2017: Joseph Kisslo, Durham, USA

”Never be the smartest person in the room”

Trained in internal medicine, pediatric and adult cardiology, Dr. Kisslo was an early contributor to the development of echocardiographic methods in general and two‐dimensional echocardiography, in specific. He was the first person in the world to conduct both two‐dimensional as well as threedimensional echocardiographic examinations using real‐time, phased array systems. He collaborated with his colleagues at Duke to build and implement the world’s first phased array imaging device and he personally performed the world’s initial work in two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional echo. Phased array ultrasound imaging devices are now used globally as the most common type of ultrasound imaging system available. Current interests extend these principles into the fabrication of the very first, and to date the only, real‐time, high speed ultrasound scanner. He has published well over 250 original peer reviewed manuscripts and authored four books on echocardiography. He served as a founder and an early President of the American Society of Echocardiography as well as chairman or member of a multitude of committees of the American College of Cardiology and other organizations. Dr. Kisslo participated in the establishing of many standards of practice including organizing and chairing the ad hoc Committee for Continuing Quality Improvement in Echocardiography as well as serving as an initial member of Joint Commission on Accreditation of Sonography that established the original standards recognizing cardiac sonography as a legitimate allied health profession. Many of his trainees went on to become directors of echocardiographic laboratories in the US and internationally. Notably amongst accomplished former students are, Richard Schatz, MD (inventor of the coronary stent), Richard Stack, MD, (inventor of multiple intracoronary interventional devices and reperfusion catheters) and Chikiai Ohazam, PhD (inventor of Google Earth). Early in his career, Dr. Kisslo introduced routine echocardiography into the operating room, performing over 2,500 direct epicardial scans. As transesophageal echocardiography developed, he helped establish the first standards perioperative echocardiography. For over two decades, Dr. Kisslo was Medical Director Executive Producer of Echo in Context, the first live educational event ever to be broadcast around the world and the first live educational event ever to be live streamed to the internet. Echo in Context still remains as the largest continuing live medical educational ever held He has been Medical Director or Executive Producer of several other large educational broadcasts and has served as the Clinical Director of Telemedicine at Duke. With a complementary interest in computer applications, Dr. Kisslo also implemented the first fully digital cardiac medical imaging facility while Director of the Duke Echocardiography Laboratory. It currently boasts the largest such facility worldwide. Dr. Kisslo is the recipient of various national and international awards including Alpha Omega Alpha. He has been a lecturer, named lecturer or visiting professor at over 220 universities, schools of medicine or medical societies and was named as one of the first six Fellows of the American Society of Echocardiography in 2002. He was also amongst the first named to the European Society of Cardiology Echo Hall of Fame. He remains the only three time Inge Edler Lecturer at the University of Lund, Sweden, the institution where echocardiography began. In 2004, Dr. Kisslo led a team of investigative consultants in the analysis and identification of widespread misrepresentations of claims in the Phen‐Fen diet drug litigation. His work was the subject of numerous articles in the lay press, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine as well as other major publications. He’s served as a consultant to multiple medical device companies, NASA, the Department of Justice and multiple other entities. A native of Pennsylvania, he graduated from the University of Notre Dame and performed his first echocardiogram in 1966 while a medical student at Hahnemann University. After serving in the US Navy as a medical officer, he did an internal medicine residency, followed by a fellowship in pediatric cardiology at Yale University. He then completed a fellowship in adult cardiology at Duke University. He established the first echocardiography laboratories at both Yale and Duke. Dr. Kisslo is married and the father of four children and five grandchildren.