Zoll, Paul Maurice

▪ 2000

      American cardiologist and medical researcher (b. July 15, 1911, Boston, Mass.—d. Jan. 5, 1999, Chestnut Hill, near Boston), conducted pioneering research that led to the development of the cardiac defibrillator, improved pacemakers, and continuous heart-rhythm monitoring devices. Following his graduation from Harvard College (B.A., 1932) and Harvard Medical School (M.D., 1936), Zoll was made a research fellow (1939) in cardiology at Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, working under physicians Monroe Schlesinger and Herman Blumgart. During World War II he was stationed in Great Britain as a U.S. Army physician. In that capacity he observed numerous open-heart surgeries performed by Dwight Harken, and he noted with interest the manner in which the heart responded reflexively to the slightest touch. After the war he became involved in attempts to regulate the heartbeat and treat myocardial infarctions (heart attacks). At the time, emergency cardiac resuscitation involved cutting patients' chests open and squeezing the heart by hand. Zoll experimented with closed-chest electrical cardiac stimulation, and in 1952 he restarted the hearts of two patients at Beth Israel Hospital. Researchers worldwide were soon racing to enhance defibrillator designs, which later became standard issue in emergency rooms, ambulances, and airplanes. Acceptance from within the medical community was not universal or immediate, however; many questioned whether such “artificial” methods were ethical if not altogether blasphemous. Zoll's efforts were later concentrated on improving cardiac pacemakers, which were massive, inefficient external machines that often caused great pain to their users. His new designs were the forerunners of the miniaturized permanent pacemakers currently implanted in hundreds of thousands of patients each year. Zoll also worked to improve electrocardiographic monitoring devices. In the 1980s he founded ZOLL Medical Corp., which developed and marketed new defibrillator designs. Despite his numerous contributions to medical technology, Zoll received only limited recognition until 1973, when he was awarded the Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award.

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