Michel Mirowski, M.D., Professorship in Cardiology

MICHEL MIROWSKI, a pioneering cardiologist, was the inventor and co-developer of the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), a lifesaving device that detects ventricular fibrillation and produces a counter-shock that returns the heart to normal rhythm. Dr. Mirowski survived the Holocaust as a young teenager in Poland and studied medicine in Lyons, France. He completed his residency and fellowship at Tel Hashomer Hospital in Israel and in pediatric cardiology at Johns Hopkins with Helen Taussig. During a career spanning more than 30 years, Dr. Mirowski published extensively in the field of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias. He led the way for the clinical use of the ICD despite enormous obstacles and skepticism from within the medical profession. It was his steadfast commitment to the concept of the ICD and to the goal of introducing it into clinical cardiology in his lifetime that allowed him to see its success and life-saving impact before his untimely death in 1990.