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Robert Jarvik

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Robert Jarvik
Jarvik holding the Jarvik-7 artificial heart
Born
Robert Koffler Jarvik

(1946-05-11)May 11, 1946
Midland, Michigan, U.S.
DiedMay 26, 2025(2025-05-26) (aged 79)
New York City, U.S.
Alma mater
Occupations
  • Scientist
  • researcher
Known forJarvik-7 artificial heart
Spouses
Elaine Levin
​
​
(m. 1968; div. 1985)​
​
(m. 1987)​
Children2
RelativesMurray Jarvik (paternal uncle)
Websitewww.jarvikheart.com

Robert Koffler Jarvik (May 11, 1946 – May 26, 2025) was an American scientist, researcher, and entrepreneur known for his role in developing the Jarvik-7 artificial heart.

Early life

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Robert Jarvik was born on May 11, 1946, in Midland, Michigan, to Norman Eugene Jarvik and Edythe Koffler Jarvik, and raised in Stamford, Connecticut.[1][2] He was brother to Jonathan Jarvik, a biological-sciences professor at Carnegie Mellon University,[3] as well as the nephew of Murray Jarvik, a pharmacologist who co-invented the nicotine patch.[4][5] At an early age Jarvik showed interest in mechanics and medicine, which would later influence his work.[6] By the age of 17 he had already obtained five patents for his inventions.[7]

Jarvik was a graduate of Syracuse University.[6] He earned a master's degree in medical engineering from New York University.[8]

After being admitted to the University of Utah School of Medicine, Jarvik completed two years of study, and in 1971 was hired by Willem Johan Kolff, a Dutch-born physician-inventor at the University of Utah,[8] who produced the first dialysis machine, and who was working on other artificial organs, including a heart. Jarvik received his M.D. in 1976 from the University of Utah. Jarvik was a medical scientist; he did not complete a clinical internship or residency and was never licensed to practice medicine.[9][10]

Career

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Jarvik joined the University of Utah's artificial organs program in 1971, then headed by Willem Johan Kolff, his mentor. At the time, the program used a pneumatic artificial heart design by Clifford Kwan-Gett that had sustained an animal in the laboratory for ten days. Kolff assigned Jarvik to design a new heart that would overcome the problems of the Kwan-Gett heart, eventually culminating with the Jarvik-7 device.[11]

In 1982, the team carried out an artificial heart implant — the second ever, 13 years after Domingo Liotta and Denton Cooley's first in 1969.[12] William DeVries first implanted the Jarvik-7 into retired dentist Barney Clark at the University of Utah on December 1, 1982. Clark required frequent visits to the hospital for the next 112 days, after which he died. During frequent press conferences to update the patient's condition, Jarvik, along with DeVries, briefed the world's media on Clark's condition. The next several implantations of the Jarvik-7 heart were conducted by Humana, a large health care insurance company. The second patient, William J. Schroeder, survived 620 days.[13] In 1983, Jarvik and DeVries received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[14]

In 2006, Jarvik began appearing in television commercials for Pfizer's cholesterol medication Lipitor. Two members of Congress, as part of their campaign against celebrity endorsements, began an investigation as to whether his television advertisements constitute medical advice given without a license to practice medicine. One commercial depicted Jarvik rowing, wherein a body double was used.[15] Later, Jarvik said that he had not taken Lipitor until becoming a spokesman for the company.[16] On February 25, 2008, Pfizer announced that it would discontinue its advertisements with Jarvik.[17]

Personal life

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Jarvik was married twice. He had a son and daughter with his first wife, Salt Lake City writer and journalist Elaine Jarvik.[18][19] In 2011, she and her daughter wrote the play A Man Enters, inspired by Jarvik's absent-father relationship with his children since the couple's divorce.[18]

Jarvik married Parade magazine columnist Marilyn vos Savant on August 23, 1987.[20]

Contrary to some sources,[21] Jarvik was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[21]

Jarvik died from Parkinson's disease at his home in Manhattan, New York, on May 26, 2025, at the age of 79.[1]

References

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Inline citations

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  1. ^ a b Longman, Jeré (May 29, 2025). "Robert Jarvik, 79, Dies; a Designer of the First Permanent Artificial Heart". The New York Times. Retrieved May 29, 2025.
  2. ^ "Men in the News: A Pair of Skilled Hands to Guide an Artificial Heart: Robert Kiffler Jarvik". Article in The New York Times, December 3, 1982. Retrieved from [1] on June 23, 2006.
  3. ^ "Jonathan W. Jarvik – Biological Sciences". Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
  4. ^ Maugh II, Thomas (May 14, 2008). "Dr. Murray E. Jarvik, 84; UCLA pharmacologist invented nicotine patch". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 26, 2008.
  5. ^ "Dr. Murray Jarvik, co-inventor of nicotine patch, dies at 84 in Santa Monica". International Herald Tribune. Associated Press. May 10, 2008. Retrieved May 26, 2008.
  6. ^ a b "Jarvik, Robert Koffler". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  7. ^ Baumgold, Julie (February 6, 1989). "In the Kingdom of the Brain". New York Magazine. 22 (6): 43.
  8. ^ a b "Milestones". Rime Magazine, March 2, 2009, p.18
  9. ^ "Men in the News: A Pair of Skilled Hands to Guide an Artificial Heart: Robert Kiffler Jarvik". Article in The New York Times, December 3, 1982. Retrieved from [2] on May 27, 2007.
  10. ^ "Is this celebrity doctor's TV ad right for you?". Article in NBC News, March 1, 2007. Retrieved from [3] on May 27, 2007 − "Kolff quickly assumed the role of Jarvik's mentor and helped him earn an M.D. from the University of Utah in 1976, although Jarvik neither took an internship nor practiced medicine."
  11. ^ "Salem Press". Archived from the original on November 28, 2010. Retrieved June 14, 2010. Great Lives from History: Inventors and Inventions -- Robert Jarvik
  12. ^ Liotta/Cooley "Orthotopic Cardiac Prosthesis for Two-Staged Cardiac Replacement," which appears in Volume 24 (1969) of the American Journal of Cardiology (pp. 723-730).
  13. ^ Artificial Heart – Early developments
  14. ^ "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement". www.achievement.org. Academy of Achievement.
  15. ^ "Congress questions Jarvik's credentials in celebrity ad" The State, January 8, 2008. http://www.thestate.com/nation/story/278107.html[permanent dead link]
  16. ^ American Medical Association Journal of Ethics October 2010, Volume 12, Number 10: 818-823
  17. ^ Bazell, Robert (March 1, 2007). "Is this celebrity doctor's TV ad right for you?". NBC News. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013.
  18. ^ a b "A Man Enters". Utah Stories. November 3, 2011. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
  19. ^ Gonzales, Laurence (1989). The Still Point. University of Arkansas Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-55728-081-7. Elaine Levin Jarvik.
  20. ^ "About Marilyn". Archived from the original on May 7, 2006. Retrieved November 3, 2007.
  21. ^ a b Skousen, Paul B.; Moon, Harold K. (November 1, 2005). Brother Paul's Mormon Bathroon Reader, Cedar Fort, p. 39. Archived at Google Books. Retrieved March 21, 2016.

General and cited references

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