Robert Jarvik

Robert Koffler Jarvik was an American physician-scientist and medical device inventor best known for developing the Jarvik-7 artificial heart. He joined the University of Utah's artificial organs program in 1971 under mentor Willem Kolff, and on December 1, 1982, surgeon William DeVries implanted his Jarvik-7 device into retired dentist Barney Clark in only the second artificial heart implant ever performed; Clark survived 112 days afterward, and a later Jarvik-7 recipient, William Schroeder, lived 620 days with the device. Jarvik earned an MD from the University of Utah in 1976 but never completed clinical training or became a licensed physician, instead devoting his career to medical device design, and he shared the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement with DeVries in 1983. He later became a public spokesperson for the cholesterol drug Lipitor, appearing in television commercials for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer beginning in 2006.