Engineers, physicians and inventors who created instruments and devices used in medical care, such as artificial hearts, dialysis machines, needles, scanners and joint replacements. A person belongs here when the cited article credits the person with a medical device or with pioneering work on one. It excludes pure laboratory scientists whose work produced no device. The group is one of the groupings of engineers under this engineering field in the Technology Atlas, and each member keeps its own entry with its own cited sources and its own place in the field.
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Medical Device Inventors
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Philip Drinker (National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee page)
Has Member: Philip Drinker, Inductee pageQuote, Has Member: Philip Drinker, Inductee page
Philip Drinker invented the first iron lung, a respirator that has helped save lives, especially those afflicted with polio and other cases of paralysis.
Julio C. Palmaz (National Inventors Hall of Fame inductee page)
Has Member: Julio C. Palmaz, Inductee pageQuote, Has Member: Julio C. Palmaz, Inductee page
His stent revolutionized cardiac care
René Laennec (Wikipedia article)
Has Member: René Laennec, LeadQuote, Has Member: René Laennec, Lead
led him to invent the stethoscope in 1816
Wikipedia: Charles Chamberland
Has Member: Charles Chamberland, LeadQuote, Has Member: Charles Chamberland, Lead
In 1884 he developed a type of filtration known today as the Chamberland filter
Willem Kolff (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationHas Member: Willem Kolff, IntroductionQuote, Has Member: Willem Kolff, Introduction
Willem Johan "Pim" Kolff (February 14, 1911, February 11, 2009) was a pioneer of hemodialysis, artificial heart, as well as in the entire field of artificial organs.
John Charnley (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationHas Member: John Charnley, IntroductionQuote, Has Member: John Charnley, Introduction
Sir John Charnley, (29 August 1911-5 August 1982) was an English orthopaedic surgeon.
Robert Jarvik (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Robert Jarvik, IntroductionQuote, Has Member: Robert Jarvik, Introduction
Robert Koffler Jarvik (May 11, 1946, May 26, 2025) was an American scientist, researcher and businessman known for his role in developing the Jarvik-7 artificial heart.
Raymond Damadian (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Raymond Damadian, IntroductionQuote, Has Member: Raymond Damadian, Introduction
Raymond Vahan Damadian (Armenian: Ռեյմոնդ Վահան Դամադյան; March 16, 1936, August 3, 2022) was an American physician, medical researcher, and inventor of the first nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) scanning machine.
Wikipedia: Francis Rynd
Has Member: Francis Rynd, IntroductionQuote, Has Member: Francis Rynd, Introduction
Francis Rynd (1801-19 July 1861) was an Irish medical doctor known for inventing the hypodermic needle used in syringes in 1844, which also led to the first recorded injection.
Frank Pantridge (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Frank Pantridge, IntroductionQuote, Has Member: Frank Pantridge, Introduction
James Francis Pantridge, (3 October 1916-26 December 2004), usually known as Frank Pantridge, was a Northern Irish physician, cardiologist, and professor who transformed emergency medicine and paramedic services with the invention of the portable defibrillator.
Earl Bakken (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationHas Member: Earl Bakken, Lead paragraphQuote, Has Member: Earl Bakken, Lead paragraph
he developed the first external, battery-operated, transistorized, wearable artificial pacemaker in 1957
Wilson Greatbatch (Wikipedia)
Has Member: Wilson Greatbatch, The Chardack-Greatbatch pacemakerQuote, Has Member: Wilson Greatbatch, The Chardack-Greatbatch pacemaker
The Chardack-Greatbatch pacemaker used Mallory mercuric oxide-zinc cells (mercury battery) for its energy source
Willem Einthoven (ETHW)
Has Member: Willem Einthoven, BiographyQuote, Has Member: Willem Einthoven, Biography
Such was the insatiable thirst for knowledge that drove the man who would become famous as the inventor of the electrocardiogram (EKG) , one of the most important medical inventions of all time.
Godfrey Hounsfield (Nobel Prize)
Has Member: Godfrey Hounsfield, FactsQuote, Has Member: Godfrey Hounsfield, Facts
During the 1960s Godfrey Hounsfield developed an apparatus in which clusters of X-ray beams sent through the body from different angles are registered when the have passed the body.
Graeme Clark (Lemelson-MIT)
Has Member: Graeme Clark, ProfileQuote, Has Member: Graeme Clark, Profile
Australian physician, scientist, and inventor Graeme Milbourne Clark changed the lives of tens of thousands of hearing-impaired individuals with his creation of the multi-channel cochlear implant.
Michel Mirowski (National Inventors Hall of Fame)
Has Member: Michel Mirowski, Inductee pageQuote, Has Member: Michel Mirowski, Inductee page
Michel Mirowski conceived of the automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in the 1960s after his mentor died of a heart arrhythmia.
Werner Forssmann (Nobel Prize)
Has Member: Werner Forssmann, BiographicalQuote, Has Member: Werner Forssmann, Biographical
It was here that he was the first to develop a technique for the catheterization of the heart.
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