Gold Heart Award for Service Goes to Willerson

James T. Willerson, M.D., president of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, has received from the American Heart Association (AHA) its highest honor for volunteers who have provided continued, distinguished service. The association presented Willerson the Gold Heart Award April 10 during its 2005 Volunteer Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C.

From 1993 to 2004, Willerson was editor-in-chief of Circulation, the AHA's largest scientific journal. An internationally distinguished cardiologist, he led Circulation to its highest-ever impact factor, a classification used to rank scientific publications. He added several new features to its content and increased international readership by recruiting editorial contributors from around the world and offering the journal in 10 different languages.

Willerson also brought Circulation to the Internet in its first online version, which shortened the timeto- publication of important research. His 11-year tenure with Circulation was the longest of any editor with an AHA publication.

The association previously has honored Willerson with its Award of Meritorious Achievement, the James B. Herrick Award, and its Distinguished Scientist Award, which recognized his "extraordinary contributions to cardiovascular and stroke research."

In 2002 he served on the association's Task Force on Strategic Research Direction, which published a special report on methods for applying cutting-edge biomedical research to improve patient treatment.

He is a former chairman of the association's research committee and a past member of the AHA board of directors.

Called "a preeminent global leader in cardiovascular medicine," Willerson and Emerson Perin, M.D., Ph.D., director of New Interventional Cardiovascular Technology at the Texas Heart Institute, now are leading one of the first Food and Drug Administration-approved trials using bone marrow-derived stem cells to treat heart disease. Willerson also is president-elect of the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital.