SAN ANTONIO (January 8, 2013) — Julio C. Palmaz, M.D., of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio was named a charter fellow by the National Academy of Inventors for his invention of the Palmaz Stent, a wire-mesh tube inserted into clogged arteries.
Dr. Palmaz, who is a longtime radiologist as well as an honorary Ashbel Smith Professor at the Health Science Center, received a U.S. patent for the stent in 1988. The Palmaz Stent brings relief each year to more than a million people suffering from chest pain and heart attacks. It was the world’s first vascular stent and changed the worldwide standard of care in cardiology and peripheral vascular medicine.
The stent was recognized in Intellectual Property Worldwide magazine as one of “Ten Patents that Changed the World” in the last century. His early stent research artifacts are part of the medical collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He continues to work on his initial designs, developing new vascular devices.
The National Academy of Inventors announced today that Dr. Palmaz is one of 101 top scientists, innovators and leaders from the academic world named as 2012 Charter Fellows of the academy. The newly elected class of fellows is made up of inventors and innovators from 56 prestigious research universities and non-profit research institutes across the United States and around the world. All are inventors with patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The charter fellows will be inducted by U.S. Commissioner for Patents Margaret Focarino during the second annual conference of the academy on Feb. 22 at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Link to National Academy of Inventors’ press release: click here.
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced approximately 28,000 graduates. The $736 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.