileptic seizures (NeuroPace) and heart attacks. Fischell recently donated $30 million to the University of Maryland College Park Foundation to establish a bioengineering department and an institute for biomedical devices at the A. James Clark School of Engineering.
Gerson "Gus" Rosenberg is an American biomedical engineer. He is the Jane A. Fetter Professor of Surgery, professor of bioengineering, and chief of the Division of Applied Biomedical Engineering at Penn State's Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine.
Alfred E. Mann, also known as Al Mann, was an American physicist, inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.
The Favaloro University is a private university in the city of Buenos Aires in Argentina. It was founded by surgeon René Favaloro in 1992; it obtained its definitive authorization on October 23, 2003, by decree 963/03 of president Néstor Kirchner. Favaloro did not see his project completely realised, for he committed suicide a few years before completion.
William S. Pierce is the cardiothoracic surgeon and chemical engineer who led development of the first pneumatic heart assist pump. The Pierce-Donachy Ventricular Assist Device, also known as the Penn State Assist Pump, was designated an International Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1990.
Abiomed, Inc. is a medical device technology company that operates as a stand-alone business within Johnson & Johnson's MedTech Segment. Abiomed develops and manufactures temporary external and implantable mechanical circulatory support devices. The company is headquartered in Danvers, Massachusetts with additional offices in Woburn, Baltimore, Berlin, Aachen, and Tokyo.
O. H. "Bud" Frazier is a heart surgeon and director of cardiovascular surgery research at the Texas Heart Institute (THI), best known for his work in mechanical circulatory support (MCS) of failing hearts using left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) and total artificial hearts (TAH).
Adrian Kantrowitz was an American cardiac surgeon whose team performed the world's second heart transplant attempt at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York on December 6, 1967. The infant lived for only six hours. At a press conference afterwards, Kantrowitz emphasized that he considered the operation to have been a failure.
Peer Michael Portner was a heart researcher whose work led to the development of the ventricular assist device, an electrical pump that permits patients in heart failure to survive until a heart transplant could be performed.
Alois A. Langer is an American biomedical engineer best known as one of the co-inventors of the Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD).
Jack Greene Copeland is an American cardiothoracic surgeon, who has established procedures in heart transplantation including repeat heart transplantation, the implantation of total artificial hearts (TAH) to bridge the time to heart transplant, innovations in left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) and the technique of "piggybacking" a second heart in a person, while leaving them the original.
Ellen Roche is an Irish biomedical engineer and Associate Professor at MIT in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute of Medical Engineering and Science. She has contributed to heart failure prevention with her inventions, the Harvard Ventricular Assist Device (HarVAD), a soft-robotic sleeve device that goes around the heart, squeezing and twisting it to maintain the heart’s functionality, and Therepi, a reservoir that attaches directly to damaged heart tissue.
Mohsen (MO) Shahinpoor is an Iranian American engineer, scientist, and academician. He is a professor and Director at the University of Maine College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is also a professor in the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering at the University of Maine.