Richard Alan Schatz, MD, has pledged a $1.5 million bequest to support cardiovascular research by faculty in the Division of Cardiology as well as research projects by Duke medical students, said Magnus Ohman, MD, vice chair for development and innovation.
The gift will fund the Richard A. Schatz, M.D. Student Research Endowment Fund and the Richard A. Schatz, M.D. Cardiovascular Research Endowment Fund.
“We are so grateful for this generous gift. Richard is a pioneering Duke-trained physician whose story is especially inspiring to our students, trainees and junior faculty,” said Mary Klotman, MD, chair of the Department of Medicine.
A 1977 alumnus of the Duke University School of Medicine, Schatz is the co-inventor of the first coronary stent, the Palmaz-Schatz stent. As a medical student at Duke, Schatz received a Davison Scholarship to fund his third-year research project, and he worked in the lab of Joseph Kisslo, MD, professor of medicine (Cardiology). Dr. Kisslo’s mentorship during that research year contributed to a particularly meaningful experience that helped shape Schatz’s distinguished career as cardiologist.
Dr. Schatz currently serves as the research director of cardiovascular interventions at the Heart, Lung, and Vascular Center at Scripps Clinic in San Diego, California. He is also the director of cell therapy there.