Albert Starr (June 1, 1926 – December 11, 2024) was an American cardiovascular surgeon and was the first surgeon to successfully implant the Starr-Edwards

heart valve A heart valve is a biological one-way valve that allows blood to flow in one direction through the chambers of the heart. A mammalian heart usually has four valves. Together, the valves determine the direction of blood flow through the heart. Hea ...

surgically. Starr resided and practiced in the

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, area and was special adviser to OHSU Dean of Medicine Mark Richardson and OHSU President Joseph Robertson (OHSU) at Oregon Health and Science University. He worked closely with the inventor of the Star-Edwards heart valve, Miles “Lowell” Edwards, to test the device and ensure its safety before its first use.

Life and career

Starr was born in

New York, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

, on June 1, 1926. He received his

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

degree from Columbia College (now Columbia University) in 1946 and his

M.D. A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of physician. This ge ...

degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1949. He then went on to do his

internship An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used to practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and g ...

Johns Hopkins Hospital Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1889, Johns Hopkins Hospital and its school of medicine are considered to be the foundin ...

and his

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and thoracic surgery at the

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and Presbyterian Hospitals of Columbia University. He was an assistant in surgeon at Columbia University until 1957, when he moved to Oregon—having been enticed, in part, by the Oregon Heart Association's promises to help fund his research and to take him

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

fishing. There he worked for the Crippled Children's Division at the

University of Oregon Medical School Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is a public research university focusing primarily on health sciences with a main campus, including two hospitals, in Portland, Oregon. The institution was founded in 1887 as the University of Oregon Medi ...

(now the Oregon Health and Science University). Starr was an instructor in surgery when he met Lowell Edwards in September 1958. Starr has said of this meeting, "He was in his 60s and I was in my 30s, but there was no generation gap between us." Starr-Edwards-Mitral-Valve

Starr is credited with successfully implanting the world's first durable artificial mitral valve and developing the first surgical procedures for the world's first artificial heart valve in 1960. Starr died on December 11, 2024, at the age of 98.

Awards

:1972: Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...

:2007:

Lasker Award In 1945 Albert Lasker and Mary Woodard Lasker created the Lasker Awards. Every year since then the award has been given to the living person considered to have made the greatest contribution to medical science or who has demonstrated public ser ...

:2015: Scientific Grand Prize of the Lefoulon-Delalande Fondation

References

Bibliography

Borghi L. (2015) "Heart Matters. The Collaboration Between Surgeons and Engineers in the Rise of Cardiac Surgery". In: Pisano R. (eds) A Bridge between Conceptual Frameworks. History of Mechanism and Machine Science, vol 27. Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 53-68

A.M.Matthews, The development of the Starr-Edwards heart valve, Tex Heart Inst J. 1998; 25(4): 282–293

External links

* ttp://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2010/09/post_37.html Made in Portland: the world's first artificial heart valve, Sept. 21, 1960 {{DEFAULTSORT:Starr, Albert 1926 births 2024 deaths American surgeons Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni Oregon Health & Science University faculty Physicians from Portland, Oregon Recipients of the Lasker–DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award Columbia College (New York) alumni

Life and career

Awards

See also

References

Bibliography

External links