Willerson’s Lifetime Achievement
Honored by International Cardiologists
James T. Willerson, M.D.
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston President James T. Willerson, M.D., has been honored by the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences with its Medal of Merit, saluting the esteemed cardiologist’s “lifetime of exceptional accomplishments.” He shares the honor with the United Kingdom’s Sir John Vane, who won the 1982 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work on prostaglandins and for the discovery of aspirin’s mechanism of action.
The award will be presented in June 2004 in Winnipeg, Canada.
Willerson is an active clinician, researcher and educator in addition to his role as president of the most comprehensive academic health center in Texas. He holds the Edward Randall III Chair in Internal Medicine and is the Alkek-Williams Distinguished Professor. He also is chief of cardiology at St. Luke’s Hospital, as well as chief of cardiology and medical director of the Texas Heart Institute.
His recent research has concentrated on mechanisms responsible for the conversion from stable to unstable coronary heart disease syndromes, the prevention of unstable angina and acute myocardial infarction, and the detection and treatment of unstable atherosclerotic plaques.
He opened the First International Conference on Heart Failure Dec. 4, speaking to 500 physicians representing 35 countries and every state in the United States. Taking place at Houston’s InterContinental Hotel, the meeting was a collaborative presentation by Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital. Willerson served as one of three honorary chairmen along with Denton Cooley, M.D., president and surgeon-in-chief of the Texas Heart Institute, and Michael DeBakey, M.D., chancellor emeritus at Baylor.
Willerson’s presentation provided an update on promising stem cell therapy under clinical study with patients who have severe heart failure. Willerson and colleagues at the Texas Heart Institute and at Hospital Procardico in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have taken the patients’ own bone marrow-derived stem cells and reinjected them directly into their hearts. The demonstrated evidence of clinical improvement in these end-stage patients may soon prompt expansion of this work to centers in the United States.
Willerson has edited or co-edited 20 textbooks, including the second edition of Cardiovascular Medicine (W. B. Saunders Co., $175.00) and published over 770 scientific articles. He is editor-in-chief of Circulation, the American Heart Association’s largest scientific journal. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
In November, the American Heart Association named Willerson one of only 14 recipients of the recently created Distinguished Scientist designation, which honors him for his “extraordinary contributions to cardiovascular and stroke research.” It is the highest honorific recognition in the association’s membership.
As a physician, Willerson is listed in America’s Top Doctors (Castle Connolly Ltd., $29.95). The 2003 edition of the consumer guide includes less than 1 percent of U.S. physicians.