Sign Up For More InfoNEW YORK CITY, Dec. 1 - Physicians, colleagues and friends gathered on Dec. 1 at The New York Academy of Medicine to honor Harvard Professor and renowned cardiologist Roman W. DeSanctis as the 15th recipient of the prestigious Glorney-Raisbeck Award in Cardiology.
Established by Corlette Glorney in 1988 to honor her longtime physician, Milton Raisbeck, the Award is endowed by the Corlette Glorney Foundation and presented annually by the Academy to a clinician or scientist for outstanding contributions to the field of cardiovascular disease.
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| Left to right: Award recipient Roman W. DeSanctis, M.D.; Academy President Jeremiah A. Barondess, M.D.; and, award selection committee chairman and former student Andrew R. Marks, M.D. |
DeSanctis then delivered a lecture entitled “Then, Now and Beyond: The Amazing Advancements in Cardiology over the Last Fifty Years.” The electrocardiogram and cardiac catheterization were the only major advances in cardiology before 1950, he explained. In the 1960s, rest and morphine were the primary treatments for acute myocardial infarction, or heart attack. The patient generally stayed in bed for three to four weeks and had to miss two to three months of work, and approximately 25 percent of patients died. The development of MRI or magnetic resonance imaging in 1973 led to a vastly improved diagnosis, DeSanctis said, paying tribute to the pioneers whose research laid the groundwork for this diagnostic tool.
Felix Bloch and Edward Purcell shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1952 for developing nuclear magnetic resonance, a method of measuring the magnetic field of atomic nuclei, which provided the basis for the MRI. The MRI is used to produce high-quality images of the inside of the body. The signing of the Medicare Bill in January 1965 by former President Lyndon Johnson also significantly contributed to increasing life expectancy for heart disease patients. Because heart disease predominantly strikes older people, providing them with government-funded insurance coverage allowed them to access better and more consistent health care.
Andreas Gruentzig, a German physician, performed the first human coronary angioplasty on a non-sedated person in Zurich, Switzerland in September 1977. Sir James W. Black won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1988 for research that led to beta-blocker drugs and their effectiveness in treating many cardiovascular-related diseases such as angina, arterial rhythm and hypertension disorders. “If I were to give an award to any drug it would be the beta blocker,” DeSanctis said.
While many effective treatments for heart disease have been developed over the years, today, the mortality rate for heart attacks has dropped to 15 percent and the average hospital stay has been dramatically reduced to five to seven days. While DeSanctis stressed that there are simple steps to avoid the onset of coronary heart disease in the first place, such as maintaining a healthy diet and not smoking, many Americans are not following this advice: approximately 55 percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight; 25 percent are obese; and, 10 percent are morbidly obese. Furthermore, 25 percent of the population continues to smoke. DeSanctis credited the news media with raising awareness about these and other health concerns. Thirty or 40 years ago, it was rare to see such an abundance of health and medical stories in the media. Now nearly every newspaper and televised news program staffs a medical reporter and patients are better apprised of new drugs and medical procedures: quite often, DeSanctis admitted, before doctors have acquired this knowledge. DeSanctis held up a copy of the latest Newsweek that he picked up on his way to the lecture, with a headline declaring “The End of Heart Disease.” He poignantly noted that there was not even a question mark completing the title.
After expressing his good fortune on having lived and practiced during this time of monumental progress, DeSanctis said that many more medical research advances are certain to occur in the years to come. Quoting from Dr. Elisha Barlett, a physician, professor and author from the early 19 century, he said: “In the infinite future . . . properties and relations of all forms of matter now unimagined and undreamed of, may yet be discovered by means and processes of investigation now wholly hidden.” The statement originally referred to the physical sciences, DeSanctis commented, but he believes the same holds true today for medicine.
-by Christine Visich
Posted on 12/01/2003
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Malini Doddamani
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