Award Motivation
The Jury, decided to jointly award the 2005 Prize for
Lifetime Achievement in Scientific Research to Leonard A. Cobb, Peter J.
Schwartz and Hein J. J. Wellens for their contribution to scientific
discovery and clinical innovation in the field of Sudden Cardiac Death.
Dr Cobb has had a sustained interest in sudden cardiac death and
pre-hospital emergency care since the late 1960's. He was the principal
investigator and founding medical director for Seattle's Medic I Program and
served in that role for nearly 25 years. Over this period he investigated
service and patient factors affecting the outcome of resuscitation and has
directed considerable effort to a better understanding of sudden cardiac
death. Dr Cobb and his colleagues were among the first to advocate the
application of a tiered response for medical emergencies, community CPR
instruction, and the application of advanced airway techniques in the EMS
system. Additionally, a number of out-of-hospital interventions have been
evaluated in randomised clinical trials. The Seattle database encompasses
over 30 years of experience in managing cardiac arrest and myocardial
infarction, and all patients who have survived out-of-hospital cardiac
arrest are followed up regularly. These endeavours have led to an improved
understanding of sudden cardiac death and its prevention.
Professor Peter J. Schwartz very well focused on a single idea for a long
period, developing his research from a primitive start to full maturity and
highly complicated cases from which we learnt a lot.
Professor Hein J.J. Wellens is internationally recognized as a leader of
modern electrophysiology. He has mad seminal contributions relating to
sudden cardiac death from the perspective of cardiac arrhythmology,
myocardial infarction and heart failure and cardiac electrophysiology. He
has trained more than 200 physicians from all over the world to become
cardiologist, many of them becoming leaders in cardiology and cardiac
electrophysiology in their own country. Hein Wellens is a great teacher.
