Cooley Receives McGovern Compleat Physician Award

The Harris County Medical Society and Houston Academy of Medicine honored preeminent cardiovascular surgeon Denton A. Cooley, M.D., with the John P. McGovern Compleat Physician Award during the Jan. 24 HCMS/HAM installation of officers and HCMS Centennial Celebration.

Cooley received the award for exemplifying a physician whose career is founded on Oslerian values. Sir William Osler, who died in 1919, is a physician known for promoting ideals that uphold medical excellence, including humane and ethical care, commitment to medical humanities and writing, research, and harmony between the academician and medical practitioner. John P. McGovern, M.D. founder of the American Osler Society, is the namesake of the annual award, established in 1993.

Cooley is founder, president and surgeon in chief of the Texas Heart Institute, chief of cardiovascular surgery at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital and a cardiovascular surgery consultant at Texas Children’s Hospital.

Cooley founded the Texas Heart Institute, a nonprofit organization, to reduce the toll of cardiovascular disease through innovative and progressive programs in research, education and patient care. Through the institute’s postdoctoral programs, more than 2,100 heart specialists from 44 states and 47 countries have been trained.

In 1968, Cooley performed the first successful heart transplant in the United States. In 1969, he implanted the first artificial heart in a human. In addition to developing new surgical techniques, he has been directly associated with the development of more than 200 cardiovascular surgical products, including grafts, valves, surgical instruments, and oxygenators. Cooley and his associates have performed more than 100,000 open-heart operations – more than any other group in the world.

Cooley is the author or co-author of more than 1,200 scientific articles and a dozen books. Government and institutions around the world have recognized his dedication to advancing cardiovascular medicine, to helping patients, and to educating others.

Past recipients of the McGovern Compleat Physician Award include Raymond Scalettar, M.D. (1994), Ernest W. Johnson, M.D. (1995), Donald W. Chapman, M.D. (1996), Theodore E. Woodward, M.D. (1997), Charles D. Sherman, M.D. (1998), Michael E. DeBakey, M.D. (1999), Victor McKusick, M.D. (2000), W. Walter Menninger, M.D. (2001), and Robert L. DuPont, M.D. (2002).

– Jennifer Snyder

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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