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Julio C. Palmaz, M.D., invented the world’s first vascular stent — the Palmaz Stent — which changed the standard of care in cardiology and peripheral vascular medicine worldwide.
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SAN ANTONIO (Nov. 9, 2010) — Julio C. Palmaz, M.D., of the UT Health Science Center San Antonio, was honored as a landmark medical innovator at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation’s annual Pulse of the City Gala, held Nov. 10 in New York.

The longtime radiologist, now an honorary Ashbel Smith Professor at the Health Science Center, invented the Palmaz Stent, a wire-mesh tube inserted into clogged arteries. The Palmaz Stent has brought relief to millions of people suffering from chest pain and heart attacks. It was the world’s first vascular stent and changed the standard of care in cardiology and peripheral vascular medicine worldwide.

Stewart R. Reuter, M.D., J.D., who as chairman of radiology in the School of Medicine provided essential support in the 1980s and ’90s as Dr. Palmaz developed the stent, has said that its impact “on reducing the cost and morbidity of the treatment of coronary artery disease has truly been of Nobel Prize dimensions. Today, most coronary angioplasties are followed by stent placement. All of us have at least one friend who has had a stent.”

The Cardiovascular Research Foundation honored Dr. Palmaz and three other individuals “whose innovative spirit and creative talent have transformed interventional cardiovascular medicine. Their work has touched the lives of countless individuals suffering from heart disease, improving patient care around the world.”

In 2006 Dr. Palmaz was the inaugural recipient of the Julio Palmaz Award for Innovation in Healthcare and the Biosciences, which is bestowed annually by BioMed SA, a non-profit organization that works to speed the growth of San Antonio’s health care and bioscience sector.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, one of the country’s leading health sciences universities, ranks in the top 3 percent of all institutions worldwide receiving National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. Research and other sponsored program activity totaled a record $259 million in fiscal year 2009. The university’s schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, health professions and graduate biomedical sciences have produced approximately 26,000 graduates. The $739 million operating budget supports eight campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. For more information on the many ways “We make lives better®,” visit www.uthscsa.edu.