Pamela S. Douglas, MD, the Ursula Geller Professor of Research in Cardiovascular Diseases in the division of Cardiology, has received the American Heart Association’s 2022 James B. Herrick Award, presented by the American Heart Association Council on Clinical Cardiology. The award honors a physician whose scientific achievements have contributed profoundly to the advancement and practice of clinical cardiology.
Douglas has led several landmark multicenter randomized clinical trials and outcomes research studies and is renowned for her scientific and policy work in improving the quality and appropriateness of imaging in clinical care, clinical trials, and registries. She helped to establish several important specialty areas including heart disease in women, sports cardiology, and cardio-oncology.
Dr. Douglas’ wealth of experience includes authorship of over 550 peer reviewed manuscripts and 30 practice guidelines, service as the President of the American College of Cardiology, President of the American Society of Echocardiography, and Chief of Cardiology at both the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Duke University. She has served on the External Advisory Council of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Scientific Advisory Boards of the National Space Biomedical Institute and the Patient Advocate Foundation. Among her most cherished recognitions are the naming in her honor of the American College of Cardiology’s Distinguished Leadership Award in Diversity and Inclusion and the American Society of Echocardiography’s Research Scholar Award.
Dr. Herrick (1861-1954) was a pioneer among cardiologists. His contributions were many, but perhaps most significant was his classic paper on “Clinical Features of Sudden Obstruction of the Coronary Arteries,” published in 1912. Besides giving the medical world a definitive description of coronary thrombosis, his studies emphasized the important observation that sudden obstruction of a coronary artery is not necessarily fatal.