VCU Physician to Receive American Heart Association Lifetime Achievement Award

By Malorie Burkett

The American Heart Association has selected Joseph Ornato, M.D., professor and chair of Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Emergency Medicine, as recipient of the 2007 Resuscitation Science Symposium Lifetime Achievement Award for Cardiac Resuscitation Science.

The annual award recognizes pioneers in the field of cardiac resuscitation science for their outstanding contributions to the field.

"I'm deeply grateful to be selected to receive this incredible honor," said Ornato. "Each year, over a third of a million Americans experience cardiac arrest out of the hospital, and our current lifesaving techniques can save only one in 20. My lifelong research interest and activity is focused on trying to improve these odds."

This is the fifth year the AHA has given the award, which will be presented this month at the AHA's Resuscitation Science Symposium.

Nominations and votes come directly from the planning committee and emergency cardiac care chairs. Two individuals are nominated and presented the award every year – one in the cardiac resuscitation science field and one in trauma resuscitation science.

Ornato chaired the steering committee for a National Institutes of Health-sponsored public access defibrillation clinical trial which found that trained laypersons could use Automated External Defibrillators, or AEDs, in public places safely and that such use could double the odds that a cardiac arrest victim will survive.

He specializes in cardiology, resuscitation, emergency management and preparedness and disaster response and is the director of the city of Richmond's Emergency Management Service department.

Ornato received his medical degree from Boston University, trained in internal medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and went on to a cardiology fellowship at Cornell University.