Robert Jarvik

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

Early life

Robert Jarvik was born on May 11, 1946, in Midland, Michigan, to Norman Eugene Jarvik and Edythe Koffler Jarvik, and raised in Stamford, Connecticut.<ref name = Longman>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>"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.</ref> He was brother to Jonathan Jarvik, a biological-sciences professor at Carnegie Mellon University,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> as well as the nephew of Murray Jarvik, a pharmacologist who co-invented the nicotine patch.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At an early age Jarvik showed interest in mechanics and medicine, which would later influence his work.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> By the age of 17 he had already obtained five patents for his inventions.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Jarvik was a graduate of Syracuse University.<ref name=":1" /> He earned a master's degree in medical engineering from New York University.<ref name=Milestones>"Milestones". Rime Magazine, March 2, 2009, p.18</ref>

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,<ref name=Milestones/> 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.<ref>"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.</ref><ref>"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."</ref>

Career

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.<ref>Template:Cite web Great Lives from History: Inventors and Inventions -- Robert Jarvik</ref>

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.<ref>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).</ref> 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.<ref>Artificial Heart – Early developments</ref> In 1983, Jarvik and DeVries received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>"Congress questions Jarvik's credentials in celebrity ad" The State, January 8, 2008. http://www.thestate.com/nation/story/278107.htmlTemplate:Dead link</ref> Later, Jarvik said that he had not taken Lipitor until becoming a spokesman for the company.<ref>American Medical Association Journal of Ethics October 2010, Volume 12, Number 10: 818-823</ref> On February 25, 2008, Pfizer announced that it would discontinue its advertisements with Jarvik.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life

Jarvik was married twice. He had a son and daughter with his first wife, Salt Lake City writer and journalist Elaine Jarvik.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" />

Jarvik married Parade magazine columnist Marilyn vos Savant on August 23, 1987.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Contrary to some sources,<ref name=Skousen>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.</ref> Jarvik was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.<ref name=Skousen/>

Jarvik died from Parkinson's disease at his home in Manhattan, New York, on May 26, 2025, at the age of 79.<ref name=Longman/>

References

General and cited references

• Template:Cite Q
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External links

• Jarvik Heart Official website
• Google Patents link to Winchell Patent for Artificial Heart
• Pfizer Launches New Lipitor Effort
• MSNBC article on Jarvik and Pfizer
• Congress Probes Doctor's Role in Drug Ad (Template:Webarchive)