Dr. Eugene Braunwald: Father of Modern Cardiology and Pioneer in Cardiovascular Research

His breakthroughs include:

• First measurements of left ventricular ejection fraction and dP/dt in patients (1950s).
• Defining hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (1959) and neurohumoral defects in heart failure.
• Proving myocardial salvage via reperfusion, launching the TIMI trials (1984–present) that established thrombolysis and statins as standards, slashing heart-attack mortality from 35% to ~5%.

Author of over 1,000 peer-reviewed papers (h-index 229), founding editor of Braunwald’s Heart Disease (12 editions), and co-editor of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine (12 editions), he is the most-cited cardiologist ever.

Honors: only cardiologist in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences; Lifetime Achievement Awards from ACC, AHA, ESC, and World Heart Federation; 23 honorary doctorates; voted by living Nobel laureates as the greatest living contributor to cardiology.

At 96 (as of 2025), he remains active at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, still driven by “a sense of accomplishment to drive you to do more.”